Fair compensation and responsible investment can compete for resources without either becoming an excuse to ignore the other. In the BLS evidence available for February 20, 2017, annual-average nonfarm-business productivity grew 0.2 percent during 2016. Output rose 1.7 percent and hours rose 1.5 percent. The modest output-per-hour gain makes investment a reasonable subject for discussion, not a demonstrated remedy. [prod2_02022017]

Present compensation deserves equally concrete attention. The January 31 Employment Cost Index reported private-industry compensation costs up 2.2 percent over the twelve months ending December 2016, without seasonal adjustment. Wages and salaries rose 2.3 percent and benefits 1.8 percent. Those employer-cost indexes distinguish parts of compensation; they do not tell a discussion group whether a particular family’s needs were met. [eci_01312017]

BLS defines unit labor costs as hourly compensation divided by productivity. That relationship gives the ethical discussion an alternative to treating wage restraint as the only adjustment: ask whether a proposed use of resources could improve output per hour while supporting fair compensation. The ECI is a different, fixed-job-mix measure and cannot be inserted into that ratio to settle the choice. [prod2_02022017][eci_01312017]

Elm’s proposed starting point is to ask who would bear an investment’s immediate costs, what evidence supports its productive purpose, and how compensation commitments would be protected if expectations disappoint. Religious and nonreligious participants can weigh those obligations without assuming agreement. This is ethical reasoning, not a BLS recommendation. The sources are the January 31 ECI and February 8 reissue of the February 2 productivity release, two documents from one institution rather than independent testimony. [prod2_02022017][eci_01312017]

Source documents

  1. Productivity and Costs, fourth quarter 2016 preliminary; February 8 reissuehttps://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/prod2_02022017.htm
  2. Employment Cost Index – December 2016https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/eci_01312017.htm