In this article where the New York Magazine makes “guesses” about the income of those working in various positions in the entertainment industry, they came up with the following (among others):
Judith Regan, President and publisher, Regan Books
$1 million
Sonny Mehta, Chairman and editor-in-chief, Alfred A. Knopf Publishing Group
$750,000
Ann Godoff, President and publisher, the Penguin Press
$400,000
Sam Tanenhaus, Editor, The New York Times Book Review
$180,000
Stephen Riggio, CEO and vice-chairman, Barnes & Noble
$4,813,567
Lisa Jong, Clerk, Barnes & Noble (32 hours a week at $7.75 per hour)
$12,896
Et in arcaedia, ego. 
Yeah.
And 32 hours a week so that she is deliberately held below the ‘full time’ status, and therefore gets no health care, no paid vacation, no retirement allowance… scratch harder, honey, you are obviously not working hard enough…
Not quite accurate. At part-time, employees can pay for these out of their checks. No, it’s not easy, especially when they’re making so little. I know it happens, though, because my mother works at a B&N store for considerably fewer hours per week.
Okay, “employees can pay for these.” Sure.
But they aren’t ‘getting’ them, like, as benefits from the company in exchange for their loyalty and hard work.
Many companies don’t pay 100% (or at all) for these things for their employees, either. At my husband’s work, they’ve negotiated a lower rate than one would have to pay for individuals, and no one has to worry about exclusion policies, but the company doesn’t pay for the health insurance at all.
Loyalty and hard work don’t mean much if the cost will interfere with the Riggio brothers’ (or whatever CEOs’) multi-million dollar salaries, it seems.
but the company doesn’t pay for the health insurance at all.
Point being, it wasn’t that terribly long ago – less than a generation – that such things WERE the way of the great american business…
Now?
The big push is to get as many employees as possible below the full-time tier, and to cut back or eliminate benefits, as you have noted, for those above that cut.
Health care is a big issue, and its escalating costs are another discussion entirely (although not unrelated)…
Generally, they are getting them as benefits from the company. They pay the premiums, but those premiums are at a reduced rate because the company has negotiated the benefits. If they went out and bought equivalent health insurance benefits themselves at an individual rather than at the company-negotiated group rate, they’d be paying beaucoup more.
Full-time employees generally pay a premium share rather than the full premium, but it’s the same deal–they’re paying a share of the company-negotiated reduced rate.
blinkblinkblinkblink
Dayum.
For some reason, the one that’s really pinging my red alert buttons? Marv Albert, $750K to announce Nets games. Damned if I know why, but that one has me grinding my teeth.
Well – that and Joe Torre.
Stephen Riggio, CEO and vice-chairman, Barnes & Noble
$4,813,567
Lisa Jong, Clerk, Barnes & Noble (32 hours a week at $7.75 per hour)
$12,896
Nice symmetry, there.
Formerly employed, now disabled, recipient of Social Security disability:
$11,000 – $2,000
Why, yes, I’d *like* to be able to work.