- Over the last month, the Bush administration has cited
recent jobs numbers to claim that average workers' paychecks are increasing.
Vice President Cheney said, "real incomes and wages are growing."[1]
But as new studies show, wages have actually decreased for the average
worker, even as corporate profits and CEO pay have exploded.
-
- According to the Economic Policy Institute, while corporate
profits have risen by more than 62%, workers' take home pay has dropped
by .6%.[2] This follows an earlier report which shows that industries currently
adding jobs pay 21% less[3] than industries that are slashing jobs. Despite
this wage crisis, President Bush is pushing to cut off an estimated 8 million
workers from overtime pay protections,[4] and supports efforts to outsource
even more well-paid American jobs.[5] Meanwhile, he refuses to raise the
minimum wage, despite new research showing a minimum wage hike would not
adversely affect businesses or consumers.[6]
-
- The story, of course, is different for the president's
wealthy campaign donors. A recent study shows CEO pay exploded by 27% in
just one year,[7] all while the President lavished more than $1 trillion
in new tax breaks on the richest 1% of the population. To put the contrast
into dollars, the average worker takes home $517 a week[8] and will receive
about $400 in tax breaks from President Bush. At the same time, the average
CEO takes home $155,769 a week[9] and this year alone received well over
$50,000 in new tax breaks from Bush.[10]
-
- Sources:
- 1. Vice Presidential Speech, White House Website,
- 5/21/04.
- http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/05/20040521-2.html
- 2. "Economic Snapshots: When do Workers Get their
- Share?" Economic Policy Institute, 5/27/04.
- http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_05272004
- 3. "Economic Snapshots: Jobs shift from higher-paying
- to lower-paying industries," Economic Policy
- Institute, 1/21/04.
- http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_archive_01212004
- 4. "8 Million White-Collar Workers Could Lose Overtime
- Pay Under Bush Plan," AFL-CIO, 6/26/03.
- http://www.aflcio.org/yourjobeconomy/overtimepay/ns06262003.cfm
- 5. "Exporting American Jobs," ABCNews.com,
2/13/04.
- http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/WorldNews
Tonight/outsourcing_firestorm_040213-1.html
- 6. "Economist: Minimum wage boost could add a dime
to
- meal tab," Associated Press, 6/4/04.
- http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/florida/news-article.aspx?storyid=19503
- 7. "U.S. CEO pay rose 27 pct in 2003 -- study,"
- Reuters, 5/12/04.
- http://www.forbes.com/home/newswire/2004/05/12/rtr1369242.html
- 8. "Ratio of CEO Pay to Average Worker Pay Reaches
301
- in 2003," United for a Fair Economy, 4/14/04.
- http://www.faireconomy.org/press/2004/CEOPayRatio_pr.html
- 9. Ibid.
- 10. "Details on the Bush Tax Cuts so far (as of
fall
- 2003)," Citizens for Tax Justice, Fall 2003.
- http://www.ctj.org/pdf/gwbdata.pdf
-
- http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df06042004.html
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