Some Facts About Worker Compensation
28 August 2006
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
You allege that ordinary workers today are suffering an unprecedented post-WWII failure of their compensation to keep pace with productivity gains and with profits ("Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity," August 28). But the significance you accord the story by running it on the Front Page above the fold is at odds with the fact that you quote only one economist, Jared Bernstein. Were none others available?
Perhaps if your reporters had spoken to more scholars they would not have written that "Since last summer, however, the value of workers' benefits [along with wages] has also failed to keep pace with inflation." Bureau of Labor Statistics data series number PRS85006152, which reports the annual-percentage-rate change in real hourly compensation of non-farm workers, shows this compensation rising by nearly 5.1 percent since September 30, 2005.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
You allege that ordinary workers today are suffering an unprecedented post-WWII failure of their compensation to keep pace with productivity gains and with profits ("Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity," August 28). But the significance you accord the story by running it on the Front Page above the fold is at odds with the fact that you quote only one economist, Jared Bernstein. Were none others available?
Perhaps if your reporters had spoken to more scholars they would not have written that "Since last summer, however, the value of workers' benefits [along with wages] has also failed to keep pace with inflation." Bureau of Labor Statistics data series number PRS85006152, which reports the annual-percentage-rate change in real hourly compensation of non-farm workers, shows this compensation rising by nearly 5.1 percent since September 30, 2005.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Monday May 14, 2007 at 6:25pm