Road Walker,
If you were a person with an inquiring mind (which clearly you are not), you would want to co-relate the figures from GM and those from the UAW PR person. They are not going to lie out right, but are going to pull the wool over the eyes of weak minded person, such as yourself.
Let's start with the figure where they match: $28/hr
2006 AVERAGE WAGE: (all job classifications) $28.37 per
hour (includes COLA)
media.gm.com
Now let's take a look at how it translates to average hourly cash cost for GM:
The average annual cash compensation for hourly
employees in 2006 was $39.68 per hour. Included in
average earnings are straight-time pay, Cost of Living
Allowance (COLA), night-shift premiums, overtime
premiums, holiday and vacation pay. In 2003, GM workers
logged 41,363 (hours in 000’s) in overtime hours for an
average of 371 hours per worker; in 2004, 39,409 overtime
hours for an average of 374 hours per worker; in 2005,
33,555 overtime hours for an average of 337 hours per
worker; and in 2006, 27,265 overtime hours for an average
of 315 hours per worker.
So let's go through the list.
Vacation and holiday pay is obvious (to some of us). If the worker is paid vacation and holiday, each hour he works accrues cost that will be used to pay for holidays.
Night shift premium If GM pays this, it obviously raises the hourly cost.
Overtime pay If workers work overtime, their wage goes up between 1.5x and 2x, increasing the average hourly pay. If the overtime is 315 hours per worker, that's 6 hours per week per worker. If this worker receives 40 hours at $28.37 and 6 hours at either $42.45 or $56.74/hr, the average houly pay goes up. Keep in mind a lot of this is made up time. People not doing their job during their regular hours, stretching it into overtime. This is aided by UAW work rules forced on GM, that GM (or other big 3) are unable to combat.
This is how an average hourly cash compensation of $39.68 was arrived at.
Now let's look at the non-wage costs.
Benefit/government required programs in 2006 added an
additional $33.58 for each active hour worked. These costs
include: group life insurance, disability benefits, and
Supplemental Unemployment Benefits (SUB), Job Security
(JOBS), pensions, unemployment compensation, Social
Security taxes, and hospital, surgical, prescription drug,
dental, and vision care benefits.
Some of this is may not be considered a direct benefit, such as Social Security taxes, but this is a minor portion of $33.58. The bulk of this cost is health and pension benefit. But these are still GM's costs.
You may be a good example of the product of American Education (of late), since you cannot put 2 and 2 together.
Joe |
