Wage Disparities

8,000 M.T.A. Employees Made $100,000 Last Year - NYTimes.com:

"...there are thousands of Metropolitan Transportation Authority employees — 8,074, to be precise — who made $100,000 or more last year."

You know who got it rich?

"The usual top-level managers are included in that list, but so are dozens of lower-level employees, including conductors, police officers and engineers, many of whom pulled in six figures in overtime and retirement benefits alone.

"One of those workers, a Long Island Rail Road conductor who retired in April, made $239,148, about $4,000 more than the authority’s chief financial officer, according to payroll data released on Wednesday.

"In fact, more than a quarter of the Long Island Rail Road’s 7,000 employees earned more than $100,000 last year, including the conductor, Thomas J. Redmond, and two locomotive engineers — who were among the top 25 earners in the entire transportation authority."

Contrast this with what is happening in China, where Foxconn, a BPO that makes iPhones for Apple, was forced to raise the wages by a mammoth 30%- thanks to a spate of suicide among its employees and the  consequent bad publicity.

I liked this comment by prestonramsay-

"“When something’s too cheap somebody is paying something”

This really has nothing to do with Apple or Dell, this is a perfect snapshot of the reality of consumption. I have an iphone, ipod, imac, and love them. Do I ever take into consideration who made them?..."

Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/06/workers-at-china-plant-where-10-have-committed-suicide-to-get-30-raise/#ixzz0ptQ3L3Pk

Call Centres and School Enrolment- an unlikely link

This is obvious, that more parents would sent their children to school when chances are that they would find a good job, but is the Indian economy so dependent on outsourcing? Hard to believe, but there is a study which says exactly that:- Indian call centers promote school enrollment:

"Emily Oster and Bryce Millett report:

"...Using school fixed effects, we estimate the impact of introducing a new ITES center in the vicinity of the school on enrollment. We find that introducing a new ITES center results in a 5.7% increase in number of children enrolled; these effects are extremely localized. We argue this result is not driven by pre-trends in enrollment or endogenous center placement, and is not a result of ITES-center induced changes in population or increases in income. The effect is driven entirely by English-language schools, consistent with the claim that the impacts are driven by changes in returns to schooling.""

Is it likely that there would be an increase of school enrolment by as much as 5.7% when a call centre opens in that locality?

Sounds hard to believe, but if true, it asks for a sober reevaluation of our education and employment policies.