Autoworker's Wages

[one...two...tree 2,762]

To help explain the crisis facing the U.S. automotive industry, a growing number of conservatives have begun blaming the Big Three's workers for the companies' financial difficulties. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), for example, recently argued on Fox News, "For years [the companies have] been sick. They have a bad business model. They have contracts negotiated with the United Auto Workers that impose huge costs. The average hourly cost per worker in this country is about $28.48. For these auto makers, it's $73." Jonathan Cohn explained today that the conservative talking points are "wildly misleading."

Let's start with the fact that it's not $70 per hour in wages. According to Kristin Dziczek of the Center for Automative Research -- who was my primary source for the figures you are about to read -- average wages for workers at Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors were just $28 per hour as of 2007. That works out to a little less than $60,000 a year in gross income -- hardly outrageous, particularly when you consider the physical demands of automobile assembly work and the skills most workers must acquire over the course of their careers. [...]

[T]hen what's the source of that $70 hourly figure? It didn't come out of thin air. Analysts came up with it by including the cost of all employer-provided benefits -- namely, health insurance and pensions -- and then dividing by the number of workers. The result, they found, was that benefits for Big Three cost about $42 per hour, per employee. Add that to the wages -- again, $24 per hour -- and you get the $70 figure. Voila.

Except ... notice something weird about this calculation? It's not as if each active worker is getting health benefits and pensions worth $42 per hour. That would come to nearly twice his or her wages. (Talk about gold-plated coverage!) Instead, each active worker is getting benefits equal only to a fraction of that -- probably around $10 per hour, according to estimates from the International Motor Vehicle Program. The number only gets to $70 an hour if you include the cost of benefits for retirees -- in other words, the cost of benefits

for other people

. [...]

Make no mistake: The argument over a proposed rescue package is complicated, in no small part because over the years both management and labor made some truly awful decisions while postponing the inevitable reckoning with economic reality. And even if the government does provide money, it's a tough call whether restructuring should proceed with or without a formal bankruptcy filing. Either way, yet more downsizing is inevitable.

But the next time you hear somebody say the unions have to make serious salary and benefit concessions, keep in mind that they already have -- enough to keep the companies competitive, if only they can survive this crisis.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

[Ban Hammer 13,364]

about what i thought. donna has posted quite a bit about this topic in other threads.

[Mononoke28 135]

Dang, they make more than I thought they did.

Diana

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Dang, they make more than I thought they did.

Diana

I believe that non-union autoworkers at Toyota and Honda plants here in the U.S. make about 10 % less.

[Mononoke28 135]

I feel for them because a lot of people depend on those jobs. I just thought they made $10-$12 tops. I don't know why.

Diana

[HAL 9000 96]

Perhaps a more appropriate look is how executive salaries and perks compare to the overall size of the company. The union factor overshadows the greed factor up top.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Perhaps a more appropriate look is how executive salaries and perks compare to the overall size of the company. The union factor overshadows the greed factor up top.

I heard that the GM CEO was paid something like 23 million last year while GM lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Misplaced anger?

[HAL 9000 96]

Perhaps a more appropriate look is how executive salaries and perks compare to the overall size of the company. The union factor overshadows the greed factor up top.

I heard that the GM CEO was paid something like 23 million last year while GM lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Misplaced anger?

Absolutely. I am sure there will be those willing to defend corporate greed as something proprietary to being 'successful.' With no acceptance of the reality that these same 'entitled' are now begging the US government to pay them out with our money. With the expectation that they be allowed to continue to waste money like there's no tomorrow. Sickening. Can't say people were warned.

[PlatyPius 5]

I feel for them because a lot of people depend on those jobs. I just thought they made $10-$12 tops. I don't know why.

Diana

I worked with a guy who used to work at Allison Transmissions (GM's truck transmission plant). He was just an assembly line worker. He made $28.50/hour. And this was back in 1998 or so.

[PlatyPius 5]

Perhaps a more appropriate look is how executive salaries and perks compare to the overall size of the company. The union factor overshadows the greed factor up top.

Very true.

It's obscene how much money those guys make. It's even more obscene when they make that much money when the company itself is losing money while they're in charge.

Value and worth somehow got screwy in this country. NO CEO, Pres, or VP is worth more than $1M/year. I don't care WHERE you live.

[HAL 9000 96]

Perhaps a more appropriate look is how executive salaries and perks compare to the overall size of the company. The union factor overshadows the greed factor up top.

Very true.

It's obscene how much money those guys make. It's even more obscene when they make that much money when the company itself is losing money while they're in charge.

Value and worth somehow got screwy in this country. NO CEO, Pres, or VP is worth more than $1M/year. I don't care WHERE you live.

Amen brother Platy.

On top of pay there's the payout packages when these clowns leave.

If people are going to b!tch about union jobs, they should also be b!tching about the obscene profiteering at the upper echelons. Payroll, for the most part, is budgeted in any healthy company. Layoffs usually happen quickly when profit is threatened- not because the company's solvency is at stake.

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

Perhaps a more appropriate look is how executive salaries and perks compare to the overall size of the company. The union factor overshadows the greed factor up top.

Very true.

It's obscene how much money those guys make. It's even more obscene when they make that much money when the company itself is losing money while they're in charge.

Value and worth somehow got screwy in this country. NO CEO, Pres, or VP is worth more than $1M/year. I don't care WHERE you live.

Isn't this kind of ironic how people oppose communism because they pay everybody the same no matter how different and difficult their work is and capitalism is supposed to reward the sacrifice and success of individuals?

Well, i don't see any success and they are still getting paid a sh!t load of argent, can somebody explain me why???

Edited November 21, 2008 by TävôLuDô