Back in the 1980’s I worked for a major St. Louis County non-profit. Federal government cuts leaned-down grants, so, the executive director told us that no one would get a raise in the coming year. Instead, she gave each of us a crisp, new $50 bill.
Now divide $50 across a basic 2,080 work year and that’s the equivalent of a 2¢ an hour “raise.”
Since the Trump Tax cut a number of American companies – AT & T, American Airlines, Comcast and Express Scripts among them – announced one-time bonuses of around $1,000 an hour to their employees. That’s around 48¢ an hour for the year.
Yes, it’s better to get a $1,000 bonus than to get nothing. Yet, a one-time bonus does nothing to make a new car or an apartment more affordable because it isn’t predictable income.
And, none of those companies giving bonuses shared all of their tax break: AT & T, for example, gave employees around $200 million in bonuses while saving billions in tax liability. [ http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/tax-reform-windfall-these-companies-are-hiking-pay-delivering-bonuses ] Since AT & T gave out its bonuses before the lower corporate took effect, the company’s hard cost was just $130 million instead of the $158 million at the new, lower corporate rate. [ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-09/at-t-walmart-bolster-their-tax-savings-in-paying-worker-bonuses ]
Remember the announcement last week that the economy had created better than 313,000 jobs this February? [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/business/economy/jobs-report.html ] That same report found that – despite a hiring boom and a need for more workers – average wages had climbed only 2.6% in the past year…
For workers, the modest 0.1 percent rise in average hourly earnings [in February]
was disappointing. Since October, year-over-year wage growth had been
shooting up at a much faster rate compared with the characteristic plodding
increases that have whittled down the standard of living for millions of low-
and middle-income Americans…For Wall Street, the overall report was a dream.
Patricia Cohen, NY Times 3/9/18
In other words, in defiance of traditional economic rules, a tight labor market has not resulted in dramatically better wages. And that makes Wall Street happy.
By just wiping a few crumbs off the table for workers, companies can continue to ignore that harsh reality that the people who make them rich are struggling.
A strong middle class makes America possible. What happens as the middle class melts with more wealth siphoned to the top few? We are getting more of that answer every day.
Now, governments don’t operate like for-profit companies, not even when Missouri drags-in a corporate style Chief Operating Officer to handle most of the governor’s job. State government provides vital services and state workers ought to get paid a fair wage for their work.
Yet, again this year, it looks like the lowest paid state workers in the nation won’t see a pay raise. They will continue to slide down the economic ladder. The best possibility was Governor SEAL’s offer to give lower-paid workers a $650 raise (31¢ an hour) if the legislature gutted work place job protections. Based on what’s being heard in House hearings, that is very unlikely.
Alas, as noted by Sue Cox, executive director of ARMSE [Active & Retired Missouri State Employees], it is very possible that if that raise come through that all of the increased wages would go to higher health insurance premiums. [March 9, 2018 Jefferson City News Tribune Letter To The Editor]
Without the raise, state workers will have less take-home pay, less money for food, housing, clothing and life’s simple pleasures. They are suffering even more than their friends in the private sector.
Back to that $50 bill…
It turns out the boss wasn’t completely honest. While staff received no pay increase, well, the board gave her a few thousand dollars a year more. And, IRS discovered those untaxed cash bonuses. That meant every employee had to file an Amended IRS 1040 for that tax year. Crummy.
Missouri Leads The Nation…
…in child weddings
Yes, the Missouri House of Representatives did vote to ban marriages by those under age 17 – kind of.
As noted in the Kansas City Star article, a quick trip by a parent to a judge can still arrange marriage for a 15 or 16 year old. [ http://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article204287484.html ] That makes Missouri the easiest place in America to marry-off that annoying high school freshman.
Two things to remember:
❶ 50 Republican state reps thought this year’s bill preventing young teen marriage was too restrictive, and,
❷ That same House of Representatives voted to require two parents to agree to a teen getting an abortion.
Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member