The airline companies have paid workers for decades at a price negotiated with the workers and unions. There are plenty seaking jobs there knowing the wages. To imply the wages are the reason airline travel has been so low is not completely accurate . It is the price of gasoline which had plummeted and it will cause higher cost as the price goes up. Airline companies are already warning about prices going up because of gasoline cost. They are also eliminating meals on flights and reducing the number of bags checked in without a fee. You could hope workers will have a higher salary but to imply that wages are the reason prices are so without talking about the other causes seems purposely shallow.
1
Since their wages have been down 14% since 1990's, how about giving them the full amount of $19 per hour now. It is wonderful that everyone can fly for no money at all. But the people who do all the work for that to happen have to make enough money to live. If they are to wait for five years to get a living wage how about asking people to pay for their tickets to Paris now and just wait five years for the flight ? Now that sounds fair.
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Consumers don’t know specifically what the price of the ticket goes to, how it is apportioned. Transparency may be the answer.
I don't get something: the NYT Editorial Board supports the Port Authority raising airport workers' minimum wage to $19 per hour. Why not $20?
For that matter, why not $30? $40?
could you please just write how we are unfairly treating fellow humans, you definitely know in almost all articles it's about mention of kids , old humans ,humans whom we sympthaize with .who asked her to have kids
1
Wow, it seems like you just can't shake off that slavery thing over there. I'm sure that if companies could get away with paying nothing they would. They sure don't seem to be ashamed of paying wages that no one can live on.
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“The higher pay can’t come soon enough for Takiah Garrett, a wheelchair agent at Newark Liberty. A single mother with a son starting college and two younger daughters, she needs food stamps and Medicaid to get by, since she earns as little as $250 a week before tips.”
So we have government safety net programs subsidizing airport and airline employers. Another example of big business feeding at the government teat. If we want to control government budgets we’ll need to pay workers enough to get by and not be propped up by government benefits.
10
You know airport workers can pull themselves out of this 'financial nosedive' (ie fleecing by the corporate oligopoly) immediately. They all simply agree to not show up, until wages are increased across the board! Call it a Union, call it direct worker action, call it whatever you want. But if you don't take direct worker action (organize, strike, work slow down), you will continue to be crushed by the oligopoly across the board. Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!
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And, what about pilots of some regional airlines earning less than 25K for a job of supreme responsibility - that of keepimg an aircraft full of people from crashing ... ?
6
Go back to Saint Reagan for the decimation of labor. If the airline unions supported PATCO we just might not be in the mess we are right now where the country is operated by and for the benefit of the one percent. Instead we face huge inequality and a Janus decision because one yacht and a Lear jet isn't enough. Marches and rallies are not enough. This means NON VIOLENT civil disobedience shutting roads airports and industries if we are not willing indentured servitude will be continued. Unfortunately today's airport workers are suffering for the lack of courage on the part of their predecessors. PATCO excluded. They are heros.
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First the airline industry has traditionally been the quickest way to lose a fortune! Short term boom years are followed by busts! How many airline have gone out of business? Pan Am, Eastern, TWA, PSA, Northeast, etc! Second, airlines don't run airports so how are they to blame for airport worker wages? Most US airports are run by local governments or their agencies (MTA).
1
Blame deregulation and union busting for airlines decline.
But save your tears for the underpaid pilots as they had the keys in their pockets all the time but refused to use them. Any day they flew obeying all of the rules would have slowed everything down until they got their way. Now they see their paychecks go down along with everyone else.
1
Workers who are paid so little that they have to use federal and state benefits to feed, cloth and shelter their families are literally being starved so that corporations, and their wealthy stock holders can become richer. The money that helps those families comes directly from your tax dollars. Do you know that your tax dollars are going into the bank accounts of wealthy people. Shouldn't that be illegal? Isn't it already illegal?
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Of course we are on a path to drive wages and benefits to the lowest level possible. How else do you explain Walmart employees using federal benefits to make ends meet, or Uber doling out work at piece rate with no benefits by defining the work as independent contractor?
Or how do you define the reduction for many of productive work years to between 18 and mid 50s, as Pro Publica has demonstrated recently, even as some n Congress ponder pushing retirement back to 70?
Unions have always been necessary to protect workers. But dual issues of corruption and ties to organized crime, and the role they played in funding political campaigns doomed them and now they are gutted.
At some point, it is possible that national leaders realize that aggregating wealth in the hands of the few and leaving the cost of underemployment in the hands of the many is a terrific way to become a banana republic.
But we are chasing China right now in almost all ways except the label of Communism. So don't expect anyone to understand how they are undercutting the fundamental strength of our economy anytime soon.
13
"The higher pay can’t come soon enough for Takiah Garrett, a wheelchair agent at Newark Liberty."
I have had recourse to the wheelchair service at Newark for an elderly relative. I have also had a chance to compare it with service at the other end.
Without exception those at Newark were excellent. I have nothing but praise for them. As the airlines charge passengers for this service they should pay wheelchair agents a decent wage and it would be nice if those using the service, both those in the chair and accompanying relatives would tip higher. They deserve it.
11
If only there were a political party to represent the interests of the working class - to focus on those interests like a laser with unwavering devotion. A party that could not be turned aside by campaign dollars that tell them to change their message. A party that ignored group identity and focused relentlessly on working class interests such as wages, child care, education, retirement security, voting rights, and healthcare.
There may soon be room in the US for such a party.
/sarcasm off
12
Trump, that champion of worker's rights, of bringing jobs back to America, the businessman's (and women's) president will certainly work to increase the wages of the workers as soon as he receives the green light from Fox "News".
1
You said it!
The green light you are waiting for will come from Fox News only when he gets a note from his friend in Moscow.
Everyone deserves the dignity of a living wage. People who work 40 hour jobs should be able to afford food and healthcare without relying on food stamps and Medicaid to get by. People who say they should get training to earn more are missing the point. When you can't even afford the basics how are you supposed to take steps to move up.
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“You could say America is heading toward a poverty-based economy.”
It doesn’t have to be this way. The problem is that we cannot hold the GOP wrecking crew accountable at the ballot box when our vote-counting system has been outsourced to a handful of private, rightwing companies that count our votes in secret using proprietary software.
Jonathan Simon: “The amount of evidence that has been produced says we’re not sure who’s committing this crime but there is a dead body. We have all these elections where you’re getting these results whether you look at exit polls, cumulative vote share analysis, individual anecdotes that we see votes flipping on touchscreen machines, poll watcher reports. All these things are very strongly probative that something significant, targeted, and directional is taking place and there is no interest in taking any further steps in reporting it or investigating it.”
Follow Simon’s interviews at http://codered2014.com/.
Europe Rejects Digital Voting
http://www.newsweek.com/europe-rejects-digital-voting-machines-80085
“One doesn't have to be a conspiracy theorist or a Luddite to understand the fallibility of electronic voting machines. As most PC users by now know, computers have bugs, and can be hacked. We take on this security risk in banking, shopping and e-mailing, but the ballot box must be perfectly sealed. At least that's what European voters seem to be saying. Electronic voting machines do not meet this standard.”
#SayNoToFaithBasedVoting
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The Emmy-Nominated HBO Documentary: Hacking Democracy https://tinyurl.com/y7mydv7z
“America, the world’s greatest democracy and at its heart the vote, the will of the people. But how do you know if the vote is counted correctly and if you don’t know then what have you got, democracy?
“This is the story of a small group of citizens headed by a grandmother from Seattle. They set out on a journey to ask one simple question: How does America count its votes? What they found was secrecy, votes in the trash, and how to change the course of history.”
Bev Harris, founder of Black Box Voting: “When people see what’s really going on there is no way we will allow this to continue.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Was the 2004 Election Stolen? https://tinyurl.com/yc7oa9do
Did an Election Day Lawsuit Stop Karl Rove’s Vote-Rigging Scheme in Ohio? https://tinyurl.com/ycm8hs75
Mark Crispin Miller: Can U.S. Elections Really Be Stolen? Yes. https://tinyurl.com/y96scqlt
“There are some very realistic and feasible solutions to this horrific problem, solutions that other countries have used. We need hand-counted paper ballots, counted out in the open. We need to get rid of computerized voting. We need to get rid of the private interests involved in the system. We need people to be registered automatically on their birthdays. And we need to make Election Day a national holiday. These are certain basic reforms that we can do and that will actually return this country to its people.
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I think it was Stalin who said
"It doesn't matter who votes; what matters is who counts the votes".
He was many things but he was nobody's fool.
1
Stalin:
"It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes."
4
This president and his cohorts are orchestrating the greatest race to the bottom. The voter/supporters of this regime who, according to statistics, tended to be less affluent, less educated, minimally skilled for high paying 21st century jobs and who are concentrated in middle America—- can only look forward to the greatest boom in low-paying jobs. The recent conservative victory in weakening the power of unions further guarantees that for some, it will be more promising to aspire to be on welfare than work for decent livelihood. Trump fans are hardly cognizant of what is really inside the beribboned, packaged promise of “making America great again.” The current paucity in the understanding of the real consequences of policies that may be good for businessmen and highly paid managers but not for the rank and file employees is an indictment on how poorly the Democrats are educating the country on the consequences of this administration’s policies. Stop spending money, time, ink and political capital on Stormy or Melania. Trump supporters are now looking beyond his obvious moral warts. Concentrate on the do or die issues for the common man. Many reputable newspapers are doing a great job fleshing out the issues and consequences. Trump
opposition would do well to borrow from the Trump playbook. But this time around, deal only with the truth... and keep the messages short and catchy.
18
What makes me furious about this situation is that millions of people who are not paid adequately by their employers and have no benefits have to depend on food stamps and medicaid. I don't begrudge those programs for the workers at all. What makes me crazy is that we taxpayers are subsidizing multi-billion dollar businesses because of their stinginess and greed. The big shots make loads of money and have Cadillac benefits. If they weren't so greedy they could pay their workers adequate pay with benefits and not necessarily raise the prices of the goods they produce. Even if they had to raise them a little, people making decent wages could afford to buy them. Just ask Henry Ford.
40
Why are employees lifestyle choices the responsibility of either the taxpayer or their employer. When your job pays minimum wage, you need to live a minimum wage life. The bottom line is that if you’re working for Walmart, you should be single and maintain austere spending habits.
3
No, the problem is the number of employers that don’t pay a living wage or provide benefits such as health care, both of which were once standard. If they did, people who work hard could support themselves and a family.
1
Right on Felix. And the solution is simple go back to Eisenhower tax rates which will deal with the income inequality driving the problem
1
This gets at a problem I don't understand.
Why do we think it is a sustainable practice to compensate human beings for their labor with less than it requires to keep a human being alive?
If you want to fly on a plane, and you need a person to service the thing, why wouldn't you expect to compensate that person enough to live?
21
David, the cost of flying, even with discount fares, is still too high for many people. Airlines and airports could pay people more, especially at the lower wage tiers. But I suspect this will raise fares differentially to increasing family incomes, and fewer people can fly.
David,
That argument seems similar to one a large southern landowner might have made in the 1850's. Where is the bottom?
Although liberals refuse to acknowledge the obvious, the cost of living and the value of ones labor are different and unrelated equations.
It really doesn't matter what the number is. The NYTimes Editorial Board seems to believe you can pay median wages (50th percentile) to the people in the 25th percentile and that's going to change anything (vs. be a wash since everyone's making more, which is pretty much inflation).
$15 minimum becomes $20 becomes $25 and the entry level jobs go right back to Mexico and China (for anyone over the table...so then we hear about all the crazy things in the shadow economy).
If you want to raise wages, help people build skills and enhance productivity. That's the way those jobs stay here and the economic ladder is available for those who want to climb it.
2
This idea doesn't work because we don't need all workers to do jobs that require high skills. We need many workers to do jobs that require basic skills as well.
Ask yourself, what coercion would it require for YOU to work all day for less than the cost of life necessities?
That coercion applied to other human beings is built into almost every product you use and service you enjoy.
It's a house built on a foundation of sand.
21
The jobs highlighted in the article are service jobs at airports. Hardly jobs that can be exported to Mexico or China.
Someone has to clean airplanes and offices, and until robots can do this (which is coming), don't these people deserve a living wage? Are you happy with tax dollars paying for their food stamps and Medicaid?
20
VG is correct, in terms of is what is generally taught by economists: the wage is equal to the marginal revenue product.
Nonetheless, his point is wrong. First, even though economists would like to whistle past it, "capital" is known not to be a measurable factor of production paid its marginal revenue product. Nor is "labor" an undifferentiated factor measured by time. Believe it or not, people are people and their roles in a firm's productivity are complicated.
Second, there are monopoly rents, which are becoming more and important in the U.S. economy.
And third, there is simple theft: asset stripping, income skimming, and wage theft.
Thank goodness The NY Times Editorial Board is moving from the old-think of "high employment" to the new-think of "fair compensation."
3