By Mathew Katz
Today, the Federal Reserve released the Beige Book, a regular summary of what each of the different Federal Reserve banks are seeing in their local economic scene. Overall, the Beige Book says the recession has begun to taper off. But toward the bottom of the summary, there's one big, scary money quote:
Boston, Cleveland, Richmond, Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco cited a range of methods firms are using to limit compensation, including cutting or freezing wages or benefit contributions, deferral of future salary increases, trimming bonuses and travel allowances, reducing hours, temporary shutdowns, periodic furloughs, and unpaid vacations.
No matter how you spin it, companies are trying to pay employees less money. As we've talked about before, falling wages are a key ingredient in deflation. Still, we haven't seen the other factor in deflation: falling prices.
categories: Employment, News, Standard of Living
Comments
Please note that all comments must adhere to the NPR.org discussion rules and terms of use. See also the Community FAQ.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Login | Register
More information needed to participate in the NPR online community.. Add this information