TheOnion: Walmart Cuts Starting Wages https://www.theonion.com/walmart-cuts-starting-wages-1850826547 #businessfinance #anthonypareira #carolrichling #waltonfamily #donbarlett #walmart #labor #wage

US #wage growth does not signal any sign of #inflationary pressures, chart @WSJecon https://tinyurl.com/wmhahwuz

Average labour income in #Lithuania stood at EUR 1,980 before taxes in Q2/2023, which was up 12.3% from a year earlier, according to the State Social Insurance Fund. The average monthly net #wage amounted to EUR 1,230, which was up 11.2% over a year.

https://viabaltica.fi/lithuania-average-gross-wage-up-12-3-on-year-in-q2-2023-sodra/

The #restaurant #industry has long coordinated efforts to suppress labor costs through the #NRA, a multimillion-dollar #lobbying machine funded both by its restaurant members and by the fees #workers pay for required food-safety classes, according to a recent New York Times report.

The group has spent its #war chest on lobbying campaigns to preserve a subminimum #wage for tipped workers — who are disproportionately young, women, and people of color, and far more likely to live in #poverty than regular minimum wage workers — and to help block state and federal sick leave proposals and minimum wage increases.

But now, restaurant executives are on edge. #Union campaigns are suddenly penetrating their industry, which employs about 10 percent of the American #workforce and has one of the lowest #unionization rates of any sector. Over the past few years, baristas have #unionized nearly 280 Starbucks stores in the face of enormous odds, and dozens of other coffee #shops and restaurants have followed suit.

“The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, every newspaper reports on every union win… when an unfair labor practice charge is filed, when there are challenges to elections,” said Felice Ekelman, a principal at Jackson Lewis, one of the oldest and most infamous union avoidance law firms in the country. “When did this become first page #news?”

“And guess who’s reading it?” replied Laura Pierson-Scheinberg, one of Ekelman’s Jackson Lewis colleagues, as the two sat across from each other on the main stage of the summit. “My kids. Literally. I have an 18-year-old, my kids are into it.”

The two lawyers were discussing a new threat for the restaurant industry: the unexpected rise of union campaigns in workplaces that, for decades, have largely been immune from such organizing efforts.

“Before, I used to say… ‘[Unionization] isn’t a problem for you in the restaurant industry,’” said Pierson-Scheinberg. But now, she warned, “Kids do not care about paying union dues. Two percent of pay, are you kidding me? Their Netflix costs more. They think it’s a hell of a deal.”

The “kids,” she added, are #organizing #workplaces which would have previously seemed unreachable.

https://www.levernews.com/fear-and-loathing-among-the-union-busters/

#Latvia's average gross monthly #wage amounted to EUR 1,525 in Q2/2023, which was up 12.0% from a year earlier, the Central Statistical Bureau reported. Compared to Q1/2023, the average wage rose by 4.3%.

https://viabaltica.fi/latvia-average-gross-wage-up-12-on-year-in-q2-2023-statistics/

The UK's #inflation problem looks worse than either the US or the EU due to three issues, according to Adam Posen:

1. #wage inflation has been concentrated among the higher paid leaving much (reasonable) wage pressure in the economy;

2. #Brexit is inflationary;

3. The unpredictability & inconsistent fiscal policies of the last decade of #Tory govt. have added costs to #business & are therefore also inflationary.

conclusion: inflation is here to stay for some time!

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/aug/26/if-you-think-the-uks-high-inflation-cycle-has-run-its-course-think-again

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/new-zealands-senior-doctors-stage-first-ever-strike-union-2023-08-21/

#NewZealand's senior #doctors to stage first ever #strike

Nearly 5,000 senior doctors, #dentists will strike for first time ever, seeking #wage to match #inflation.

#Capitalism #WageSlavery #Economics #ClassWar #Exploitation #union

Die #Schlange züngelt an der #Wage

#TheHumanistReport
The Very REAL Victims of #wage Theft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDq8TowtP0s

The UK remains a failing economy for the #poor

NIESR research suggest the bottom 10th of earners would need a £4k pay rise to return them to their #wage levels before #covid.

And, 1.6m low-income households (with incomes of £15,000 or less) spend an average of £3,200 a year paying back debts at interest rates averaging 76%.

We may not be in a technical #recession yet, but for the low waged & economically vulnerable, this country is hell...

but a #Tory Govt. of rich boys couldn't care less

A #boss tells his new employee, "I will give you $8 an hour starting today and in three months I'll raise your #wage to $10 an hour. So when would you like to start?"
The new #employee replied," In three months."

#joke #jokes #fun #funny

If you make $15 an hour, instead of being mad that fast food #workers would make the same as you if the minimum #wage were raised, be mad that a fucking #parking space makes almost double what you make.

#euro #ECB Heiner Flassbeck: If #wage pressures were generally high, we would not have #deflation at the non-consumer levels. The ominous inflation expectations would also exist at all stages of production and sales and not just at retail. https://tinyurl.com/55zjm5c3

1000 yen per hour…

“…will this be enough?”

What a ludicrous question.

About a decade ago economists figured that #Japanese working full time needed to make at least 2300 yen/hour to lead a barely normal non-impoverished life going out to eat once every two or three months and going to a movie once a year.

And the rate wasn’t significantly different for various regions around #Japan.

1000 yen is a #poverty #wage.

#minimumwage

From: @thejapantimes
https://mastodon.social/@thejapantimes/110762848447955323

@jcriecke

Because this is unknown, the majority of workers in a modern society gets #wage payment that corresponds roughly to the #scarcity and #availability of people with similar qualification, but never something that has to do with their individual marginal productivity.

#Lithuania's government has approved a proposal to raise the minimum monthly #wage by 10% to EUR 924 before tax as of 2024. Pending parliamentary approval, the minimum hourly wage will also rise from the current EUR 5.14 before tax to EUR 5.65.

https://viabaltica.fi/lithuania-government-approves-minimum-wage-hike-in-2024/

The argument is being raised that the structure of economic growth is changing. It will be less #credit driven and more #wage driven.

If true:

If you want #economic #growth, you need to raise the income level of the #society at large.

If you think economic growth is not important or even bad, then wages can stay low.

"#wage increases are definitely the reason for the high #inflation", says Austria's minister of #Finance, Magnus Brunner. Himself an #Conservative, he is preaching #economics orthodoxy. You will find similar theories in many an old textbook.

But they are just that, theories.

Where is the proof of such causality?

Wouldn't it be more likely that high inflation (or expectation thereof) triggers wage increases?

Show me your proof, Herr #Brunner.

If #savings are made on one side, someone has to go into debt on the other. In the first 10y since the introduction of #euro, the other #European countries have borrowed from #Germany. But this model (rigorous export orientation & #wage dumping) has now failed.

"#Workers in the #US have an estimated $50bn-plus #stolen from them every year, according to the #Economic #Policy #Institute, surpassing all #robberies, #burglaries and motor vehicle #thefts #combined. The majority of these stolen #wages are never recovered by workers.

Between 2017 to 2020, $3.24bn in stolen wages were recovered by the US Department of Labor, state labor departments and attorney generals, and through class- and collective-action litigation.

#Wage theft disproportionately affects lower-wage workers, women, people of color, and immigrant workers, and negatively affects local #economies and #tax #revenues.

There are numerous forms of wage theft, from #employers not #compensating workers for time #worked, #violating minimum #wage and #overtime #laws, misclassifying #employees as independent #contractors, not providing #legally required meal breaks, confiscating worker tips, or illegally taking #deductions from worker wages."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/15/wage-theft-us-workers-employees