Based on this data , I am thinking that the good life starts the day one gets a job as an employee of your local Labor Union and in fact those overpaid financial sector people might want to change jobs!
This table, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows the changes in the wages in three sectors: the private sector, the Labor Union industry and the financial industry. According to the BLS, the Labor Union industry “comprises establishments primarily engaged in promoting the interests of organized labor and union employees.” That’s basically all the guys who work in a Union. The financial industry is “The Finance and Insurance sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in financial transactions (transactions involving the creation, liquidation, or change in ownership of financial assets) and/or in facilitating financial transactions.” So the Goldman Sacks, AIG and others.
As one can see clearly here since the beginning of the recession, private sector employees have seen their wages grown by 3.3 percent (roughly the rate of inflation.) The financial sector employees have been slightly better off with wages growing at a 4.1 percent rate.
Meanwhile, wages in the labor unions have continued to increase. And not by 5 percent or 7 percent but by over 24.9 percent!!!
So now, i am left to wonder, shouldn’t the pay Czar (also known as the TARP Special Master) be looking at the Labor Union Industry rather then the financial industry?
Here is some more Union data:
Labor Union industry Employment (again that’s the people who work directly for a Union) decreased by 1.7 thousand workers since January of 2010 (or 1.3%). Compare this to a decrease of 7.4% in employment in the private sector during that same period.
For the first time in our history, more public sector employees (7.9 million) belonged to a union than did private sector employees (7.4 million), despite there being 5 times more wage and salary workers in the private sector.
Geez, this might explain this equation:
well-paid union employees + the more unionized public sector employees than private sector employees = this