Selective Economics at the Washington Post
01/15/2009 by Gabriel VoilesDean Baker knocks down (Beat the Press, 1/15/09) the logic behind the already specious alarm about supposedly overpaid autoworkers:
The Washington Post has repeatedly editorialized that auto workers at the Big Three companies should be forced to take pay cuts because they earn $57,000 a year, which is more than workers get at the foreign-owned plants in the United States. Consistent with this editorial position, the paper has an article today about efforts to lower the compensation packages of union workers.
The Post has virtually ignored the much larger gap between executive compensation at the Big Three and at the transplants. While top executives at Japanese manufacturers like Toyota only earn around $2 million a year, executives at the Big Three can earn 10 times this amount.
To Baker's eyes, "this would seem to be a reasonable focus for those concerned about making the U.S. industry competitive."
Read the FAIR Action Alert: "ABC's Overpaid Autoworkers" (12/5/08)
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