Wall Street Journal (February 20)
“Wal-Mart’s decision proves that the best way to raise wages is with faster economic growth that creates more demand for labor. Workers can move to better opportunities as more emerge, and their current employers may conclude they have to pay more to keep them.” Wal-Mart will significantly exceed the current U.S. minimum wage of $7.25 when it raises its hourly wage to $9 or more by April and to at least $10 in 2016.
Tags: Demand, Economic growth, Labor, Opportunities, U.S., Wages, Wal-Mart, Workers
Financial Times (February 19)
“The best news on Japan’s economy is coming from the jobs market, where there are signs of labour shortages, and organic pressure for higher wages.” The real test of “whether Abenomics is working” will come from the annual “shunto” labour talks. “If wage growth is not higher than last year it will be a worrying sign.”
New York Times (February 2)
“Modest growth has never been enough to overcome the damage of the Great Recession and, from there, to reach new levels in terms of output, employment and wages.” Unfortunately, the U.S. is still stuck with modest growth. “For all the talk about accelerating growth, the economy grew last year at a rate of 2.4 percent, basically in line with growth over the past several years.”
Tags: Economy, Employment, Great Recession, Growth, Output, U.S., Wages
Wall Street Journal (January 26)
While the Greeks are likely to remain in the eurozone, “the Syriza victory is nonetheless a rebuke to European leaders. Greeks believe, not unreasonably, that the conditions imposed by the troika have been disastrous.” Rather than “promoting pro-growth reforms,” the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund imposed measures focused on “draconian fiscal tightening.” The result was predictable: “falling wages and pensions and rising taxes, with no growth in return for the pain.”
Tags: Draconian, ECB, European Commission, European leaders, eurozone, Fiscal tightening, Greek, Growth, IMF, Pensions, Reforms, Syriza, Taxes, Victory, Wages
Financial Times (January 13)
“Watch Japan” in the next year to find out more about the inevitability of Larry Summer’s secular stagnation thesis. “Virtually all western economies have seen wages stagnate or fall in recent years.” If Japan, “the world champion of secular stagnation,” succeeds in raising household incomes, this will present the hope that other developed nations can also escape the grip of secular stagnation.
The Economist (August 9)
Abenomics may be working at the top, but it’s not trickling down to “folk who do not own bundles of shares or a flat in Tokyo’s trendy Daikanyama neighbourhood…. The mantra of Mr Abe and his advisers has been that a virtuous circle would come about whereby wages would rise and lift consumer spending, which in turn would boost investment by companies. Bingo: Japan would emerge from deflation. That is not happening and it is a conundrum.”
Tags: Abe, Abenomics, Advisers, Consumer spending, Daikanyama, Deflation, Investment, Japan, Shares, Tokyo, Trickle down, Wages
Investment Week (May 19)
At just 3.6%, Japan’s unemployment rate is extremely low and this should promote inflation. “Labour shortages have already driven wages higher for part-time workers. Adding to this, the demand to provide new infrastructure for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and the need to replace equipment should also serve to further stimulate the economy.” The OECD has forecast that “only Japan, New Zealand, and Israel are expected to grow faster than their previously forecasted GDPs in 2014.”
Tags: 2020 Olympics, Economy, Equipment, GDP, Inflation, Infrastructure, Israel, Japan, Labor, New Zealand, OECD, Shortage, Tokyo, Unemployment rate, Wages, Workers
Wall Street Journal (March 2)
“The fundamental economic issue facing America” is not headline-grabbing income inequality, but rather “jobs—their scarcity and the quality of those that people manage to find.” When the marginally employed are included, the real unemployment rate is closer to 13% and part-time jobs now account for 18% of the workforce. “Job losses in the low-wage and minimum-wage category is the critical issue of our day: Too many of the poor are not working full time or at all.”
Tags: Full-time, Income inequality, Job losses, Jobs, Minimum wage, Poor, Quality, Scarcity, U.S., Unemployment, Wages, Work, Workforce
Financial Times (November 11, 2013)
“Japan’s inflationary momentum remains worryingly sluggish. The recent acceleration in prices is the result of surging energy costs, not of domestically generated inflation. Regular wages–excluding overtime and bonuses–fell for a 16th consecutive month in September…. The government must be ready to take more of an activist line to secure its objective.… The government should also be much bolder in its structural reform agenda, aimed at stimulating the rate of long-term growth.”
Tags: Bonuses, Energy costs, Government, Growth, Inflation, Japan, Momentum, Overtime, Sluggish, Structural reform, Wages
New York Times (September 1)
“In the decade from 2002 to 2012, wages have stagnated or declined for the entire bottom 70 percent of the wage ladder.” Last Thursday “thousands of fast-food workers in 60 cities walked off their jobs, the latest in an escalating series of walkouts by low-wage workers demanding higher pay and the right to organize without retaliation.” The workers are seeking $15 an hour, up from their present $9. In demanding more reasonable wages, “the fast-food strikers have it right.”“In the decade from 2002 to 2012, wages have stagnated or declined for the entire bottom 70 percent of the wage ladder.” Last Thursday “thousands of fast-food workers in 60 cities walked off their jobs, the latest in an escalating series of walkouts by low-wage workers demanding higher pay and the right to organize without retaliation.” The workers are seeking $15 an hour, up from their present $9. In demanding more reasonable wages, “the fast-food strikers have it right.”
