ABOUT NJFAC

Home
Who we are
Quotes from the   Advisory Board
What we do
Membership

EMPLOYMENT & RELATED DATA

Unemployment
         Rate
         Insurance

         Articles
Wages
Inequality
PUBLICATIONS

Uncommon Sense
Newsletter
Reprint Series
Special Reports

Quizzes
Faith Community

ESPAÑOL
Publicaciones
NEWS
Job-Related News     Social Security  Legislation-MinWage

The Wage That Meant Middle Class, L.Uchitelle, NY Times, 4/08

Real Eearnings in March 2008, BLS Apr. 16, 2008 Real average weekly earnings rose by 0.2 percent from February to March after seasonal adjustment, according to preliminary data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. Increases of 0.3 percent in both average weekly hours and average hourly earnings were partially offset by a 0.4 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

Data on average weekly earnings are collected from the payroll reports of private nonfarm establishments. Earnings of both full-time and part-time workers holding production or nonsupervisory jobs are included. Real average weekly earnings are calculated by adjusting earnings in current dollars for changes in the CPI-W.

Average weekly earnings rose by 3.3 percent, seasonally adjusted, from March 2007 to March 2008. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings decreased by 1.0 percent. Before adjustment for seasonal change and inflation, average weekly earnings were $607.49 in March 2008, compared with $580.99 a year earlier. [emphasis added--jz]


For Many, a Boom That Wasn’t
, David Leonhardt, NYTimes, 4/9/08


Real wage reversal persists, Bernstein, EPI, 2/08

Change in real compensation by different income levels 8/9/07

.

Slow Productivity Growth, Not Just Income Redistribution, to Blame for Lagging Wages, CEPR 4/07

Understanding Low-Wage Work in the United States, Boushey et al, 3/07

Earnings premium for skilled workers down sharply in recent years, 2/06

"Bush's Expansion Leaves Workers Behind, Sparking Fed Friction

Jan. 17 [2006] (Bloomberg) -- American workers have rarely taken home a smaller share of the nation's prosperity, a condition that is undermining bipartisan support for free trade and creating friction between President George W. Bush's administration and the Federal Reserve.

After 16 consecutive quarters of economic growth, pay is rising at a slower rate than in any similar expansion since the end of World War II. Companies are paying less of their cash gains in the form of wages and salaries than at any time since the Great Depression, according to government figures.

Such a disparity, partly the result of globalization of the labor market, helps explain why the Bush administration is struggling to muster support for lower trade barriers even with the jobless rate at a four-year low. The imbalance has also triggered a debate between Bush's Treasury Department and the Fed about how low unemployment can go without kindling inflation.

``There is no doubt that something is happening'' to reduce labor's share of income, says Robert Solow, a Nobel Prize- winning economist and professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. An economy that doesn't distribute its gains widely is ``poorly performing,'' he says.

From the final quarter of 2001 through last year's third quarter, total compensation paid to employees by corporations, including health benefits, rose at a 4.3 percent average annual rate, according to government figures. That's the slowest growth for any similar period in post-war expansions lasting at least four years.

`Not Connecting'-- Stripping away benefits, corporate wages and salaries rose at a 3.4 percent annual rate in the 16-quarter period, the slowest of any post-war expansion lasting that long. Wages and salaries as a share of the cash corporations are generating from the expansion stood at 51 percent in the second and third quarters, the lowest in government records going back to 1929. Including benefits, labor's share was the lowest since 1997......... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_us&refer=us&sid=azvCEhXtl1g0

75% of American Workers Don't Have Decent Wages and Benefits, CEPR 10/05

Basic family budget calculator, EPI

An off-kilter expansion: Slack job market continues to hurt wage growth, Bernstein & Price, 9/05

Incomes Down; Poverty Up, Bernstein and Mishel

The Productivity Problem, J.Tasini, Working Life, July 14, 2005

Union Advantage Reaches New Highs

Living-Wage Politics--states are raising minimum wage

How Prime-Age Workers Get Trapped in Minimum Wage Jobs, Boushey, 5/05

The Fruits Of One's Labor, Max B. Sawicky 5/05


"In the past three years...shop-happy consumers, cheerfully determined to live beyond their means, leaned a lot more heavily on borrowings ($675 billion of non-mortgage debt) than paychecks ($530 billion) to cover the $1.3 trillion increase in their spending." .Source for charts: Stephanie Pomboy, MacroMavens, via Alan Abelson, Barron's, April 25, 2005; Abelson quoted in http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/

Young college graduates face weak labor market 5/6/05

Real Wages: two years of loss     Profits fine [graph-Business Week 4/18/05]

"Over the last 30 years the typical (median) wage in the United States has hardly grown -- only about 9 percent. Productivity -- output per employee -- has grown by 82 percent over the same period. Normally we would expect wages and salaries to grow with productivity. These trade agreements have helped keep wages from growing here, by increasing competition with workers making 60 cents per hour and by making it easier for employers to threaten to move when workers demand their share of rising productivity. " "CAFTA Fall Short on Economic Arguments," By Mark Weisbrot, 4/05. See also http://www.cbpp.org/4-21-05inc.htm


National Jobs for All Coalition
c/o Council on International & Public Affairs [CIPA]
777 United Nations Plaza, Suite 3C
Tel: 212-972-9877. fax is 212-972-9878.
NY, NY 10017