Tag: Wages

Informed Comment

Burrito Economics | The Smirking Chimp

Everyone ought to celebrate when those at the bottom get higher wages. The typical American worker hasn’t had a real raise in four decades. Income inequality is out of control. Wealth inequality is into the stratosphere (where Jeff Bezos is heading, apparently). If wages at the bottom rise because employers need to pay more to get the workers they need, that’s not a problem. It’s a victory. Instead of complaining about a so-called “labor shortage,” Republicans ought to be complaining about the shortage of jobs paying a living wage. But don’t hold your breath,

Source: Burrito Economics | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

Suppressing wages is economic vandalism in the current climate

The Fair Work Commission must reject calls for “wage restraint” from the business lobby at a time when many are banking record profits – with some even pocketing Jobkeeper allowances – at the expense of struggling workers. Emma Dawson reports.

Source: Suppressing wages is economic vandalism in the current climate

Class War

You Must Work or Die: The Long History of “Worker Shortages”

Recently "freed" workers on a sugar plantation in the West Indies, 1849, their progress is watched by a white supervisor with a whip.

The current blizzard of stories about a “worker shortage” across the U.S. may seem as though it’s about this peculiar moment, as the pandemic fades. Restaurants in Washington, D.C., contend that they’re suffering from a staffing “crisis.” The hospitality industry in Massachusetts says it’s experiencing the same disaster. The governor of Montana plans to cancel coronavirus-related additional unemployment benefits funded by the federal government, and the cries of business owners are being heard in the White House. In reality, though, this should be understood as the latest iteration of a question that’s plagued the owning class for centuries: How can they get everyone to do awful jobs for them for awful pay?

Source: You Must Work or Die: The Long History of “Worker Shortages”

Australia's Shame

Australian Agricultural Bosses Can’t Find Workers. Maybe They Should Try Paying More.

Agricultural bosses and their allies are accusing Australians of being work-shy as they face a post-pandemic labor shortage. But it’s low wages and abusive working conditions that make it hard for them to find workers. The solution is obvious: decent pay for decent work.

Source: Australian Agricultural Bosses Can’t Find Workers. Maybe They Should Try Paying More.

America's Shame

Forget $15 an Hour — the Minimum Wage Should Be $24
Harry Truman Minimum Wage 1949

The coronavirus pandemic relief bill passed by the House of Representatives this week would raise the federal minimum wage in steps until it reached $15 an hour in 2025. But an increase in the minimum wage has been removed from the Senate’s legislation. At least for now, it is stuck at $7.25.

Forget $15 an Hour — the Minimum Wage Should Be $24
Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Current attention to rape camouflages the wider spread wage and welfare rape that being done. Frydenberg is lubricating it with slap on the wrist wage theft penalties and easier to get debt
Inflation is tipped to outpace wage rises for the next two years.

Fighting Fake News with REAL 1/3/21 Debt slavery in the the “Lucky Country”; The Material world

Bernie Sanders

Calling Walton Family ‘Poster Child for Greed,’ Sanders Says Taxpayers Should No Longer Subsidize Walmart’s Starvation Wages | Common Dreams News
A photograph of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and his family is displayed at the Wal-Mart museum, March 17, 2005 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Today Wal-Mart operates many thousands of stores both in the U.S. and abroad. The fiercely anti-union and media-shy company is a target of critics and the Walton family is now the wealthiest on the planet. (Photos by Gilles Mingasson/Getty Images)

“Walmart, the largest employer in America, is owned by the richest family in America. Their wealth has gone up $50 billion during the pandemic, and they spend millions on themselves. But the company they own starts workers off at $11 an hour. That is outrageous.”

Calling Walton Family ‘Poster Child for Greed,’ Sanders Says Taxpayers Should No Longer Subsidize Walmart’s Starvation Wages | Common Dreams News
LNP, LNP Economic Management, LNP Government

Assuming employers will lift wages in place of superannuation levy is a triumph of hope over experience – Michael West

A
superannuation guarantee rise

Remember the promise of the Casual worker’s bonus for benefit sacrifice that was a Trumpian promise still in waiting.

The government sat on a report into the retirement income system for four months because it was so politically sensitive and then released it on the day the Brereton report into potential war crimes in Afghanistan was released. Harry Chemay looks at what’s at stake in the debate around the rise in superannuation guarantee levy.

Assuming employers will lift wages in place of superannuation levy is a triumph of hope over experience – Michael West
Coronavirus

Australian workers lost $47bn in wages during first eight months of Covid recession, study says | Australia news | The Guardian
Staff member sweeps the footpath in front of a restaurant

A survey by ANU shows workers born overseas and older Australians bore the brunt of cuts to hours compared with other groups

Australian workers lost $47bn in wages during first eight months of Covid recession, study says | Australia news | The Guardian
Capitalism

Allan Fels says 7-Eleven’s $173m wage theft bill should have been higher
Allan Fels said the $173 million represented only a fraction of the chain's unpaid wages.

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven has paid back $173 million to more than 4000 victims of endemic wage theft at its franchise network, but former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission boss Allan Fels said that amount represented only a fraction of the chain’s unpaid wages.

Allan Fels says 7-Eleven’s $173m wage theft bill should have been higher
Wealth Abyss, wealth gap, Wealth Inequality

As Wages Stagnate and Executive Pay ‘Continues to Balloon,’ Report Shows Top CEOs Now Make 320 Times More Than Typical Worker | Common Dreams News

New research from the Economic Policy Institute finds that CEO compensation grew by 1,167% from 1978 to 2019, “far outstripping” the growth of the stock market.

As Wages Stagnate and Executive Pay ‘Continues to Balloon,’ Report Shows Top CEOs Now Make 320 Times More Than Typical Worker | Common Dreams News
Corporate Crime, Uncategorized

‘They’re madly checking their payrolls’: the ugly truth of Australia’s underpayment epidemic | Australia news | The Guardian

Entrance to a Woolworths store

Employers claim the system is too complex, but others say the problem is that the rewards of ripping off staff outweigh the risks

via ‘They’re madly checking their payrolls’: the ugly truth of Australia’s underpayment epidemic | Australia news | The Guardian

LNP Government, Uncategorized

‘A wages crisis’: The Coalition Government is shirking its duty

Welfare and Wages falling behind and the government claim all is well (ODT)

With wages stagnating and the cost of living continuing to balloon, the Government remains silent in the face of this crisis, writes William Olson.

via ‘A wages crisis’: The Coalition Government is shirking its duty

LNP Government, Uncategorized

Workers’ wage rises lowest on record

Workers’ wage rises lowest on record

Workers’ wage rises lowest on record

THE WAGES SLUMP the Abbott Government plunged Australia into back in 2014 is now firmly entrenched. More than five years after the first failed budget by disgraced former Coalition Treasurer, Joe Hockey, workers’ wages are increasing at the lowest rates since records have been kept. It is unlikely there has been a worse period in Australia’s history for workers receiving a fair share of the nation’s vast wealth.

This dismal news emerged from the quarterly wages figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) last Wednesday.

 

Global comparisons

Tradingeconomics.com has data on wage growth for 30 developed countries, current to March or June this year for most. The average rise after allowing for inflation is 2.27%.

Australia’s puny 0.82% ranks a dismal 21st out of those 30 countries. Down in the bottom one third.

This is the time when workers should be earning a fair share of the nation’s vast wealth and investing in homes for now and superannuation for the future. The nation should be investing in the quality of life for all citizens now – especially those doing it tough – and in infrastructure for the future.

It seems the rich foreign controllers of the Coalition parties have decided to grasp as much as they can while they can and to hell with the Australian people. Because eventually, surely, one day, citizens must wake up to what is going on and call a halt.

Australia, Uncategorized

After the hype, our economy’s grim reality setting in

Illustration: Matt Davidson

It laughs at Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s claim in the April budget – and Scott Morrison’s claim in the election campaign – to have returned the economy to “strong growth”, which will roll on for a decade without missing a beat.

Why is the immediate outlook for the economy so weak and uncertain? Not primarily because of any great threat from abroad – though a flare-up in Donald Trump’s trade war with China could certainly make things worse – but primarily because of one big and well-known problem inside our economy: five years of weak growth in wages.

via After the hype, our economy’s grim reality setting in

Corporate Greed

Universities increase profits at low-paid workers’ expense

Universities have become institutions whose primary aim is to make money, in particular by attracting more high paying overseas students than their competitors and cutting back on labor costs of both academic staff and support services.

Source: Universities increase profits at low-paid workers’ expense

Business Crime, Corporate Crime

Push to jail employers for up to 10 years for ‘wage theft’

Unions will campaign ahead of this year’s state election for the Andrews government to make ‘wage theft’ a crime and punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

The move by the Victorian Trades Hall Council and its Young Workers Centre is part of a growing legislative push in Australia to try to turn the deliberate underpayment of wages into a criminal offence.

Push to jail employers for up to 10 years for ‘wage theft’

Unions

Why union members earn higher wages than their non-union colleagues

Fact

Over recent decades in Australia union membership has fallen from 40% of the workforce in 1990 to 15% in 2016 and so unions might seem less relevant in making a difference to what we earn. But our research finds that union members do earn higher wages per hour than non-union members.

via Why union members earn higher wages than their non-union colleagues

Australian Economy

JPMorgan boss says depressing wages for low-paid workers is not good for business – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

ACTU secretary Sally McManus has a surprising ally in one of the world’s most powerful bankers in her fight against pay cuts

Source: JPMorgan boss says depressing wages for low-paid workers is not good for business – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

China FTA

China free trade agreement to invite wave of Chinese workers, drive down wages: report

If the China-Australia free trade agreement proceeds without labour market protections, the Turnbull government will “effectively surrender autonomy over its migration laws” and invite a wave of Chinese workers into Australia, driving down local wages and conditions, a new report has found.

Source: China free trade agreement to invite wave of Chinese workers, drive down wages: report