CLINTON & WORKER WAGES: Fact Sheet - 9/22/92 September 22, 1992 CLINTON DISTORTION ON WORKER WAGES A staple of Clinton's rhetoric attacking the 1980's is his claim that American wages have fallen from first to thirteenth in the world. This claim, beyond being false, is absurd. U.S "Firsts": o The U.S. ranks first among the fourteen OECD nations in compensation per employee -- and thus ranks first in the world. (OECD statistics) o The U.S. is first in the world in GDP/GNP per capita -- 25% ahead of Japan and 36% ahead of Germany. (BLS data) o The U.S. still ranks first in the world in real income per capita. o Adjusting for purchasing power, U.S. workers have higher earnings than workers in any of the next-largest economies in the world: Japan, Germany, France, Canada, and the U.K. (BLS, OECD, and World Bank data) o U.S. workers are first in the world in productivity. (Department of Labor) o Under President Bush, the U.S. has regained its position as the world's number one exporter -- beating out Japan and Germany, and creating nearly 2 million jobs in the process. (Department of Commerce) Why Clinton's Statistic is False and Misleading o The Bureau of Labor Statistics -- the source of Clinton's statistics -- states clearly that the statistics Clinton uses "do not indicate relative living standards of workers or the purchasing power of their income." (U.S. Department of Labor, June 1992) o Clinton's claim relies on current market exchange rates, which are subject to wide fluctuations, rather than purchasing power -- the standard measurement of the international value of money. -- By Clinton's logic, the olympic medalists in per capita income would be Switzerland, Finland, and Sweden. If true, the business pages in New York, Tokyo and Frankfurt would be full of articles on the "Helsinki Challenge." Not surprisingly, they aren't. # # #