Second, yes I agree with Chris there is a huge increase in health insurance premiums being shifted to the employee. I can’t complain because our is super affordable but it still went up from $32/pay period to $40/pay period, a net increase of 25% in 1 year. Our income did not go up proportionately. Granted it’s cheap, but still ouch.

Third, yes no pensions. Two of our friends working for larger companies mentioned they no longer have pensions. One is J and J and the other is Dupont. All pensions are frozen. I doubt $500/month in 30 years will be worth much.

So I am sure we’re not the only ones feeling “squeezed” though supposedly inflation is only 4.2%.

Health care costs increasingly are being passed on to the employee through higher premiums, higher deductibles or switching to plans that don’t offer the comprehensive coverage of previous plans.

More and more companies are doing away with fully funded retirement plans and now require the employee to contribute to a 401-k or similar plan if they want any company money for retirement. And some companies are lowering the 401-k match or doing away with it all together. So smart people will contribute more to offset that loss.

That doesn’t make companies bad, especially if they need to take such actions to remain in the marketplace.

The only point is those two areas have squeezed even more from the take home pay of employees and have decreased their purchasing power.

Talk to someone whose company has relocated to another and is, therefore, unemployed (me) or whose industry is in trouble and their plant is closing (the GM plant in Janesville, WI, and many others across the U.S.) or whose company is directly affected by higher fuel prices (the airlines are grounding about 1,000 planes including my local airline, Midwest Airlines), and I think you’ll hear a different story. Unemployement figures are just a number until it happens to you!