Letters to the Editor
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Replace a $20/hr Job With Two $8/hr Workers
We keep talking about the number of jobs ---- how about the quality of the job?
Again, if you fire someone making $20/hr with benefits and replace them with two temps earning no benefits making $8 or even $7/hr then according to the government jobs were "added."
But did things really improve for workers overall?
No.
Because while "jobs" went up -- actual worker wages went down.
If a company eliminates their health insurance and shifts those costs unto employees -- their wages may stay the same (in theory) but since they now have to pay $300 or $400 out of pocket just on insurance -- in pratical terms their wages went down. Instead of having $400 a month to put into savings or pay for chemotherapy -- that money essentially evaporates into nothing. The employee never gets to see it and he can't buy anything with it except crappy insurance. But the official government reports won't report that reality. They'll just say wages remained the same. Uh, technically maybe. But in reality, wages went down.
It's all an Enron-like numbers game designed to hide a failing economy built entirely on credit cards instead of wages.