Q: Do Auto Workers Really Make More Than $70/hr? A: No

clipped from www.factcheck.org The problem is, that's just not true. The automakers say that the average wage earned by its unionized workers is about $29 per hour. So how does that climb to more than $70? Add in benefits: life insurance, health care, pension and so on. But not just the benefits that the current workers actually receive – after all, it's pretty rare for the value of a benefits package to add up to more than wages paid, even with a really, really good health plan in place. What's causing the number to balloon is the cost of providing benefits to tens of thousands of retired auto workers and their surviving spouses. The automakers arrived at the $70+ figure by adding up all the costs associated with providing wages and benefits to current and retired workers and dividing the total by the number of hours worked by current employees. A final note on all this: Labor costs only account for about 10 percent of the cost of producing a vehicle.

A lot of people who really should know better have been repeating this BS and the lazy media who'd rather pull talking points off a fax than pick up a phone are guilty as well.

As always, we're supposed to believe the problem is the workers, not the executives -- since executives are perfect and angelic beings sent by the Almighty shower we poor slobs with their largess and wisdom. All the while, of course, getting paid completely insane amounts of money to do so.