Masonry Magazine May 1969 Page. 33
Taxes
The Tax Court agreed with the taxpayer that he could deduct the fee ($2,600) that he paid the consultant as an education expense. The court pointed out that "education" included tutorial instruction as well as formal training. The fee was paid to improve the managerial skills needed in the taxpayer's employment and was therefore a legitimate education expense deduction. Lage v. Commissioner (52 TC- No. 13)
Negotiated Wage Increases Soar
The median negotiated increase in the first quarter of 1969 was 18.4 cents, up 3.5 cents from a year before, and up 6.0 cents from the same period in 1967. Nonmanufacturing settlements had a median wage increase of 24.7 cents, up 5.2 cents from first-quarter 1968, and up 9.7 cents from first-quarter 1967.
The 730 settlements covered in the BNA analysis included only 22 agreements in the construction industry, where bargaining bunches in the second and third quarters of the year. Consequently, exclusion of construction settlements lowers both the all-industry median gain and the median gain in nonmanufacturing by only 0.1 cent, to 19.7 cents and 24.6 cents respectively.
During the period 1965-69, the median first-quarter settlement in contracts studied by BNA increased 12.1 cents, with exclusion of construction agreements leaving the gain unchanged. In manufacturing alone, the increase over the four-year period comes to 11.4 cents, while the increase in nonmanufacturing is 14.9 cents. The median settlement in construction spurted 30.7 cents, with nearly five-sixths of the gain occurring in 1968 and 1969.
The following table shows median cents-per-hour wage increases in contract settlements during the first quarter of 1969 and earlier first-quarter periods, as compiled by BNA.
MEDIAN WAGE INCREASES IN CONTRACT
SETTLEMENTS, IN CENTS PER HOUR,
IN FIRST QUARTER OF 1969 AND
OTHER RECENT FIRST-QUARTER PERIODS
| | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 |
|---------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| All Industries | 8.1 | 7.4 | 7.5 | 7.4 | 7.7 | 9.1 | 12.9 | 15.3 | 19.8 |
| All Industries, excluding construction | 7.9 | 7.0 | 6.9 | 6.9 | 7.0 | 8.4 | 12.4 | 14.9 | 18.4 |
| Manufacturing | 8.5 | 9.5 | 9.0 | 9.1 | 9.8 | 10.2 | 15.0 | 19.5 | 24.7 |
| Nonmanufacturing | 8.3 | 9.5 | 8.6 | 9.0 | 9.7 | 10.0 | 14.9 | 18.4 | 24.6 |
| Nonmanufacturing excluding construction | 14.5 | 11.0 | 12.0 | 14.7 | 14.5 | 19.8 | 20.0 | 28.0 | 45.2 |
| Construction | 7.4 | 7.6 | 8.9 | 12.8 | 15.3 | 19.7 | | | |
By specific industry, construction was far out in front during the first quarter of 1969, with a median wage increase of 45.2 cents an hour, based on 19 settlements in which amounts of gains were specified. This compares with a gain of 28.0 cents in the first quarter of 1968. Next highest were shipping and longshoring, with 38.0 cents; printing and publishing with 24.8 cents; and transportation equipment, services, and wholesale and retail trade, with 24.6 cents each. Other gains ranged from 15.0 cents in textile mill products and miscellaneous manufacturing to 22.5 cents in fabricated metals and petroleum.
Of 613 settlements which specified amounts of increase during the first quarter of 1969, 33 percent provided more than 22 cents, as compared with 16 percent a year ago, while gains of 15 cents or more were provided in 79 percent as against 62 percent in first-quarter 1968. Among the 454 manufacturing settlements included in this comparison, only 23 percent provided over 22 cents in contrast with 62 percent of 159 settlements in nonmanufacturing, while the 15-cent-or-over proportion was 77 percent in manufacturing as against 87 percent in nonmanufacturing.
By geographic region, the Southwest led median gains during the January-March period with 22.4 cents an hour, in sharp contrast with a year before when this region was lowest with 13.6 cents an hour. Another year-to-year increase occurred in the Midwest, where the median gain moved up from 15.8 cents to 22.0 cents. The median increase in the Middle Atlantic region came to 17.9 cents compared with 14.7 cents a year ago, while the West Coast showed a small rise from 20.2 cents to 21.5 cents an hour.
Deferred increases were provided by 84 percent of first-quarter settlements included in the BNA analysis, as compared with 71 percent a year ago. Escalator clauses, on the other hand, figured in 7 percent of agreements as against 8 percent in first-quarter 1968. During full-year 1968, deferred increases occurred in a record 78 percent of contracts studied, up 8 percentage points from the preceding year, while the frequency rate of escalator clauses moved up from 5 percent to 6 percent.
In the area of fringe benefits, the highest proportional increase from a year earlier occurred in new or revised insurance plans, which moved up from 61 percent to 68 percent. Contracts containing new or revised pension plans rose from 34 percent to 39 percent of settlements studied after showing no change in 1968, while severance pay provisions continued to appear in 4 percent.
Changes in vacation plans appeared in 51 percent of contracts studied in the first quarter of this year, compared with 49 percent in 1968, and 45 percent in 1967. Holidays added or amended occurred in 49 percent, up from 46 percent in 1968 and 38 percent the year before.
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masonry
May, 1969
33