Editorials & Other Articles
In reply to the discussion: Why the Economy can't get out of First Gear - Robert Reich [View all]Bill USA
(6,436 posts)the Economic Policy Institute estimated the net job loss due to NAFTA was 682,900 (that's taking into account the jobs gained to meet increased exports due to NAFTA).
go to http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/12statab/labor.pdf and look at Table 586 - Civilian Population - Employment Status 1970 - 2010. to get number of people employed. I used 139,064,000 from 2010.
go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States to get annual income for the 50th percentile for 2000 & 2003. average those to get a figure for average annual income to represent the period 1994 - 2010. That figure is $51,410. This comes to an hourly rate of $24.72 (using 2,080 paid hours per yr).
[font color="white"].....[/font]assume a very high hourly rate of $35 for jobs lost due to NAFTA....
[font color="white"]....[/font]Jobs lost due to NAFTA: 682,900[font color="white"]....[/font] $35.00[font color="white"]....[/font] $23,901,500
[font color="white"]..........................................................................[/font] total
[font color="white"]..........................................................................[/font] employed[font color="white"].................[/font]weighted hrly wage
[font color="white"]....[/font]average hrly wage w/o jobs lost to NAFTA:[font color="white"]......[/font] 139,064,000 [font color="white"]....[/font] $24.72[font color="white"]....[/font] $3,437,153,962
[font color="white"]....[/font] add back jobs lost to NAFTA:[font color="white"]....[/font] [font color="white"]..........................[/font] 682,900[font color="white"]......[/font]$35.00 [font color="white"]........[/font] $23,901,500
[font color="white"].....[/font]average hrly wage with lost jobs added back:[font color="white"]..[/font] 139,746,900 [font color="white"]...[/font] $24.77 [font color="white"]....[/font] $3,461,055,462
The avg hourly wage if the jobs lost to NAFTA had NOT been lost is: $24.77 . THe avg hourly wage with jobs lost to NAFTA is $24.72.
[font color="white"]....[/font]compute % reduction in avg hrly wage:[font color="white"].....[/font] $24.72 / $24.77 - 1 =[font color="white"]...[/font] -0.20%
If you look at average annual income of $51,410 (for 1994 - 2009) that .2% reduction would amount to $104, lowering the annual income to $51,306. That amounts to about $8.69 less pay per month. This change would have a minuscule impact on demand. Certainly, not enough to demand the attention of the Fed.