How the mighty have fallen.
30 years ago, autoworkers were the highest paid folks among the rank-and file. If we used constant dollars their income today would be $ 43 an hour. Except their income is now only $ 32 an hour. That is about 30% below their peak income of 2003.
They say productivity (output per worker hour) is once again peaking in the US. The question is it robotics and automation (and artificial intelligence) that’s been replacing the lack of employees during the pandemic? Or the fact that, during the pandemic, many folks are working longer hours (since they aren’t commuting) or happier working at home (and happier employees are far more productive)?
Continue reading Productivity Gains?
So, earlier this week, I wrote about the economic conditions in America. How we no longer believe in the American Dream, how wealth is being allocated to the 1% as the bottom 50% loses. How the wage gains some folks want you to think are due to our economic conditions are really just the result of the (finally approved) changes to the minimum wage.
Continue reading Where the money is
Let’s start out this discussion clearly stating that the American economy is still chugging along. Which is a great thing. We haven’t had this many years in a row without a recession or depression!
Continue reading Another Half (or is that Quarter) Truth
This GM strike is just like US politics– deadlocked. There’s bad positioning- coupled with the lack of honesty in explaining why that position was taken in the first place.
Continue reading 22 skidoo. Really- it’s time.
We have a slew of clients who have a tip jar. (Yes, these are coffee shops, by and large.) And, our practice has been to count the funds in the tip jar every hour, and divide those funds among each person working that hour equally. We then add those funds to the gross amounts which are subject to income and FICA taxes (and subtract the tips distributed as “cash advance”).
We all keep hearing that the Fed (the Federal Reserve) is confounded. The economy is growing (albeit slower than they would like), but inflation- given the unemployment rates- is virtually non-existent. And, what else is non-existent is a real rise in wages.
Let’s consider a few claims made by both parties.
They believe in Capitalism, but not Crony Capitalism. Except they we protect firms with special rules to preclude their failure. They encourage these firms to line their pockets (oh, wait- they call them political contributions) so they write special tax provisions to give them unfair advantages.
Continue reading If our Pols weren’t liars, this would be bipartisan.
One of the issues always brought up by companies when pressed to raise the wages of their employees is that productivity is not increasing.
Continue reading The 50 Second Waltz?
On Friday, I wrote about the income inequality problem. Well, that discussion really has been one of the recurring themes of my blog- because the problem is so widespread. (I even have published a monograph on the subject.)
Continue reading Wage deflation
