Down Where Most Of Us Live, Poverty Does Not Enrich The Soul

Study: Pay Not Keeping Up With Productivity

If anyone had any ideas that the minimum wage was adequate compensation for work done in some of the lowest paid, least compensated, and hardest jobs in our nation, this study and Barbara Ehrenreich's work should dismiss those ideas immediately. But now it seems that it isn't just the lowest paid, but the vast majority of us that are not getting paid what we are worth, not being paid in relationship to our productivity, or even being treated like human beings in the workplace. Funny that they needed a study to tell them what the vast amjority of employees already knew! Given the recent NLRB rulings that screw hard-working nurses out of overtime, it would seem that fair wages and benefits are under attack in this nation.

Massachusetts workers are nearly 50 percent more productive now than they were in 1989, yet wages, when adjusted for inflation, have increased just 1.2 percent in the same time, according to a new study. The typical employee today is working harder, faster and more efficiently, yet seeing few of the benefits.

"Despite productivity gains, workers have nothing to show for it in their pockets," said Andrew Sum, director of Northeastern University's Center for Labor Studies, and lead author of the report. "The average worker is just treading water."

What is even more interesting are the studies that demonstrate that European workers--who have more vacations, more time off and more benefits--are almost 30% more productive than American workers. Oddly enough, FORBES demonstrated that the US is the 6th most competitive nation in the world, but four out of the five that beat us are socialist nations. Perhaps it's time to rethink Reaganomics and the trickle down approach to labor and management relations?

Higher productivity has historically led to higher earnings after inflation, but economic forces are breaking the link between productivity and wages. But globalization, technology and deregulation are expanding the labor pool and creating more competition, hurting the power of workers to bargain for raises and companies to raise prices, according to the study.

Given the productivity studies and the competitive studies, it would appear that this argument is specious and uncorroborated by the facts.

Corporate profits account for a larger share of the nearly $300 billion resulting from the production of goods and services by the state's private sector, according to the study, which analyzed Commerce Department data.

Hmmm... Does anyone else smell the big piece of Limburger in the middle of the room? Or is that the smell of corporate and ultra-conservative lies? Something ain't right in America.