by Harry Goldstein Published May 5, 1997 Previous columns by Harry Goldstein	We labor under a seemingly straightforward assumption about work and wages that determines the quality of our working lives. It seems pretty simple: an organization buys our labor for $X. In return, we perform the tasks assigned to the satisfaction of the organization. Wrong. An organization does not buy your LABOR. An organization buys your TIME. One significant fact about time has been graphically illustrated over the last couple of decades: some people's time is disproportionately more valuable — unbelievably more valuable — than most people's time. According to a study recently published by the Economic Policy Institute, The State of Working America 1996-1997, the time most of us put in at work has risen dramatically over the past 20 years while our wages have remained relatively stagnant: "Since 1979, few groups in the labor force have been able to enjoy even the modest growth in the "average wage" because of the large and continuing growth of wage inequality: high-wage workers received real wage gains while the remainder of the wage structure fell." That's like saying Hitler had a mean streak, especially when we look at executive compensation growth, specifically that of CEOs. American corporations have reaped record profits during the stock market's recent bull run and they have rewarded their CEOs accordingly, mostly with stock options and other benefits. Business Week's special report on executive pay (April 21, 1997) is enough to make any working stiff puke: "The average salary and bonus for a chief executive [in 1996] rose a phenomenal 39%, to $2.3 million. Add to that retirement benefits, incentive plans, and gains from stock options, and the numbers hit the roof. CEOs average total compensation last year rose an astounding 54% last year, to $5,781,300. That largesse came on top of a 30% rise in total pay in 1995 — yet it was hardly spread down the line. The average compensation of the top dog was 209 times that of a factory employee, who garnered a tiny 3% raise in 1996. White-collar workers eked out just 3.2%, though many now get options too."
One CEO's salary was equal to an hourly wage of $11,663.14 per hour LIVED during the year.	Remembering the assumption under which most organizations operate — that they buy our time as opposed to our labor — let's take a look at the most highly compensated chief executive in Business Week's survey and crunch some numbers to see what his hourly wage was in 1996 if he pulled an all nighter 365 days a year, toiling without a break. Lawrence Coss of Green Tree Financial in St. Paul, Minn. pulled down a mind-bending $102,449,000 last year. If he worked all 8760 hours — whoops, gotta add in that extra leap year day, 8784 hours — his hourly wage would be a staggering $11,663.14 per hour lived. Per hour worked, and let's give Mr. Coss due credit and say he toiled 16 hours a day, 7 days a week — he IS a CEO after all and expected go beyond the call of duty, to a galaxy of astronomical avarice far far away — he pulled down a whopping $1759.08 per hour. If he worked the average 1740 hours last year, Coss's rate rockets to a nauseating $16.36 per SECOND, $981.60 per MINUTE, $58,878.74 per HOUR — almost 69% more than the average YEARLY family income of $40,611! Oh, you say, Mr. Coss is an extreme, anomalous example. Ok — let's take an executive who scored way below average in the Business Week survey, A.D. Davis, chairman and CEO of Winn-Dixie, a chain of grocery stores spread mostly across the Southern United States whose slogan is "Winn-Dixie — The Beef People." Mr. Davis certainly brought home the beef last year, hauling in $754,000, up 5% from the year before. Assuming that Mr. Davis is just as scrappy and dedicated as the average bagboy working 1740 hours a year, his hourly wage comes out at $433.33 per hour or $2899.97 per day or $14,499.99 per week.
	Considering that the average bagboy probably earns minimum wage ($5.25 per hour), this means that Mr. Davis makes more — 63% more — in one week than the $9135 our humble Bagboy makes in a year. And what are working conditions for bagboys? Consider the story of Tripod member THUNDERBALL, who responded to a recent Tripod survey about work days with this harrowing tale: "I worked at a factory for 19 years then quit due to safety and health reasons. Back in July of '95 there was a tragedy in which two friends of mine were killed, and I was there to help scrape up what was left of them (I'm also a volunteer fireman & EMT). Anyway, I tried to stick it out, telling myself that I was gonna leave after having 20 years in, but things got worse down there and I just couldn't stick around to see anyone else get hurt or the horrible way that they treated people down there. It was like a concentration camp. I was at the point where I had the shakes and dry-heaves; my doctor said I was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. I quit 19 years to the day after I was hired. For nine months I looked for work, part-time or other. It's just that there's NO jobs in this area. But I finally lucked out last month and have what they consider a full part-time job at one of our local supermarkets stocking shelves and various other things. I'm not even making half of what I was making at the factory, but at least I'm happy and time goes by fast; also I do work 9-5 most days. I am HOPING it turns into a full-time job though because I could use the benefits, but for now it's okay by me. The folks down there at the store at least treat you like a human being instead of just a number."
As soul-sucking as some jobs can be, most of us feel lucky to have any work at all.	Then again, as soul-sucking as some jobs can be, most of us feel lucky to have any work at all. Whether people love their jobs or hate them, almost everyone says that they're swamped for most if not all of the day. Yeah, we work HARD for the money, so hard in fact that many of us don't even notice our own time slipping away. In the aforementioned Tripod survey, dirtgirl's story was typical: "I NEVER watch the clock. If anything, I might look up from my work and realize it's 9:30PM and I really need to get out of there so I can get to sleep and be up early to do it all over again. I usually show up at least for a few hours on the weekend. When I get home at night, I dial in with the laptop and respond to e-mail while I eat dinner." Tripod member manne had this to say: "The only thing typical about my work day is the fact that I [am] rarely been able to sort out all of the things that I had planned to be rid of at the end of the day. You know the feeling? Just as you sit down in front of the 'puter to really get down to business, the phone rings. Or an e-mail drops in. Or you have to attend a meeting to give your view on some certain aspect of a project... In my opinion, at least a third of your average day goes to what I like to call "unplanned activities." And what it results in is longer days. `Cause you still have to sort out those small things that got pushed a side during the day." Then there was the story from a junior high school teacher: "I spend most of my work day looking over my shoulder; trying to get people to be quiet, listen and do what they don't want to do; repeating directions over and over; and controlling groups and individuals. I must have almost every minute planned for with no idle time and be available before and after "hours" to offer support and make phone calls (the only time I can make calls), as well as organize and even buy (from my own pocket) the materials I need. The law entitles me to a 45-minute duty-free lunch break, which almost never happens. I often can't even find time to go to the bathroom. It's almost impossible to not bring the work home with me and end up spending some of most weekends at work at home."
How can the rank and file get some relief and job satisfaction?	So what's the solution? How can the rank and file get some relief and job satisfaction? We all know that barring a good, old fashioned revolution, the gross disparity in the distribution of cashola in this country isn't going to change. It's just as obvious that the companies a lot of us work for aren't going to boost our wages more than Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve think is prudent. Greenspan's Fed operates under the assumption that higher wages across the board will result in higher inflation, which would effectively devalue Mr. Coss's crazy $100 million and making all the tasty beef that Winn-Dixie sells more expensive. The fact that, as Business Week reports elsewhere in the April 21st issue, "real wages last quarter grew 1.4% from a year ago, the best yearly pace in two decades" strikes fear into the hearts of the fat cats sitting atop those piles of corporate profits, which will ensure that sometime in the next few months, the people who control the money in this country will see to it that this upward trend does not continue. Lest you think that this is some crazy conspiracy theory I concocted after sucking all the nitrous oxide out of the ten cans of Redi-Whip that are scattered around my desk like spent mortar shells, the Business Week article ends with this ominous prediction: "As long as the labor markets continue to supply consumers with employment opportunities and rising pay, demand in this economy will not taper off, and the Fed will have more work to do."
Everyone needs an incentive to invest themselves in their work.	In other words, Alan and the Fed cabal will have to find a way to slow wage growth in order to prevent more money from falling into the hands of unscrupulous wage earners like you and me, hard-working individuals who have no real power. After all, we can't vote Federal Reserve Board members in or out of office and are therefore completely at the mercy of the almighty Market's bottom line exigencies. But what if we were actually part of the Market, invested, like those corporate executives, in our companies via stock options. What if we owned the company we work for? Fair distribution of the wealth we create through our work isn't some wacko commie notion that died with the Soviet Union. In fact, employee ownership is one particularly effective way to make people feel as though the time they spend at work is time they are investing in themselves. According to the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), there "approximately 9500 employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and similar plans covering over 10 million employees....ESOPs now control about $150 billion in corporate stock....Overall, employees now control about 6% of corporate equity." Companies as large and as diverse as United Airlines, Publix Supermarkets, Avis Car Rental, and Hallmark Cards are owned by their employees. And according to a 1990 study by the NCEO — done before the stock market exploded — an employee making $20K a year in a typical ESOP would accumulate $31K in 10 years. A more recent study would probably show that the typical employee would have gained far more, riding the Market bull all the way to the Land of Milk and Honey, where she'd find Lawrence Coss, A.D. Davis, Andy Grove (Intel, $97.5 million), Sanford Weill (Travelers, $94.1 million), Theodore Waitt (Gateway 2000, $81.3 million), and scores of other corporate piggies, uh, biggies, lapping like thirsty cattle at the creamy stream of Profit and rutting in the viscose honey bogs of Prosperity. Put yourself in a CEO's cloven hooves for a minute. Wouldn't you feel more connected to your work if you knew that your job performance was helping you attain your ultimate goals? Wouldn't you feel more invested in relationships with co-workers if you knew that you were all working for each others benefit? Wouldn't you feel like the time you spent at work was YOUR time?
here	How we spend our time at work is directly related to how we feel about the work we do. If we're alienated from our jobs, then the time we spend doing them seems wasted. We slack our way from Monday to Friday with little regard to the quality of the work we're doing or our emotional relationship to it, especially in terms of our own self-esteem. If you don't care about your job, then why bother doing your best? If you're not going to do your best, why not just squeak by? And after weeks and months and years of just squeaking by, what's left? Your marketable job skills probably haven't improved much, if at all. Your attitude sucks. You feel like you've squandered a large chunk of your life on an ultimately worthless and demeaning pursuit. Work is like anything else in life — the less you invest in your job, the less you get out of it. Everyone from the CEO to the entry-level bagboy needs an incentive to invest themselves in their work. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, mere survival is a really good incentive. This will become painfully apparent over the coming months and years as former welfare recipients start streaming into the job market, trying to find any kind of work to feed themselves and their families. For those of us for who aren't driven by sheer desperation, learning can be a great incentive — investing in building your skills and honing your expertise. Eventually coworkers will be coming to you to help them realize their potential — another kind of incentive. And as mentioned above, employee-ownership is a great way to weave incentives into the fabric of your working life.
here	We can only stew in our own bile for so long after realizing what kind of insane gap there is between the tiny percentage of Americans who rake in billions of dollars a year in salaries, bonuses and stock options and the vast majority of us who are just getting by. At some point, we need to demand more from the companies we work for — profit sharing, stock options, a say in decision-making, outright employee ownership, better benefits, more time off, and more flexible schedules. We also need to ask more of ourselves. If we're not happy with the jobs we're in, what would we be happy doing? If we're not satisfied with our performance, what would help us do our jobs better? Our workplace cultures, attitudes towards our work and co-workers, the material conditions of work and the attendant incentives and rewards are all things we have the power to shape. But nothing will change until we realize that we bear some responsibility for making that change happen. We polled Tripod members to find others spend their office hours — check out their answers in this special edition of Survey Sez. Harry Goldstein is a writer and editor living in Manhattan. His work has appeared in Utne Reader, American Book Review, Promethean, AltX, word.com, and other periodicals. ©; 1997 Harry Goldstein, all rights reserved.