Wage Gains of 3% Taking Hold as U.S. Employers ‘Need to Pay Up’
- Wisconsin tractor factory boosts pay and serves up burgers
- U.S. has 1 million more job openings than unemployed people
At CNH Industrial NV’s factory in Racine, Wisconsin, workers are building bright red Case IH tractors the company’s known for, and they’ll sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. But there’s something even more valuable on the assembly line: the employees.
CNH Industrial, one of the world’s largest agricultural-equipment makers, needs to increase its Racine workforce of more than 500 by 5 percent, and it’s proving tough to do by the January goal. They’re competing with other big companies with a local presence, including Amazon.com Inc., S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. and Harley-Davidson Inc. Management has already raised wages 6 percent for production employees in Racine this year, and officials are in talks with the United Automobile Workers union for further increases for skilled tradespeople.