Detroit UAW 2 Tier Wage System

[313WX]

Classic case of how to use data 'creatively'.

Most folks when they speak of wages talk of talk about the number which is multiplied by hours to produce gross pay.

Then we get charts which use numbers which folks don't understand and the charts are not footnoted to provide clarity. Unless one understands 'labor costs' to mean something... which I don't understand ALL of what labor costs includes... It would be nice to know what items they are expensing to come up with that number.

$28 / hour is what I'd expected from a senior UAW worker. $58 / hour is what I'd expect from a senior engineer.

So this bar graph is suggesting that Ford is paying their automobile workers what they would be paying their engineers.

And, of course, if automobile workers are paid the same as mechanical engineers they are over paid, but... there is some creative usage of statistics going on...

Not even Senior Engineers make $58/hr in Metro Detroit.

IF they work for the Big 3, they probably make in the ball park of $100,000 in base pay on average [[which is about $45-$50/hr).