The American Worker Doesn't Know What He Doesn't Have---But Could

Wil Wheaton:

I was at work today for Labour Day and on TV was Good Morning America. The theme was celebrating the American worker and their accomplishments. I’ll tell you how it went down.

Kelly put on her glasses, smile wide, and pulled out a piece of paper which she read from. The paper was from an article (which I have issues with, but I will leave alone for now) by ABC news. Kelly proceeded only to read the opening of it, which reads: ‘Americans work more than anyone in the industrialized world. More than the English, more than the French, way more than the Germans or Norwegians. Even, recently, more than the Japanese. And Americans take less vacation, work longer days, and retire later, too.’

And everyone cheered.

And they kept cheering when Kelly put her paper down and smiled at everyone. (not continuing with the rest of the article which suggests that this may in fact be a problem).

And I just couldn’t BELIEVE that anyone was cheering. America. AMERICA you work more than the French, who are entitled by law to have 5 weeks off a year for vacation and can not work more than 35 hours per week. You work more than Norway, who average 33 hours per week and 44,000 dollars a year. Germany, where AGAIN, we see a shorter work week and better pay! And all of these countries have health care and better pay and free/affordable education!

WHY ARE YOU CHEERING?

I have a different interpretation of this information: the American worker is the most taken advantage of worker in the industrialized world. It’s plain and simple. You work long hours and get horrible pay. You take multiple jobs and work and work and work just to get by. Unions are disappearing, jobs are always looking for part timers and all you are doing is giving up your time for less money, less vacation, less safety and stability and less education than anyone else on the list.

Celebrate Labour day. Celebrate the accomplishments of the common worker, but don’t let these people trick you into thinking you should celebrate the theft of your time and energy, or the fruits of your labour.

They are using you. Stop cheering.

(via wilwheaton)

Quote of the Day -- On Labor

Brilliant woman.

“The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all... 

The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands - the ownership and control of their livelihoods - are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease.”

― Helen Keller, Rebel Lives: Helen Keller

Links:

Helen Keller - Wikipedia

Helen Keller Biography - Biography.com

Helen Keller Biography - American Foundation for the Blind

The High Costs of Low Wages to Corporations and to the Nation

In the recent past, there's been some written about the high costs of low wages and I think it's important to cover some of those now. Wages in the US for the last 3 or 4 decades have stagnated so Americans, coast to coast, have, in fact, been making less money for doing the same or, in plenty of cases, even more work.

Corporations have given their people along with technology grinding out ever more work for us, yet even with inflation making things cost more, we're getting less and less in our paychecks. Some proof:

For most workers, real wages 

have barely budged for decades

Wage Stagnation in Nine Charts 

| Economic Policy Institute

The Economist explains: 

Why American wage growth is so lousy

And it's hitting younger Americans hardest, it seems. Millenials make far less than their parents, the Boomers, at the same time in their lives.

The Incredible Shrinking Incomes 

of Young Americans - The Atlantic

Millennials earn 20% less t

han Boomers did at same stage of life

Meanwhile, here in America, wages have been falling while corporate profits have been simultaneously, disgustingly, immorally rising.

Corporate Profits Grow and Wages Slide

Why are US corporate profits so high? 

Because wages are so low

US Wages Up, US Profits Down: 

The American Economic Problem

Corporate Profits vs. Wages: 

The Great Divide

Corporate Profits Rise to New Heights 

as Wages Decline

Corporate Profits Just Hit An All-Time High

Not only have corporate profits been increasing greatly, but CEO pay has been soaring, as well.

CEO Pay Has Grown 90 Times Faster 

than Typical Worker

Top CEOs Make 300 Times More 

than Typical Workers

CEO Pay Continues to Rise 

as Typical Workers Are Paid Less

The Only Thing Up on Wall Street 

Is CEO Pay | Fortune.com

So with this in mind, I'd like to point out some of the costs of low wages, but for corporations.

First, one of the costs of low wages to corporations is that they get lesser skilled workers for the jobs. If the job pays less, the people with more skills and who are, naturally, more desirable, go elsewhere for work and jobs and pay. It only stands to reason. So the company paying less get people with fewer skills, less knowledge, less experience and honestly, even less social skills. It's a ruder, cruder possible employee/associate. That's tougher to train and get to where they need to be for good customer service.

Second, once the jobs are maybe filled, there is the turnover in these jobs because they do, in fact, pay so little, too little. The employees find they can't stay at their job because it doesn't, in fact, pay enough to, say, keep the car running and rent paid, etc. The employee is pushed to do what they must and some do, in fact, find better-paying jobs elsewhere. And they leave. And as they do, there goes all that experience and training  the company did to get and keep them. Definitely a cost.

Third, even if the employee stays, if they aren't paid enough, it's well known they may have to get at least a 2nd job, if not even a third. The original hiring company can pretend this doesn't matter or effect them or the employee or the service level or the job but they're virtually always mistaken on that. The more that employee is distracted by having to run to a second job and/or to fight, really to get enough money to keep their car running and the rent paid, the more it detracts from the work that needs to be done. It's a worn-down employee that is predictably drained and who naturally does not as good a job. They're at their figurative "ropes' end." They're worn out. And tomorrow, they have to do it all again.

So sure, companies can pay less and lots and lots are, in all kinds of sectors. And yes, they can think they're keeping their costs down because, on paper, maybe they are. But those lower costs of low-paying jobs have other costs, too, and at least one of them is the employees they get. After that, there's the additional cost of the type work they're getting from these individuals. And it's not the individual's, the employee's fault, not exclusively.

It's important, then, to note, that LOW WAGES HAVE A COST, COSTS, TO CORPORATIONS THEMSELVES.

Higher wages reduce employee turnover.

There Are Significant Business Costs to Replacing Employees

That lowers the cost of both replacing the employee but also of hiring the new employees.

Higher wages also, besides reducing costs, can and provenly do, in fact, raise productivity.

Want Innovation? 

Try Raising Minimum Wages

Additionally, it's been shown that a higher minimum wage increases all kinds of other business because, hello? people actually have money to spend. They have more money so they can and do spend.

CEO says minimum wage increase 

boosts business

This is absolutely one area where the old saying of "You get what you pay for" rings very, very true.

Extremely so.

It also seems, to me and to a lot of us, that Senator Bernie Sanders is and was correct when he said:

Nobody who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty

Links:

The High Cost of Low Wages - Harvard Business Review

The High Public Cost of Low Wages | 

Center for Labor Research

The High Cost of Low Wages - 

Campaign for America's Future

Cost of living is increasingly out of reach 

for low-wage workers

The high cost of low wages: Economic scarcity 

effects in organizations

Research Says 40 Hours Is Too Long 

Of A Work Week - Inc.com

94-hour week required for minimum wage 

worker to get by in N.J.

Welcome to the New America: Low-Wage Nation

2015 Low Wage Nation National Findings

Low-Wage Nation: 

Poverty and Inequality Are Threatening Our Democracy