Wages of average workers trailing far behind surge in corporate profits [View All]

[OhioChick]

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

U.S. companies are about to wrap up their fourth consecutive year of spectacular profit growth, filling corporate coffers with cash and keeping the bull market alive on Wall Street.

Total earnings of the blue-chip Standard & Poor's 500 companies have risen at double-digit percentage rates for 18 consecutive quarters, an unprecedented streak.

But to many rank-and-file workers, the booming bottom line may only serve as a reminder of what has been missing from their own paychecks.

Wages of average workers have just begun to improve in recent months after badly lagging behind inflation for most of this decade. Amid the surge in corporate profit, many workers have faced terminated pension plans, reduced health-care benefits and rising outsourcing of jobs overseas.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003484268_wagesprofits19.html

<snip> That also has been a theme of some in Congress — Democrats and Republicans — who have railed against trade agreements that they say encourage U.S. companies to move jobs overseas or to use outsourcing as a lever against domestic workers.

"All these companies say the same thing: 'We have to (move overseas) to compete,' " Dorgan said. "It's not about competing — it's about fattening their profits."