Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Ford wages average $8/hour higher than non-union and foreign rivals

In the run up to the next round of negotiations between Ford and the United Auto Workers, the automaker has said it pays workers an average of $8 more per hour than its foreign and non-union rivals. By and large, foreign automakers with U.S. factories employ non-union labor, which helps keep labor costs reigned in.

According to the Blue Oval, its cost of labor has risen to $58/hour, while its competitors average $50/hour. The wage gap has persisted even after Ford negotiated concessions with the UAW that cut labor costs by $500 million in 2009.

Ford says it will be impossible to sustain a competitive business if it can't close the gap. Worse, Dearborn says the differential could eventually prevent the creation of new jobs. The company's $58/hour wage rate is a three-dollar hike over last year, thanks in large part to $5,000 profit sharing checks Ford cut each of its workers this year.

According to a company spokesperson, its wage rate would be closer to $56/hour without the profit sharing initiative.

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/09/f...d-foreign-riv/

Kymber317

That's a lot of money per hour.

I8ABMR

I'm sorry but auto workers are paid way way to much. $58/hr ,even with benefits ,is to much to pay a person to do a job that a trained monkey or a teenager can do.

spwolf

i think this included pension plans for old workers, which is probably largest part of the costs.

SaintNexus

Ok, where can I apply?

$50 an hour for hard labor? I'm all for it!

Beats doing security which is standing around and doing absolutely nothing.

Squirrelz

That's inflated pay. Probably includes pensions, benefits, union costs, and finally their pay.

mmarshall

Building and assembling cars today is not chimp-level work. 30-40 years ago, a lot of things were screwed, welded, and bolted on by hand....and it showed in sloppy construction, loose-tolerances, and, sometimes, repetitive-motion injuries to the workers. Those days are gone. Today's cars, especially those from Honda/Acura and Lexus, are built to laser-like tolerances, often using precision machinery. Other manufacturers, notably Ford and Kia/Hyundai, also assemble cars with far greater precision than decades ago.

J.P.

They are also many skill tradesman that can do things with their hands that some doctors wouldn’t be able to do in 40 years. But some jobs are mindless, no need to pay a material handler $25\hour as an example……….

mmarshall

I'm all for retired worker-pensions and health-insurance, especially for those who give 8 or more hours a day, for many years, to their company or organization. Too many people who don't get pensions or other good retirement packages end up depending on government-sponsored entitlement-programs that throw an added load on the taxpayers....and auto workers, of course, like most other people, also pay taxes.

It should also be pointed out that the more workers make on the job, pension or not, the more they can save up for their own retirement and not have to fall back on the taxpayer.

IS-SV

I wonder what percentage uplift is in that fully-loaded hourly rate, (to put things into perspective)....

spwolf

yes... i believe year ago article mentioned that pay is only half of the cost, which brings it down to more realistic $20-$25

mmarshall

You bring up an interesting point....perhaps these skilled tradespersons themelves are not being paid as much as they are really worth.

Och

iTrader: (3)

The cost of labor of $58 is not what the workers are paid. Its probably around $20 per hour salary for the worker, about $16 union stamps, and the rest is company's share of taxes and workers comp/liability insurance costs.

Companies with $8 lesses cost could actually be paying higher wages, but they don't pay union fees.

LexFather

Wow. You probably shouldn't read about European auto workers then.

Trained monkey's and teenagers can build a car. Got it.

jadu

iTrader: (42)

Are they including R&D and engineering in these costs? I'd really like to see the break down.. code/firmware aint cheap especially with all the microcontrollers on todays cars and not to mention myford sync (name?) system