If you've been following the auto industry's crisis, then you've probably read or heard a lot about overpaid American autoworkers--in particular, the fact that the average hourly employee of the Big Three makes $70 per hour.
That's
an awful lot of money. Seventy dollars an hour in wages works out to
almost $150,000 a year in gross income, if you assume a forty-hour work
week. Is it any wonder the Big Three are in trouble? And with auto
workers making so much, why should taxpayers--many of whom make far
less--finance a plan to bail them out?
Well, here's one reason: The figure is wildly misleading.
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--Jonathan Cohn