Labour Unions Are Misusing Productivity Measures

manual labour

By Loane Sharp

Labour unions like to measure labour productivity by looking at total output per worker in the economy. However, total output per worker has only increased as much as it has over the past fifty years because capitalists have invested in more and better tools that workers can use to be more productive. Therefore, by looking at total output per worker, labour unions are skewing the productivity of labour grossly in their favour when it comes to wage negotiations.