Bush Ignores Wage Crisis Hitting Middle Class
Over the last month, the Bush administration has cited recent jobs numbers to claim that average workers’ paychecks are increasing. Vice President Cheney said, “real incomes and wages are growing.” But as new studies show, wages have actually decreased for the average worker, even as corporate profits and CEO pay have exploded.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, while corporate profits have risen by more than 62%, workers’ take home pay has dropped by .6%. This follows an earlier report which shows that industries currently adding jobs pay 21% less than industries that are slashing jobs. Despite this wage crisis, President Bush is pushing to cut off an estimated 8 million workers from overtime pay protections, and supports efforts to outsource even more well-paid American jobs. Meanwhile, he refuses to raise the minimum wage, despite new research showing a minimum wage hike would not adversely affect businesses or consumers.
The story, of course, is different for the president’s wealthy campaign donors. A recent study shows CEO pay exploded by 27% in just one year, all while the President lavished more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks on the richest 1% of the population. To put the contrast into dollars, the average worker takes home $517 a week and will receive about $400 in tax breaks from President Bush. At the same time, the average CEO takes home $155,769 a week and this year alone received well over $50,000 in new tax breaks from Bush.
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