“At 40 hours per week, the average UAW member makes over $150,000 annually in benefits and compensation. Does anyone else think that’s a bit much to screw some tires on a car?”
Nope. Think again. $55K. The rest is the same as employment in the private and public sector: Company matching social security, healthcare benefits, pensions, holiday and vacation pay, some other benefits that they may or may take advantage of like prepaid legal fees and education stipends.
The UAW is wrong on many fronts, but it doesn’t help to exaggerate the problem.
the $155,000 is “total compensation”; I understand it’s not take home pay, but it’s still money shelled out by the Big 3 which limits their profitablity.
You’ve fallen for the union’s fudged numbers. Ask yourself this: if their pay is comparable to non-union auto factories, why have a union at all? If you can get this level of total compensation at non-union jobs, then paying union dues is a waste of money, yes?
Anyway, not only are the union’s numbers fudged, but they do not factor in the “feather-bedding,” i.e. make-work policies. Requiring via union rules that a backup electrician always be present, that certain jobs can only be done by certain people, that extra people always be kept on hand, etc.
Funny stuff!! The companies are bankrupt and the contracts should be declared null and void.
OpusatFR wrote: “Nope. Think again. $55K. The rest is the same as employment in the private and public sector: Company matching social security, healthcare benefits, pensions, holiday and vacation pay, some other benefits that they may or may take advantage of like prepaid legal fees and education stipends.
The UAW is wrong on many fronts, but it doesn’t help to exaggerate the problem.”
Um, wrong. The average company spends the equivalent of 35-45% of a person’s earnings in benefits. Most of these costs now reflect high deductible health plans with some sort of employer-sponsored HSA or FSA arrangement to help employees finance their coverage through pre-tax dollars. Yet the UAW still requires its benefits packages to revert back to 1980’s cost sharing provisions (low co-pays for pharmacy and low deductibles on their plans). The difference is about $20,000 per employee in cost vs. $12,000 for the national average.
Are you high?