The Heritage Foundation has updated its
report on this to explicitly state that the labor cost does not include the costs to current retirees. FactCheck states:
What's causing the number to balloon is the cost of providing benefits to tens of thousands of retired auto workers and their surviving spouses. The new Heritage report is explicitly denying this. It lists the costs as:
The remaining $33.58 an hour of hourly labor costs that GM reports--46 percent of total compensation--was paid as benefits. These benefits include<5>:
Hospital, surgical, and prescription drug benefits;
Dental and vision benefits;
Group life insurance;
Disability benefits;
Supplemental Unemployment Benefits (SUB);
Pension payments to workers pensions accounts to be paid out at retirement;
Unemployment compensation; and
Payroll taxes (employer's share).
Now, clearly, labor costs for Totota, Nissan, etc in the US also include most of these costs. I did not read the original heritage report, but I have a hunch what they did is recomputed this adding in the cost of Unemployment Ins, Diability Benefits, etc to make it look like their original number didn't include the costs to retirees.
It's important to have the numbers correct in order to refute pukes in an argument. Again, most of the costs they now cite to bring the number aboev $70/hour are also paid by non-union shops. Unless the argument is now that workers should not be paid medical benefits. I want them to make that argument - it's a clear loser. It's also worth noting that they are raising the hourly wage by adding in overtime and shift differential. Once again, let them make the argument that workers should not earn overtime or shift differential - it's a loser.
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