Does the present healthcare system keep wages lower ??

[kentuck]

There was a report last week that wages for the last year had the slowest growth in history. What part does healthcare play in keeping wages low?

There are many people in jobs at the present time who never look for a better job because they have insurance through their present employer and they fear they may not get any coverage if they change jobs. The employers are wise to the power they hold over their employees, in regards to healthcare. At the same time, they get a tax write-off for most of their costs. The employee sinks further and further behind.

The present system prevents a mobility of the workforce that is healthy for competition. So the wages become stagnant. Employers know that if employees could move their health coverage from one employer to another, they would lose a lot of power they presently have over their employees. Also, it would create a demand for higher wages. They do not want that.

[madville]

1. My employer pays $600 a month for my health insurance

So that works out to about $4 an hour on top of my pay that it costs him to provide me with decent health insurance. The premiums went up 30% in January so I guess it's kind of like I got a $1 an hour raise right? Yeah right

[stray cat]

3. thats actually cheap! Usually its 10-20,000

I'm really glad my employer pays it instead of me paying the bulk of it. The GOP wants to get rid of employer health care to help corporations and market competition. I don't want to pay an extra 15,000 per year.

[madville]

4. For 20 employees he pays around $140,000 a year

That's just for individual coverage on the employee. If they want family coverage the employee covers the extra premium.

[global1]

5. I'm Not Sure You Are Right About The GOP Wanting To Get Rid Of......

employer health care to help corporations and market competition. If so - why are they fighting Obama?

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. I have had had a real, constant-dollar,

after tax increase in my net of about $85 over a decade.

The gross, thanks to the wonders of collective bargaining, keeps going up, but any raises are immediately absorbed by increases in the employee pay-in for health insurance (I've got 80-20 employer-employee).

[deaniac21]

6. How much does the collective bargaining cost?

[Catshrink]

8. Wonder how the insurance company executive salaries have

fared over the past decade. My guess is that they've increased a bit more than $85 -- ten times, that? Hundred times? Thousand times? More than that?

[madokie]

7. I'm sure it does

[Greyhound]

9. It is one factor, yes.

The whole idea of employer based health care was an aberration of a short-term employee shortage in the boom years. Many employers needed to reserve cash for the continuous expansion of production facilities but had to find a way to attract new employees.Health insurance was cheap and had certain tax/accounting advantages.

Now it has become SOP and a huge burden on domestic companies, especially small businesses. But I forgot, we hate small business, we only care about huge corporations.

[Captain Hilts]

10. YES. Because healthcare is an unfair tax on business. nt