Posted on 10/29/2005 9:05:21 AM PDT by Dubya
"Our customers simply don't have the money to buy basic necessities between paychecks," he said in a speech to executives.
But a good portion of Americans are insulated from sluggish wages because they benefit from other income sources.
In the aggregate level, only 56 percent of all personal income comes from wages and salaries, with the rest flowing from other sources, such as investments, rent, Social Security and private retirement plans.
This partly explains why consumers have kept on spending: Personal consumption expenditures were up 3.9 percent in the last 12 months.
"A heck of a lot of people don't feel squeezed because they're going out and buying Coach bags and they're shopping at Nordstroms," Silvia said.
And in any case, if history is a guide, a rise in pay should be just around the corner, economists said.
"Wages are going to catch up," Hassett said. "They've always picked up in the past."
jessica.holzer@chron.com
Supply and demand. Tough luck workers.
Well, long ago I figured out that one depends on the others for the raises, bonuses, [and the paycheck, too]. They may give, or they may withhold. OTOH, if one saves and invests what one could, pretty soon there would be investment income stream which could be seen as a raise and a bonus one gives to oneself, without having to beg for it. If there is enough of it one could even do without a paycheck at all.
Wow, that sounds rather Socialist......
Because business is booming and corporate profits are up sharply, economists are having a tough time making sense of the sluggish wage growth.
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1511555/posts
"On average, applications for H-1B workers in computer occupations were for wages $13,000 less than Americans in the same occupation..."
It was tongue in cheek for the ones that no matter the problem, they cry supply and demand. I was just trying to get in ahead of them.
There's always the trade off between a guaranteed pay check versus having skills that allow you to be self-employed.
Face it folks, we live in a global economy. Our standard of living is higher than most other countries and we consume like no one else. What passes for poor in this country is considered middle class or rich in other countries. We demand more and more for our dollars and we certainly like the idea of our 401K growing in value. What are companies supposed to do but keep costs down?
Somehow left off the rest of my post.
Point is, supply and demand doesn't work when the demand can be met with a supply of lower wage earners.
On surface this stat appears to show benefit for American worker because his job pays $!3,000 more than the H1B visa worker, when in effect it artifically stagnates wages of the American worker by bringing in lower cost workers from out of the country, thus increasing the supply.
ping
Hang in there. The turnaround is coming very soon. Already, employers are reporting shortages in certain fields, especially for highly skilled workers.
I have been retired for long time. I hate to see Americans having to compete with foreign labor IMPORTED into our own country. Overseas is one thing but to bring them here to compete is quite another.
Well, self-employment is not for everyone. And paycheck is not guaranteed either, at least when one is not a tenured professor or a government bureaucrat. Saving/investment route has much lower entry barriers.
employers reporting shortages for high skill labor ? thats an incomplete statement. a more accurate way of writing this would be: employers reporting shortages for high skill labor wanting to work for pennies.
theres no shortage if you just pay enough !
as for wage stagnation, a sizeable amount of legal and illegal immigration will ensure wages for the lower skilled labor will NOT rise no matter what.
the liberals just don't get it, do they ? one hand they want increased immigration and the other they want higher wages. haha. so screwed up
Supply and demand
This is why illegal immigration is not only tolerated, it is encouraged.
Of course tax inceases have nothing to do with the decrease in income. [/sarcasm]
In some fields excessive skills may be somewhat of a hindrance nowadays. While many PhDs are wishing they never learned the words "regrettably, you appear to be overqualified; we wish you all the success in your future career endeavors" there still are openings at BS/MS levels - at least it is true in my field.
"OTOH, if one saves and invests what one could, pretty soon there would be investment income stream which could be seen as a raise and a bonus one gives to oneself, without having to beg for it. If there is enough of it one could even do without a paycheck at all."
I like your thinking! I work for myself. I earn an awesome salary, but I have a real a-hole for a boss some days, LOL!
I'm a big fan of "multiple streams of income." I firmly believe that we each have skills and talents that we can exploit for monetary gain. ;)
You win the prize as the smartest poster on this thread! This article is a typical loony bush-basher hit-piece. The Cron is always hot to trot on finding bad news and one of their favorite after dinner whines is finding some wage stat that shows a drop. They just loooove to hold it up as 'proof' that Americans are all going broke.
The fact is that family wealth and personal income are at all time highs and it just doesn't matter if the Chron is able to find some wages actually went down. Reality is (like you pointed out) that more and more Americans are getting rich on other incomes.
Dang Diana, you beat me to it again.
That's OK, I've always been partial to fast women.
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