2008-12-15, 02:52 PM
Sn1perJohnE Wrote:The average wage (pay+value of health coverage, etc) of American auto workers was around $75+ dollars an hour, while the domestic (within the US) makers of Japanese cars make around 35+ dollars an hour. While it may seem that that is good, both the quality and the profit margins for the cars were far better with the Japanese cars than the American cars dragged and mainly made profits on large SUVs and Trucks (whose sales were tanked due to very high gas prices).
The actual cost. It breaks down like this.
The average wage of an US auto worker is $55, which is pay + benefits. They only take home $40 an hour and $15 an hour for benefits. The other $15 of the $70 is the retiree cost, divided by the number of current workers, then divided by an hour. So the retiree cost is $15 an hour per current employee.
The average Toyato employee gets $45 an hour from pay and benefits (They have less generous benefits). Toyota's US plants are relatively new that they do not have the amount of retirees as the big 3. So in the end, the big 3 and foreign automakers employees make about the same amount of money.