Major U.S. Corporations Squeezing Even More Money Out Of Employees

S&P 500 companies made 11 percent more in revenue per employee last year than in 2007.

Major corporations are making certain they get their money's worth out of each individual employee.

S&P 500 companies made an average $420,000 in revenue per employee last year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Yet even though that's a full ninth more than in 2007, companies remain hesitant to hire new workers.

With roughly four unemployed workers for every job opening, many Americans have felt the pressure to worker harder and prove their worth. Those millions of unemployed people have additionally given some employers less of a reason to raise worker wages, as economists told HuffPost earlier this year.

Indeed, inflation-adjusted wages fell about 2 percent in 2011. And that downward trend has yet to end, with personal income falling again in February, once adjusted for inflation. For many, wages are stuck, or effectively falling when inflation is taken into account. The percentage of workers reporting no wage change is at its highest level in 30 years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

There we have the conundrum that the country faces: corporate profits hitting record highs, while millions of Americans remain out of work or unable to boost their living standards.

But could the squeeze be nearing its limit? It's possible. Productivity rose just 0.4 percent last year, after spiking 4.0 percent in 2010 and 2.3 percent in 2009, according to the Labor Department. That's partially why corporate profits grew at a dramatically slower pace last year.

Comments

[Forrest Bajbek]

08:14 PM on 07/15/2012

It's alarming how off topic these posts get, but I'll just leave one tidbit.

Does anyone else realize how completely and utterly vague this article is? $420,000 in revenue per employee? Really? How do they measure that. If the person's job was to sort properly wrapped bubble gum from defectively wrapped ones, and that company makes a lot of money, do they count that worker as producing $420,000 in revenue?

This lack of detail alone is what makes this kind of news exactly what it is: biased propaganda. I am very critical when I criticize government. I expect the same when I'm insulted.

[dtairtime]

02:12 PM on 04/10/2012

Instead of promoting the hiring of laid off citizens HP posts story after story about how this country is mean and rotten because we won't open the borders to every third world nations uneducated and high birth rate citizen.

If we would have taken a two year pause of just half of the normal amount of immigration (yet still have by far the worlds highest and most open immigration policy) our unemployment rate would be about half what it is now. We have to make 100,000 new jobs every month to just keep pace with foriegn workers that big business and the fortune 500 want.

What I still can't figure out is why so many otherwise liberal, environmental and pro labor groups like HP, openly go against all of those beliefs, and encourage the overpopulation and thus low wage guarantee that immigration insures. Why they continue to support the wealthy to keep wages low. Why they encourage the runation of what little natural resources we have. Why they ignore that once here immigrants footprint goes up from 4-7 times OVER what it would have been if they stayed home.

I know why the repubs do it. Money/profits/campaign contributions.

Why do grouops like HP do this?

[rp2par]

02:16 PM on 04/10/2012

Very nice and well thought out dairtime. I agree.

[OldTulsan]

12:00 PM on 04/10/2012

Has anyone computed productivity of slaves in today's dollars ?

[jimdavis11]

10:17 AM on 04/10/2012

Like em or not, when we have strong union's we have a prosperous middle class.

[lnedykstra]

01:11 PM on 04/10/2012

F/F!

[dtairtime]

02:18 PM on 04/10/2012

Yup.

30+ years in three big ones.
Father was union.
Mother was not union but only made what she did because most others at her work were.
Brother is union. He used to repeat the anti-union garbage on talk radio until he got this job that he loves.

I'm now in a government employee union (the most hated apparently). What many don't understand is if we weren't union then the politicians would be running the show and the last thing we need is more power for politicians. Every city would have the mayor telling street workers to ignore a section of the city that didn't vote for him. Every county would have developers getting rubber stamped for illegal projects that destroy neighborhoods.

People need to be careful what they wish for - especially when it comes to politics!

[jimdavis11]

02:56 PM on 04/10/2012

Most of the people who bash public union's need a union as well. I never could understand how one could place his livelihood on the generosity of others!

[kdraper]

09:49 AM on 04/10/2012

The worst nightmare for American business is full employment. That is why we will never see it here again!

[Stopinstigating]

11:12 AM on 04/10/2012

Why? Or do you believe, as does the author, that the primary objective of any business is to provide employment? If you do, then you should get your money back from the school who taught you that emotionally-based, self-serving fiction. Labor unions, Progressives and other uninitiated intellectuals seem to have great difficulty accepting the hard reality of what constitutes sustainable employment.

Dr. Thomas Sowell addresses this disconnect in his book "Intellectuals and Economics - Part 5: Running A Business Is Simple; Ask Any Uninitiated Intellectual":

"The organizations, large and small, which produce and distribute most of the goods and services that make up a modern standard of living — businesses — have long been targets of the intelligentsia. Accusations against businesses have been as specific as charging excessively high prices and as nebulous as failing to live up to their social responsibilities.

Intellectuals who have never run any business have been remarkably confident that they know when businesses have been run wrongly or when their owners or managers are overpaid."

http://news.investors.com/article/518155/201001141810/running-a-business-is-simple-ask-any-uninitiated-intellectual.htm

And, in the United States, "full employment" is defined as 3% unemployment for persons 20 and older, 4% for person aged 16 and over (per the Employment Act (1946), initially "Full Employment Act", later amended in the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act (1978)).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_employment#United_States

[kdraper]

12:49 PM on 04/10/2012

I am not an intellectual, just a common worker bee. I try to use common sense though. The reason it is their worst nightmare is because of the pressure it puts on business to give more to keep their employees. Where do you think the pensions, stock options, insurance perks and the like came from? If employees could get these benefits from someone else, and maybe an increase in wages to boot, why would they not select someone else to work for? Shortage of workers equals better working conditions.

[BeerLover]

08:31 AM on 04/10/2012

If I may quote Mel Brooks: "It's good to be king." I belive we are returning to an aristocracy.... where someone will need to be overthrown....and some will have to be beheaded before we see any changes.

[Peter Everts]

12:54 PM on 04/10/2012

One need only look at obscene executive compensation to realize that for some of them, the guillotine is not far off.

[Forrest Bajbek]

08:32 PM on 07/15/2012

The aristocracy is the government. Open your eyes! Legislators and Lobbyists make upwards to $700/hour!

[BeerLover]

08:28 AM on 04/10/2012

I worked in the insurance industry in Florida for a while and watched our CEO push people to the limit....just because he could. It was mentally abusive. His VP team is not only sharp, but dedicated. But this guy had to call them on vacation, on the weekends, and would harass them to no end BEFORE they went on vacation and ask for unreasonable reports and data..... just becasue he knew they have families, mortgages and people who rely upon them. I felt so sorry for all of them as he abused his power daily. And the investors in TEXAS, didn't even have a clue.....because their concern waaaaasss.... the bottom line. Oddly, it was red quite often. I never understood that.

A staunch republican (arent' they all?) who must loathe himself to the point of being such a bas$%&d..... that I couldn't help but to feel sorry for him sometimes....until he pushed me too far......and then I quit..... because nobody owns me. I'm too dedicated to my jobs and bosses to stay in shackles like that. I haven't looked back since.

[Stopinstigating]

11:29 AM on 04/10/2012

"...he pushed me too far......and then I quit..... because nobody owns me. I'm too dedicated to my jobs and bosses to stay in shackles like that. I haven't looked back since."

Isn't that one of the options available to anyone working for such a tyrant? Others have exacted sweet revenge by going to work for a competitor, while others who've escaped such oppression and abuse have become competitors themselves!

And, in reality, most of the abusive tyrants I've met during my 50 years couldn't have cared less about politics, although several claimed to be "proud Democrats." Republicans don't own a monopoly.

[lofttypeofaview]

09:44 PM on 04/10/2012

So many employers have become tyrants that it's becoming impossible to escape them. If you quit one job because of a tyrant, you might only have to work for another and just hope that the next one wasn't as awful as the previous one.

[Molly D]

07:06 PM on 04/10/2012

Although it's usually couched in more institutional terms, like "do more with less", what you describe is essentially American big business of today. And much of academics. When my dad was a young corporate accountant, his company had picnics, comaraderie. Likewise in my own career, until about 2000 when things like company outings, the pension program, basic concerns, began to be squeezed out. Then came wages cut in half, mass layoffs, followed by rehirings at much lower salaries. I was lucky to catch a severance package just as I passed all the milestones to collect a small pension, and be eliminated exactly when I had planned to go, for a decade. I feel sorry for people still harnessed into the ratrace.

[Kai-HK]

04:16 AM on 04/10/2012

Good News! Productivity as been the key to increased pay for employees. Let’s hope this trend continues.

[blackpolarbearnmbh]

07:53 AM on 04/10/2012

yes i knew that prayers to a a GOD that people dont believe in would finally come to fruition whoo!! *starting happy dance*

[RespectMyAuthoritah]

03:31 AM on 04/10/2012

This is France 1789. I find myself amazed at how often I hear people say "I'm sick of this" and then sit on their hands.

I'm waiting for the Revolution to begin. OWS was a start, but we need to take action now. These banks/corporations make Marie_Antoinette look like Jeebus himself.

[Stopinstigating]

01:59 AM on 04/11/2012

So just what are you proposing? The same violence that angry mobs visited upon France at that time? Then what? Who will decide which member of your mob will rule over you and what violence and injustice will they employ to see to it that you "choose correctly?"

Sting was right. "History will teach us nothing."

Only thieves and bullies have to use threats to get what they want. You are just another in a long list of radical Progressive "Defenders of the Oppressed" who choose to encourage violence when your self-serving delusions no longer mask the economic and intellectual failure that you are.

[ahetty2000]

05:28 PM on 04/11/2012

Stopinstigating YOU are the one instigating here. Judging by your post, the majority of people DESERVE to be, or stay oppressed.

And the REPUBS that you so ADMIRE are doing a FAR better job BULLYING and STEALING from the masses (the 99%ers you so DETEST) than ANY progressive I know!!

[Forrest Bajbek]

09:10 PM on 07/15/2012

In 1789, technology was crude, and life was difficult. This made starting your own business a gamble of life or death.

Technology has changed this. You can ship hand made things (wallets, blankets, figurines, bowls) to anyone in the country for less than ten dollars and within 5 days. Such endeavors can and have turned into full-blown companies.

Your comparison is not applicable. Not only was technology lacking back then, but oligarchical power prohibited people from rising to the top. You think anyone who makes more than $150,000 a year is descended from the bourgeoisie? Not only is this ignorant, but it's mathematically AND statistically impossible. The only real answer is that capitalism has allowed people to benefit from their work, even if there is no limit.

I understand you're mad at the banks, but that's because they've been benefitting from crony capitalism. And believe me, Libertarians and Anarcho-Capitalists are just as angry if not MORE angry than you about this. But big government gave them the upper hand in the first place, and I can prove it.

If the banks had failed, would they have paid themselves bonuses? If so, with what money?

[OldTulsan]

10:26 PM on 04/09/2012

11 telling charts from the Economic Policy Institute...

http://www.epi.org/publication/11-telling-charts-about-2011-economy/
11 telling charts from 2011 | Economic Policy Institute

[ECJIM 3ABTPA BONHA]

10:04 PM on 04/09/2012

What corporations have legitimate employees anymore?
We help outsourced employees to take our jobs, Jumping from position to position trying to maintain some sort of work. It's not about what you want to do with your career anymore...
It's about keeping a job even if you hate it to keep the pay coming in.
Two entire departments gone in 6 months.
I personally feel I have a better likely hood of being laid off then promoted.
I'm trying to climb the "Corp ladder" for the "American Dream"
It's all a game...The ladder is made of twigs, and the dream is just that.
The companies know they can get away with with whatever.
There are thousands of other suckers out there or a outsource company that will fill the positions.
I am doing what use to be considered 3 peoples jobs and I made 1000 dollars less on my W-2.

[Molly D]

07:16 PM on 04/10/2012

Rather arresting screen name, and icon, dude. Yes, I speak Russian.

[ECJIM 3ABTPA BONHA]

08:39 PM on 04/10/2012

Thank you Molly D......I like the old propaganda posters and war relics. I think it's interesting to see where a country was at the time and how they represented it to there citizens.

[jrwest78]

08:04 PM on 04/09/2012

One of the reasons that we want reduced regulations is because if the new ones are finally passed this year, no carbon producing power plant in existence will ever have a chance of being built ever again...

1500 MW, typically produced from coal burning plants which is one of the cheapest and more abundant fuel sources available

Show me the numbers from the 'Green' Alternatives

[vtxrider]

11:59 AM on 04/10/2012

Take a look at our countries natural gas supplies and reserves. Also look at the difference in pollution produced between gas fired and coal fired power plants.

[gerald4]

12:48 PM on 04/10/2012

If US citizens want jobs, then the businesses that hire US citizens need for electrical energy to be available that costs less than US electrical energy that is produced in accordance with US EPA regulations in the USA!

[lofttypeofaview]

09:00 PM on 04/10/2012

For instance in China, Foxconn is undertaking major changes for the better for their employees, with an additional cost about two dollars to produce each I Pad for Apple. They have two choices, either be greedy and have the customer fund that extra two dollars or just sustain profits and absorb that two dollars themselves. Depending upon the cost of the additional energy, they can mug their employees for it, raise the cost of the product to the customer, absorb the fees themselves or the customer and the manufacturer can fund it jointly.

[gerald4]

07:47 PM on 04/09/2012

Some people think that the USA should adopt the (socialist/communist) form of big government like Russia where the government has the power to control and protect the environment, where the government controls the economy, where everybody has (had) a job working for the government, where the government owns everything, where the government collects everything that the people produce, and then where some politically appointed family connected government elite bureaucrat doles out the food, shelter, and clothing required to sustain our lives according to the bureaucrat’s whim or desire?

Isn't it really a question of a big government taking care of everybody, or small government where people are required to take care of themselves?

Most of the individuals in any future communist USA would want to work at something other than producing the basic food, shelter, clothing and other products required to sustain life.

The producers would strive to become members the a non-producing greedy government elite bureaucrat society, demanding and wanting the disgruntled producers to produce more and more so that privileged individuals of the government elite bureaucratic society class can keep themselves busy as musicians, poets, actors, social workers, philosophers, historians, politicians, bureaucrats, administrators, police, firemen, judges, military, school teachers, anthropologists, archeologists, and other endeavors that do not create any of the food, shelter and clothing necessary for maintaining the lives of the population.

[gerald4]

07:48 PM on 04/09/2012

The non-producing members of the government elite bureaucratic society will then let, require, and/or force those that the elite have deemed to be lower class to work harder and produce more and more of the food, shelter, and clothing required to sustain the lives of all of the people including the elite class of bureaucratic government employees.

Under the communist system, some citizens (the non-producing greedy elite family connected government bureaucrats) are "MORE EQUAL" than other citizens (the lower class citizens that make the things that the elite government bureaucrats (and the producers) consume!

US citizens would then have traded businessmen, industrialists and Wall Street financial wizards who now control the conditions and terms of their employment (or servitude) for an elite class of family connected (almost royal) government bureaucratic employees who will be controlling our employment (or our conditions of servitude), and they would then dole out our share of the necessities of life to each of us according to our needs, not according to the amount that we produced!

[mak4374]

09:42 PM on 04/09/2012

What the...? Really? So, our only choices are predatory capitalism or...communism? Really? You are an engineer. Do you think in dystopian or eutopian terms only, even at your work? Is everything black and white, no middle road? Are you trying to tell me that when you use a logical method to design something, anything, no other parameters other than the ones you thought off (because of the knowledge you acquired from your experiences) could alter the results? Do you truly believe your system, or any system, to be infallible? Are you really that perfect through the force of your will, upbringing and education, to expect perfection if everyone and everything followed your method, and if not...dystopia? Really?

[Binckeslaw]

07:11 AM on 04/10/2012

Your credibility was shaken at "some people think". Who are you talking about?

[Enroh Mot]

06:08 PM on 04/10/2012

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[1Truthseeker]

07:44 PM on 04/09/2012

Folks, what corporations are doing to American labor is called extortion. To make a profit of $420,000 dollars per employees and that employees paid a fraction of less then 1%. Even the feudal system did not extort this level of wealth from the serfs.

[jrwest78]

08:05 PM on 04/09/2012

what corporations make that type of profit...?

I am sure you are telling the truth, but I still would like to know for my reference

[1Truthseeker]

09:36 PM on 04/09/2012

Read the article. This is the average profit amount.

[Forrest Bajbek]

09:17 PM on 07/15/2012

You'll notice the article was vague. Can you tell me what type of work employees were doing to make those figures?

And if these numbers are true, what's stopping these people from doing the job themselves and making that money?

ANSWER: GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS. Go and try to sell gasoline. See how hard it is.

[1Truthseeker]

11:49 PM on 07/15/2012

Thank God for government regulations.  Corporate predation on our land and people for profit with total disregard of consequences to their impact on human, animal and environmental health.   There are things more precious than profit and that money cannot replace. When regulations were reduced on Wall Street Banks we had a global financial meltdown.  Without government regulations we would be drinking totally poisoned water;  women would still be giving birth to thalidomide babies and millions of people dying from salmonella food poisoning.  Because corporations continue to spend billions to circumvent government regulations cancer is rampant in our population from all the heavy pollution of our food and water with carcinogenic substances.   Even with government regulations we the consumers are at a chronic threat of life and limb.   Neurotoxins sprayed on our fruit and vegetables, arsenic fed to our pork and chicken, fecal matter in our beef.  There is not a day when a product hazardous to human safety is being recalled from the market.  If corporations are people, they are lawless and without conscience and must by necessity  be stringently regulated.  Your singular focus on money has reduced your  observations to robotic thinking.

[jrwest78]

07:41 PM on 04/09/2012

Just putting this out there....

Oil prices are one of the main causes of inflation

The US government owns at least 20 million acres of viable land for natural gas and oil but the Obama Administration awards 1/3 of the contracts from previous administrations...

The only way to meet demand and lower costs is to draw from the wells that are owned by we, the taxpayers...

[mak4374]

09:56 PM on 04/09/2012

Let them start with the public park next to your house. I am sure it has timber we can cut, and maybe some minerals we can extract.

One little tidbit in your thought-out argument: for every well the oil industry currently uses for extraction they have six plugged ones that they are not using. Also the decrease has been only on federal lands, and not to 1/3.

Then again I would like to ask, in whose interest is it if oil is expensive? Who makes the largest profits in the history of this country, quarter after quarter? Why would oil companies not want a glut of oil, but they don't mind easy oil from an inexpensive source? I wonder...

[jrwest78]

08:27 AM on 04/10/2012

The contracts are being approved at 1/3 the number and pace than the previous administration and Obama's energy policy and foreign policy toward the middle East have driven fuel costs up, not entirely speculation....

this is why Obama flinched before Iran and now wants to return to negotiations

This is why inflation will strangle us this summer...

It is a shame that Fossil Fuels were thrown to the side for the 'promise' of green energy finally figuring themselves out (even though they were spotted 30 years and nothing tangible in results)