At 6:12 PM 8/30/96, Michael Perelman wrote: >Doug, then higher health care costs will make Clinton look good ??? >Don't they add to the ECI? They would, but for the last year or two, fringe benefit growth in the U.S. has actually lagged direct pay, because fewer workers enjoy bennies, and those who do are enjoying fewer. So it used to be that folks who were trying to refute the declining real wage argument focussed on the ECI and similar measures of total compensation. Not any more. But along those lines, publicists who want to deny that a vast wedge has opened up between pay and productivity say that it's wrong to use the CPI to deflate the wage - that if you use total compensation rather than direct pay (at least until the last year or two) and deflate the wage by the same deflator as you use for output, then, voila, the wedge narrows considerably. This is good news, especially for workers who have a large capital goods component in their market baskets. Doug -- Doug Henwood Left Business Observer 250 W 85 St New York NY 10024-3217 USA +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html>
