Employers Slashing Hours, Resorting To Once-Unthinkable Wage Cuts

Washington Post:

Across the country, workers' earnings are stagnating or, in some cases, declining. For many Americans, the setbacks are all the more troubling because they have lost so much wealth in recent months, with the value of their homes and retirement packages plummeting.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[sueinmn]

I think Pete is the old Peter007. He has a new user name and sure sounds like the same arrogant guy I run into a while back. Hes an accountant of some sort and really has a nasty attitude towards people! All people, he has himself on this mighty high three legged stool and it will fall someday. Come on Pete show yourself.

[formerprosecutor]

we will just wait until he is in his late sixties , blind (though he will never be Black) and see if he can get an "entry level " accounting job. Though,his motive would be quite different than mine.
It was my bad luck t o be the wrong party until recently. Accountants don't have to have any personality or people skills. They just keep them where no one will see them.

[Progressive Pete]

I work as a WAN Engineer.

[sueinmn]

We just had 75 Rn's let go from a major hospital. Not one administator got the ax. I wrote an open letter to my local editor about the property taxes going up and the city attorney called me to try to change my opinion. I stated all the city leaders needed to step up to the plate and also take a wage cut seeing they are bleeding all citizens dry.

[sueinmn]

Yup Pete I was cnesired. You are ignorant and apparently not too educated. Get yourself into the real world. Oh yes, the unskilled labor market is in need of burger flippers yet! Any skilled trades and you have stiff competition. Im a licensed Electrician, whats my excuse? I cant make them build it if they have no money, investers, or business to operate when built! Am I lazy also? Do I belong at Walmart greeting and would I get hired? I also would have the group organized in a day, maybe a few! For sure! But ignorance like yours can not be organized. It can only be handled with gloves.

[formerprosecutor]

ill tempered children should be ignored. I don't know who this sock puppet used to be, but we maybe able to guess.

[Progressive Pete]

At least I am employable. I have no problems finding WAN jobs.

[iblogleft]

No problem huh? Good for you. You are most certainly the exception.

You must be very specialized or very skilled, because for 5 years, information technology has been leaving this country. Sure, there are jobs to find, I get them all the time, but they pay half what they did when I got my systems engineering degree just 9 years ago, and the scope required is either very specialized or specialized in 3 or 4 different fields, still paying half of what the position is worth. Ain't global capitalism grand :-)

[formerprosecutor]

"Progressive Pete See Profile I'm a Fan of Progressive Pete I'm a fan of this user permalink
Wow, in a year and a half you can't get even an entry level job somewhere.

You are either extremely useless in life, or too stuck up to work for a living.

How proud your family must be."

Now one has to wonder, what sort of menatlity would make their only comment on this article; what would be the point. It really is a pity , that someone raised a child , sacrificed for a child, with high hopes, they would turn out to be a worthwhile person, a benefit to society. Instead, they have an angry , mean spirited child. How very, very sad.

[Progressive Pete]

GOBAMA!!

[formerprosecutor]

People want this mess fixed in 3-6 months. Just compare it to a household. Apply all the problems this country has and analogize them tot a family. How long would it take to get your head above water. If that is just to hard. Justr take the facts and apply them to a small business.
It is going to take, what it takes. and longer if the "employees" (us) don't believe it and just sit around waiting. In addition, the top MUST know what ios going on at ground zer. I post here , because I hope somebody in all three branches read these comments , and talk about them , with the decision makers.

[petridish]

Well one thing for sure if I use your analogy I sure as heck would not ramp up my spending to fix my prior problem of overspendi­ng,.....

[slowhand0728]

So how long do you think Obama really has? I am thinking a year, at that point the wheels would fall off and only the hardcore diehards would still support all this endless spending.

[ConservativeHippie]

Well, I thought the $3/hr wage cut the we got about a month ago was bad but at least I had a job. That all changes tomorrow. I just got the news that "nobody knows" yet, ten layoffs tomorrow and I'm one of the soon to be unemployed.

[sueinmn]

Good luck to you! Hopefully it all works out. Wished we had just a bit more long term help from the Government as this is going to keep happening they predict into 2011. Jobs are last to return. Ive been off 8 months!

[formerprosecutor]

I have been off a year and a half, I have applied for over 30 state and a couple of federal positions (all of which I am qualified for) I have had one interview. I am old, going blind and nobody is going to hire me. But I do need (and want) a job. I feel your pain.
No private law firm will have me because I can't put in 60-70 billable hours a week. (plus I can't type worth a c. rap)

The running joke in our house is the Walmart greeter job. But Walmart would NEVER hire a lawyer. They barely let me shop there. I would have the employeees organized in a union in one day and , several discrimination suits filed within a aweek. : )

[sueinmn]

What looks to be happening is everyone gets a pay cut. then when and if the EFCA passes, we will all be stuck with lower wages for sometime! They are getting us all use to less and they maintain their profit margins. Some cases yet some cases companies are in dire straights just like we are. The little guy always gets the shaft regardless of owner or employees. Its the big business making it big as far as offshoring and tax havens.

[swift goat pet for truth]

Some time some one will figure out that the top line (sales) cannot grow if all the workers take cuts.

Most sales are made with disposable income. No disposable income, no sales.

[formerprosecutor]

That is what the economist of the re-run on Colbert this morning was trying to explain

[Lilith33]

What do you thik the "china deal" was all about?

[Lorifromky]

My husband took a pay cut of $2.50 an hour; it may not sound like a big deal, but it hurts. It hurts financially, and it hurt his pride. To be age 58 and take a cut - there just are not that many alternatives for him, and he has been so loyal to the company he works for. To my knowledge, none of the executives had to take a cut, only the people that do the actual work. I would love to argue with right wing pundits about how great the private sector is in this country. It is - if you are on top of the flow chart.

[petridish]

http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/overview.php?type=W&year=2007&filter=C

Our elected officials are making out quite nicely. It gives me a warm snuggy feeling to know they can afford their European vacations and 2nd/3rd vacation homes as well. Best part of it is they collect those generous salaries/b­ennies/pen­sions via our tax dollars...­. YEAH for increased budget deficits.

[formerprosecutor]

really, can you not read???

[formerprosecutor]

The executives cannot take a pay cut. how would they afford the club memberships and that 2nd house, or their 80k in new cabinets. of that 50k a year tutition for their Ivy League kids.

[Carolab]

American Thinker

March 29, 2009
The Drive to Abolish National Currencies
By John Griffing

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/the_drive_to_abolish_national.html

As this article states, you will see a lot of support for abolishing the Federal Reserve. You will also see a lot of support for ending the U.S. dollar. These are being pushed because of a drive to abolish national currencies in favor of regional or global currencies, by the international economic elites (central bankers).

The Federal Reserve and the other international central banks have manufactured our monetary crisis deliberately, in order to generate support for a "global solution". Doing so, would, in brief, destroy sovereignty.

There is a better way to harness the power of the Federal Reserve to create our money supply and protect our sovereignty.

The Federal Reserve should be placed under the Treasury. In this way, the U.S. can begin to issue its own currency directly from the Treasury instead of a middleman private "central bank" that inflates our monetary supply and manufactures debt.

In doing so, we honor the Constitution, protect our sovereignty and issue money as a system of credit to restart our domestic economic engine.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich supports Stephen Zarlenga's American Monetary Act and so do I. He has said he will introduce legislation soon to support its adoption by our Congress, in whose power rests the authority to modify the Federal Reserve.

The Act is available here:

http://mygodimhit.com/bill.pdf

[Carolab]

Note: I myself have been calling for months on HP to "end the Fed". When I began noticing people on the opposite political pole like Michele Bachmann also supporting that idea, I decided to study it further.

The American Thinker article above confirms suspicions that the calls to "end" the Fed are serving the wrong purposes.

I recently researched documents from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and recent news reports have appeared in favor of a "global currency" along with new funding for the IMF and proposals to create a "global currency" using a model similar to the IMF's SDRs (Special Drawing Rights).

I am now convinced that Congressman Kucinich and researchers like Ellen Brown are right in proposing instead that we instead use the Fed as a system of credit (per the Constitution) by "nationalizing" it as a true governmental agency instead of a quasi-public private institution.

Professor Joseph Stiglitz has recently been suggesting also that we "socialize" the Fed, and implement a public banking utility that issues credit instead. Stiglitz is a former member of the World Bank who was fired for disagreeing with its policies and is a harsh critic of the IMF and the World Bank. He is also one of the most prominent critics of the bank bailout and a proponent for "temporary receivership" of the banks.

I also recommend reading Ellen Brown's articles at http://www.webofdebt.com for a more in-depth understanding.

[formerprosecutor]

You are way out ahead of me (certainly) , but I think enough of these ideas to give it a read and shop it around to my colleagues in this field. Thanks for the effort and information.

[WilliamProc]

This has been happening for decades!

Who is the doofus who uncovered this "bombshell"?

[NotPC]

I think you need to do a bit more research before you make a comment like that. This country has done very well in the last 30 years, and produced a great deal of wealth for those who were willing to work for it - at ALL income levels. Now we are in a crisis....­thanks to our reps in Washington who caused the housing debacle (Fannie/Fr­eddie.....­Chris Dodd, Barney Frank), which has let to this game of dominos we are now playing. With Obama so focused on taxing the wealthy he is causing this recession to go on longer and possibly become a depression - wealthy folks are going to hang on to their money in these uncertain times. No new boats, cars, houses, 2nd homes.....­stuff that keeps people in their jobs here in the USA, yes and abroad. If BO thinks the wealth is going to grow from the bottom up, he needs a course in economics, because folks at the bottom don't buy in the volume that the rich do. I am not rich by any means, but I can tell you that ALL non essential spending in my home has been curtailed until this ecomony starts to turn around....­.I don't trust Obama to turn this around, so I am going to hang on to my money.....­..just like a lot of other folks.

[Liberal2]

Poor NotSmart, wealth actually does come from the bottom up. It's called sales revenue and profit. there are many countries with a wealthy elite and zero economic structure.

What, you think a factory making pet rocks is gonna make you rich???

You've swollowed too much reichwing propaganda.

[formerprosecutor]

you must live a different world that I do. I don't know anybody that has done well "just working for it".

The average income in thois country is aorund 30K; so who is doing so well?? people that came from money or made it off the backs of the working class.

perhaps you should do some actual research.

[petridish]

These people are doing very well

http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/overview.php?type=W&year=2007&filter=C

[Chaimirija]

thanks for sharing your assignment with us

[sueinmn]

Many of us had what wealth we could claim in our homes and retirement plans. We all know what happened to what we had. All my life I have been told your home is your best asset and to put away for the future. Their will not be a future if jobs arnt returned to this country. How many of us can work the wind plants and green jobs? Just not enough jobs to go around.

Our great deal of wealth is presently in the bankers and CEOs pockets right now! Id like some of mine back! The banks have been made whole but my home and retirement has not!

[Carolab]

Geithner's New Bank Fix Is Bogus, Too

Henry Blodget

Tim Geithner has a clever new way to "recapitalize" banks that fail the stress test: Convert the taxpayer's preferred stock to common stock.

From Geithner's perspective, this technique has several advantages:

(snip)

Unfortunately, the plan also has two major flaws: First, it's smoke and mirrors. Second, the taxpayers will be even more exposed to losses than they are now.

Why?

Because the banks will still have the same amount of crap assets on their balance sheets, and they'll have no more capital available to absorb these losses when they hit. The only thing that will change is that the taxpayer will now get hit first as these losses flow through, instead of getting hit second, as is the case now. The banks' bondholders, meanwhile, will still be protected to the tune of 100 cents on the dollar (by administration policy). If the common equity is wiped out by the losses, therefore, the government will have to dig into the taxpayer's pockets to cover any shortfall.

In other words, Geithner has hatched yet another plan to avoid dealing with the bank problem once and for all.

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-geithners-new-bank-capital-plan-is-bogus-too-2009-5

[tbirdalum]

Carol, some good words there and maybe I'm thinking too simplistic, but what do you think of us taxpayers getting the money from the gov. and paying off our mortgages. Then we are mortgage free and the banks will have the money. If we just give the money to them, thats where it stops. And, we'll still have our mortgages. I know, sounds like the perpetual-motion machine, right? Keep posting, I love them.

Jim

[sueinmn]

Hey how do you change your screen name? Must I re register? Thanks in advance!!!

[formerprosecutor]

yes, sue you will have to reincarnate as another sock puppet, but why?

[sueinmn]

I wanna change it to Baglady! More fitting real soon. LOL

[Jude55807]

We need to just kick everyone out and start fresh. No one, and I mean no one has our Interest. In the of the rare honest senator: The banks own the place.

[formerprosecutor]

Our leaders have known and feared them ever since Jefferson, look what Teddy did. Truly, the lenders have more power over our lives than the "G' does. No doubt.

[sueinmn]

Yup, take time off or get laid off, then take a pay cut or get laid off, then lets try a shortened week or get laid off. When all is said and done they will outsource, movre to a less taxes state or close shop. Our bail out supports outsourcing, high exec pays and more unemployed Americans. How will we ever pay this down if the tax havens are not closed and the jobs not returned. Healthcare, their wont be enough of us working to pay what it presently coats. Spector our NEW Demmy refuses to vote for healthcare and EFCA. What good is he? Capitol Hill is owned by lobbyists getting rich by the week.
Obama said something about Wallstreet will have less effects on our lives in the future but I havent a clue what he meant by that. All the money is in there hands now.

It might bre less stressful to simply say screw it and join the lady on the corner panhandling.

[formerprosecutor]

I totally get your frustartion, even fear. I think many of us are afraid.

many people, me too, are a paycheck, a pink slip, or a serious life changing event away from homelessness, with little chance of working our way out of it.

[Chaimirija]

I'm not...I like a good fight....t­hey can kiss my arrse