Current Events > Forget about broad-based pay hikes, executives say

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https://www.axios.com/broad-based-pay-rises-retraining-automation-executives-3e68d31c-51bc-4bde-a362-7ce12b039e7c.html

Very few Americans have enjoyed steadily rising pay beyond inflation over the last couple of decades, a shift from prior years in which the working and middle classes enjoyed broad-based wage gains as the economy expanded.

Why it matters: Now, executives of big U.S. companies suggest that the days of most people getting a pay raise are over, and that they also plan to reduce their work forces further.

Quick take: This was rare, candid and bracing talk from executives atop corporate America, made at a conference Thursday at the Dallas Fed. The message is that Americans should stop waiting for across-the-board pay hikes coinciding with higher corporate profit; to cash in, workers will need to shift to higher-skilled jobs that command more income.

Troy Taylor, CEO of the Coke franchise for Florida, said he is currently adding employees with the idea of later reducing the staff over time "as we invest in automation." Those being hired: technically-skilled people. "It's highly technical just being a driver," he said.

The moderator asked the panel whether there would be broad-based wage gains again. "It's just not going to happen," Taylor said. The gains would go mostly to technically-skilled employees, he said. As for a general raise? "Absolutely not in my business," he said.

John Stephens, chief financial officer at AT&T, said 20% of the company's employees are call-center workers. He said he doesn't need that many. In addition, he added, "I don't need that many guys to install coaxial cables."

Because of the changes coming, AT&T is pushing employees to take nano-degree programs to prepare them for other jobs either at AT&T or elsewhere.

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so much winning
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Wow...
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We shouldnt worry about automation though. Bootstraps.
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ultumately, unions exist to prevent workers from going to their boss' house and beating him to death in front of his family.

for this guy's...

well, not for his own sake. but if he has a kid, maybe for the kid's sake...

I hope he realizes this
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Better save your money and hope the stock market goes up. Also society would rather you eat out of a dumpster than live with your parents.

Corporations are the new King George and Jefferson Davis. We are all sons of Washington and John Brown.
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Kill your masters

Bet they'll pay themselves raises though.
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What can you do when the companies themselves say this? How can you make a fair or even a good law that makes companies increase wages?

Like it's one thing to make these giant corporations increase wages, but it would be terrible for small businesses.
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Capitalism babay!!
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It's sad how America let these companies have so much power and influence.
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Damn_Underscore posted...

What can you do when the companies themselves say this? How can you make a fair or even a good law that makes companies increase wages?

the workers outnumber the boss. you tell me.

Like it's one thing to make these giant corporations increase wages, but it would be terrible for small businesses.

if you can't afford to pay workers enough to live on, your business deserves to go under.
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Most people that this would affect make more than enough to live on.
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I'd say a robot tax may not be a bad idea, to maybe help finance UBI
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Antifar posted...

The gains would go mostly to technically-skilled employees

Antifar posted...

AT&T is pushing employees to take nano-degree programs to prepare them for other jobs

So basically get some valuable skills if you're at risk of automation.
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SK8T3R215 posted...

So basically get some valuable skills if you're at risk of automation.

this is a systemic problem that you are reducing to an individual one. individuals getting "some valuable skills" will not solve the problem
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The problem is that we are apparently moving toward automation, and at that time many jobs will just go away and there will have to be UBI.

But if you want to avoid that (for as long as possible anyway), then get more skills.

So it's a systematic and an individual problem.
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Damn_Underscore posted...

get more skills

lol having skills doesn't mean you'll get hired. There's a shortage of 50,000 truck drivers but if you applied for a truck driving job they wouldn't hire you they say you don't have experience or you answered a question wrong at the interview. You pretend there's an answer for everyone to have a good life but when that guy made a topic a few days ago about his ibs causing him to have to sit on the toilet for 5 hours a day no even responded.

clearaflagrantj posted...

Kill your masters

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