Gasoline costs will wipe out raises, study says (in 2006)

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05283/586109.stm

Brace yourself -- this is going to hurt.

Workers can expect an average pay raise of about 3.7 percent his year, but because of sky-high gasoline prices, they'll pour all but a smidgen of that extra cash down the gas tank commuting to work according to an analysis by Salary.com.

Calculating the toll of higher gas prices in 88 cities nationwide, the Needham, Mass., compensation software and data firm found that workers making the average annual salary of just above $40,000 last month were spending 3.3 percent of their paychecks gassing up for work.

The costliest city was Brownsville, Texas, where drivers burned through 4.6 percent of their pay on gas. Motorists there get clipped by some of the highest pump prices in the country coupled with above average commute times.

Rochester, N.Y., ranked second highest at 4.5 percent, followed by Honolulu and Riverside, Calif., both at 4.4 percent, and Albany, N.Y., at 4.3 percent.

Raises have been pretty much non-existant over the past 5 years.

that we will be seeing too ...

Still better than being murdered by Bush like many of the poor Iraqi people. Amazing how one man can cause so much suffering.

That .40 cents we got?Long spent.

If we can't afford much besides fuel, prices on other goods will have to stay low. (Inflation is too many dollars competing for too few goods, since people have enough money to pay more for things.)

People who already have plenty of money can buy more since prices stay low on non-fuel items.

:(

And the co-pay on our health insurance will probably go up, too! :mad:

to open up Health Savings Accounts where you save your own money and pay your own health related bills. All of the money is taken out pre-tax and put into an investment account.

They are high deductible plans.

More and more people will see HSAs as an option during this year's open enrollment period.

for 2006. Dental is going up 7%. Raises are practically non-existant (1-2%). Each year I am taking home less than I was the year before.

climbing, insurance costs up, food costs up, and gasoline, electricity, and heating costs going through the roof. And the DEMOCRATS can't come up with a way to reach out to all those in the same situation as me? This should be a slam dunk, where is FDR?

and his commuting costs have gone from less than $200 a month for gas...to OVER $400 a month

...just like it has for each of the last five years, gas is double what I paid two years ago, real estate and rental prices in our area have reached new peaks of unaffordability, and the country is drowning in debt.

I work for a good, generous employer, but he's not going to give the 10-15% raise I need to keep even.

:sarcasm:

:sarcasm:

My raise (3%) goes to pay what it costs in gas to drive to work. It does not cover the increase in everything else.

disability than working..i get only 60% but the gasoline is about 30%..need less to say i make no where near a living wage

Top Performer earns 3% at my husband's company :(
Better than a pay cut, I guess.

last one was about 4 or 5 years ago, about 2% if I recall. Just after our bonus checks were cut by a third. So, at this rate I should actually earn more... never. :(

Didn't that go away with paid benefit packages, somewhere around, oh let's see, right after Bush became prez.

What raise?

Hubby's disability will be more than my "salary", which is constantly being cut back. So I am quitting in Dec., and rejoining the underground economy while I write my Master's thesis.

Nothing like doubling my hourly salary by teaching piano lessons. Great commute- a walk across the room to my studio. Sure saves gas. And I will be able to take care of Hubby after his surgery (tomorrow).

I started my current job in 2000 with a substantial increase in pay.

Then the bottom fell out and I survived every RIF we had. I think there were 4 in 3 years.

Then they increased my hours, but not my pay. Effectively, a 6% pay cut.

This year I finally got a raise and was hoping for a decent sized one next year to pull me past the 6% zap I already took but now the gas prices have just crushed any advantage I would have gained next year.

Thanks George!

My last raise was on Jan 1, 2000. Never a bonus, during the raygun and king george the Ist regimes I got a grand total of 6.6% for 12 years. Workers need to realize what's goin on

Third time out of the last four years. 100k+ people.

Our leadership donated millions to the GOP in the last four years.

...going up as well as gas/heating oil...they're gouging us from all sides. Kick 'em when they're down is apparently the motto.

going up so much, and with winter coming on, not only is this going to hurt people across the board, but once again, the poor really take it in the neck.

They are the ones most likely to live in houses or apartments that are poorly insulated. Apartments and houses in the low-rent district often are poorly insulated.

the entire Rio Grande Valley seems to have gas at least 20 cents more per gallon than Corpus Christi and even 30 cents more than San Antonio. Gas in Corpus Christi is usually some of the cheapest in Texas, if not the country.

Last Thursday, Regular in the RGV was 2.99 almost everywhere. I was able to find it for 2.85 in Mission (west of McAllen). I got to Corpus Christi later in the day and Regular was 2.79. In San Antonio last Saturday, there were a few places with 2.65 Regular.

$.35

Yeppers, a whopping thirty-five cents.
Health insurance premiums are going up 10% and Vision, 6% (Dental, none, yay...I am sooooo impressed.)

And in the meantime, the reThug fatcat that owns the business has gone from a personal fortune of 2.5 million when I first started working for him, to over a 1.5 billion.

reality that the polarization of wealth is being achieved by the precise mechanism you just described.

money to attract top EXECUTIVES" and on the flip side, when talking about the peons, "Money is not a lasting incentive." And yet they are always complaining about the 'quality' of the labor force.
Hel-LO....
When you are paying McWages, you get McWorkers.

rarely, if ever, have any correlation to the company's performance during that executive's reign.

Below average I see.

Gasoline has doubled in price, I've seen groceries go way up, Nat. Gas has doubled in price (Hellooooo Heating Season!)
My employer has jumped what they charge the employees to park from $90 to $170 (it goes over $200 next year)...

And I got a huge, fat, mind-blowing 2% raise this year....

But wait! We forgot to factor in INFLATION (just because Alan Pondscum says it isn't so doesn't make it so.)
Go here and print this out when you go to the store this week....
http://www.justicefornone.com/handbills/greed3.htm

:(

Hey, wait...that means we'll be in the hole!

Now THERE'S a waste of money on a survey.

The transportation fuel/heating fuel/food cost trifecta is going to cause a huge crunch this winter. Retailers are not going to enjoy good business this holiday season; food and heat trump iPods with most consumers. Add to that, the housing bubble may not have popped but the air has begun to hiss out. The damage to the Gulf region oil production and refining will not be overcome by the latest lie from Saudi Aramco of increased production, nor by the energy bill just passed giving "incentives" to energy companies to build more refineries.

Should be very interesting by next Spring, to say the least.

Actually, I'll be robbing from Peter to pay Paul. This administration is just so out of touch with reality it's astounding.

Common sense and basic arithmetic told me I was fucked.

I was certain that rising health insurance premiums would wipe out any raise I might receive this year. How relieved I was to read that it will be rising gasoline prices instead!

where all the jobs went.

There doesn't appear to be any raises here in America.