----- Original Message ----- From: "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, September 27, 2004 5:07 PM Subject: Re: Productivity Re: Br!n: some thoughts and quotes.
> On Sun, Sep 26, 2004 at 11:16:49PM -0500, Dan Minette wrote: > > > I may have just found the source of our differences. I have been > > focusing on the median income: the money made by the person in the > > middle. I think your compensation costs are the mean compensation > > costs. The change in those numbers have been quite different. > > The numbers I am working with are averages. But there a significant > difference between compensation and average hourly earnings even when > both are measured as averages. > > According to the BLS: > > "Compensation is a measure of the cost to the employer of securing the > services of labor. It includes wages and salaries, supplements (like > shift differentials, all kinds of paid leave, bonus and incentive > payments, and employee discounts), and employer contributions to > employee-benefit plans (like medical and life insurance, workmen's > compensation, and unemployment insurance). > > The measures of compensation published alongside the productivity > measures include an imputation of the earnings of the self-employed. > This is because the output of proprietorships is included in our output > measures." I went to ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/eci.ecconst.txt to get tables, since it is easier for me to compare numerically. From '81 to '84 we have the following geometrically averaged yearly growth. wages compensation 0.55% 0.86% This also includes, BTW, the increase in the social security and Medicare taxes paid by the employer. The total over 23 years is: wages compensation 13.4% 21.7% Compensation increases are a bit more than 50% higher than wage increases. The difference between the mean and the median wage increase is much more than this: a factor of 8. It would be interesting to see the same figures for the median compensation and wages. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
