Auto Industry Compensation Highest in Manufacturing Sector

When you hear about problems with the American automobile industry, it’s important to remember that any layoffs are not simply layoffs, they represent the loss of jobs in one of the highest-paying manufacturing industries in the U.S.

Compensation costs for auto workers were among the highest of any manufacturing industry in 2009.  This continued to be true even when you consider the fact that in recent years, auto workers have been getting paid less than before.  In real terms, private auto industry compensation costs have been falling since 2004.

Compensation costs can be broken into two categories: wages and benefits. In the auto industry, upward pressure on wage costs have been offset by downward pressure on benefit costs. In both real and nominal terms, benefit costs have been falling for auto manufacturers in recent years (except from 2007 to 2008), while benefit costs have been steady for other private industry manufacturers.

In other words, even as industry continues to ship jobs overseas, the once thriving American auto industry that was relatively recently saved by a government bail out, has been paying working men and women less and less each year since 2004.