NYT: Hourly pay not keeping up with price rises

[gauguin57]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/18/business/18WAGES.html?hp

Hourly Pay in U.S. Not Keeping Pace With Price Rises

"... The amount of money workers receive in their paychecks is failing to keep up with inflation. Though wages should recover if businesses continue to hire, three years of job losses have left a large worker surplus.

"There's too much slack in the labor market to generate any pressure on wage growth,'' said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research institution based in Washington. "We are going to need a much lower unemployment rate.'' He noted that at 5.6 percent, the national unemployment rate is still back at the same level as at the end of the recession in November 2001. ..."


THANKS, PRESIDENT BUSH!!!!!!!!! For nuthin'!

[JanMichael]

1. But isn't CEO pay up 17%? Fuck the "Average Joey"!

Yippee!

PS~ this was a :kick:

[MissAnnThrope]

2. I wish I could remember where I read it,

But I can't. I read about two or three years ago that based on what the minimum wage was in 1968, if it had kept up with inflation, it would have been $13.65 in the year 2000.

My question is, if companies could pay $3.35 an hour or whatever it was, it was in that range in 1968 without crying poor, why hasn't it been able to keep up with inflation? In 35 years, it hasn't even gone up $2 an hour. Yet companies scream if it goes any higher, they won't be able to hire people. What are they doing with all those profits in that case? I mean, don't they get corporate welfare?

It just makes sense to pay a living wage. If you work and don't make a living wage, you're entitled to food stamps, energy assistance, all sorts of public assistance that the taxpayers are paying for. Paying a living wage would save tons of tax money. Why doesn't anyone see that?

[DieboldMustDie]

3. The federal minimum wage was $1.60 in 1968.

Adjusted for inflation that would have been $7.92 in 2000 and $8.72 today. I used the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator to arrive at those figures. The goal of any publicly traded corporation is to maximize shareholder profits; they really don't give a rat's ass about anything else.

I really think we need to change the laws governing corporations to require that they also take into account the well being of employees as well as our society as a whole, though, in the current political climate, this is probably a bit quixotic. :grr:

[Sugarbleus]

4. These are my kind of topics...you are so right on..

large employers do not give a rat's ass... We are the "Labor Pool"..kinda like going fishing I guess. Pluck one of us out when they need us, toss us back in when they feel like it.

I've come to really disdain the investment class. Never had any problem with a person trying to save for their retirement and like that. But those who "earn" their money by investing are scoundrels to me at this point.

How much money does any one individual really need to live comfortably in this world anyway? CEOs earning zillions of dollars, investors making out like bandits...wtf!!?

I need to take an economics class because what I really don't get is WHY is the price of everything going up so fast? Just because it's legal? Is a loaf of bread going to cost $15 in 5 years?? Shouldn't there be caps/regulations on what the cost of goods and even real estate can escalate? Is there a limit to how much anything should ethically cost? I mean this skyrocketing cost of living is phenomenal..I'm old enough to remember the cost of things not so long ago and prices of everything just keep climbing...nothing ever comes down. Where's the sky on this trend?

[MissAnnThrope]

5. I stand corrected

On two counts. I believe this is the article I read a few years ago:

http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0829-08.htm

It uses factors other than inflation to decide what the minimum wage should have been in 2000. Any way you look at it, the hourly wage earner is underpaid.

[gauguin57]

6. Bumping to get the reaction

of the "day shift."