Merit Pay = Attack on the Right to Work?

Friday 10 August 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

So says the SEIU anyways. The Daily Caller:

Unbeknownst to most people, explicit wage caps are already in place for nearly 8 million unionized, middle-class workers — nearly all union contracts set both a wage floor and ceiling. Looking to eliminate artificial wage caps, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) introduced the RAISE Act, legislation which would keep in place the union-negotiated minimum wage but eliminate the maximum wage.

It is currently illegal for an employer to give a unionized employee a bonus, which is a shame, since unionized businesses often want to reward their hardest working employees. While a pat on the back is nice, more money is better. Businesses know the benefits of performance pay; linking worker compensation to both effort and output leads to a more satisfied workforce and can increase both wages and profits — everybody wins. Quantitatively, passing the RAISE Act or instituting merit pay would increase workers’ salaries by $2,700 to $4,500 a year, according to a recent Heritage Foundation study.

At a recent Education and Workforce hearing, the Hudson Institute’s chief economist, Dr. Tim Kane, explained that, “the legislation has no potential to hurt jobs or wages.” Dr. Kane then estimates that “the RAISE Act will generate an average raise of 10 percent to union workers in response to new productivity gains based on new incentives.”

Listening to the union response to the RAISE Act, you would think Congressional Republicans were proposing radical legislation that allows workers to decide whether or not they want to join a union — you know, crazy ideas that come from strange places like Wisconsin. While admitting that the RAISE Act would “allow employers to grant wage increases unilaterally to workers of their choosing,” Teamsters President James Hoffa comes to the conclusion that the legislation is part of a secret Republican plan to “end collective bargaining.”

SEIU President Mary Kay Henry warns that allowing employers to pay their workers more is “a federal attack on your rights at work.” So why are unions opposed to legislation that would allow 7.6 million middle-income workers to make more money?

Anyone who belives that unions are in

2012-08-10  »  madlibertarianguy