Beck falsely claimed average UAW worker makes $154 per hour

Written by Jocelyn Fong

Published

Glenn Beck falsely claimed that “the average UAW [United Auto Workers] worker” earns "[a] hundred and fifty-four dollars an hour if you look at -- you know, if you add in all of the benefits." In fact, a recent Barclays Capital analysis reportedly found that U.S. automakers “pay an average of $55 an hour in wages and benefits to hourly workers.”

During the February 18 edition of his Fox News program, Glenn Beck falsely claimed that “the average UAW [United Auto Workers] worker” earns "[a] hundred and fifty-four dollars an hour if you look at -- you know, if you add in all of the benefits." In fact, a recent Barclays Capital analysis reportedly found that U.S. automakers “pay an average of $55 an hour in wages and benefits to hourly workers,” far less than the figure Beck provided. Beck did not disclose his source for the $154 per hour figure, stating only that he saw it “come across my desk the other day.”

Both The Washington Post on February 12 and The Wall Street Journal on February 6 reported that UAW members earn on average $55 per hour in wages and benefits, citing an analysis conducted by Barclays Capital, an international investment bank. Similarly, on December 9, 2008, The New York Times' David Leonhardt calculated that the compensation of unionized autoworkers is “roughly $55 an hour or so,” including wages, overtime and vacation pay, health insurance, and benefits.

As Media Matters for America noted, during the final months of 2008, dozens of media figures and outlets advanced the falsehood that autoworkers employed by the domestic automakers are paid $70 or more per hour in wages and benefits, when in fact such estimates include the cost of benefits for current retirees. According to Leondhart, the added cost of retiree benefits “isn't mainly a reflection of how generous the retiree benefits are. It's a reflection of how many retirees there are.”

From the February 18 edition of Fox News' Glenn Beck:

BECK: Brain Room downstairs, which is our fact-checker -- I saw something come across my desk the other day -- that the average UAW worker makes a hundred -- I think it was -- Gresh, what was it? A hundred and fifty-four or $152 an hour when you look at -- what?

OFF-SCREEN: A hundred and fifty-four.

BECK: A hundred and fifty-four dollars an hour if you look at -- you know, if you add in all of the benefits. A hundred and fifty-four dollars an hour? How could you possibly be competitive?

MARK McKINNON (spokesman for the Workforce Fairness Institute): Yeah, and it's $1,600 more per car just for the health-care costs for the employee.