by Marc Chandler
Financial Sense
This Great Graphic comes from the Wall Street Journal. It shows what is happening to the pay of the least compensated in the US. Their pay is going up at a pace that is exceeding the averages and inflation.
The data is from Q2 16. Weekly wages for full-time employees in the 25th percentile, earning about $13 an hour, are up about 3.1% from a year ago. The Labor Department data show that this is the largest increase since 2009. The pace of increase exceeds the pay of median workers who make about $20 an hour for full-time work.
While many companies who are giving their lowest paid workers raises are broadcasting it widely and loudly, they seem to have barely re-discovered good business practices that Henry Ford found more than 100 years ago. Reports suggest that employee turnover at call centers has dropped and employee satisfaction surveys show improvement. There are reports showing lower employee turnover and a decline in hiring and training costs.