Posted on 01/21/2015 6:16:37 AM PST by Citizen Zed
Aetna raised employees' wages to a base of $16 per hour because paying them less was not fair, Mark Bertolini, CEO and chairman of Aetna told CNBC on Wednesday.
"Here we are a Fortune 50 company and we're about to put these people into poverty and I just didn't think it was fair," he said during a "Squawk Box" interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Aetna first made the announcement last week during the JPMorgan Health Care Conference. The wage and benefit hikes will impact about 5,700 workers who were making between $13 and $14 per hour.
Many of those workers were single mothers who had to rely on food stamps and Medicaid because they could not afford Aetna's health care plans, Bertolini said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mob.cnbc.com ...
Don’t be so sure on it preventing turnover. There are probably more than a few that have worked hard to get to that magical $16 figure. Now some new person with less time in service and experience gets the same salary. I’m betting they’ll get no offset raise. Expect some people to be pretty unhappy.
pay a higher wage and get better employees, expect more from your current employees and get good PR for prospective clients...Capitalism at work
There are substantial benefits in paying higher than the minimum or even the prevailing wage.
You will get many more applicants, and from those you can choose the best.
Of course, you have to find a way to use their higher productivity, or you have to raise your price — unless your customers are not sensitive to prices.
A little extreme, but true!
“Because that amount is stupid. If Aetna wants to raise employee wages then why criticize them for it? “
I was wondering that same thing.
Seems like more than a few here really have an issue with workers getting higher wages.
Let me say up front that I didn’t read the entire article but this CEOs position seems to be that the company is doing well so let’s raise wages.
I have no idea why that seems to piss so many here off.
Nonsense.
If you dont’ understand that companies have every right to set the rate of pay and benefits for their employees you just proved that you don’t have to be a CEO to fit the description in your post.
Minimum wage is intended for UNSKILLED employees. I would assume that insurance company employees have to possess SOME skills so he has probably been shorting them for a long time already.
Your remarks were short, concise, and accurate.
Brevity is the soul of wit; Rush Limbaugh.
They are making a political statement that companies shouldn't pay people what they are worth in the market place, but a "living wage."
Aetna is a member of the big-government/big-union/big-corporate crony-fascist complex, and as such the government has granted them monopolies in return for generous campaign donations.
Small businesses that are not members of the big-government/big-union/big-corporate crony-fascist complex haven't been granted monopolies but have to compete with them.
The next step is to raise the minimum wage to force small businesses to pay a "living wage." This will drive most small businesses out of business.
The big-government/big-union/big-corporate crony-fascist complex doesn't care if the pie gets smaller. They just want the whole pie.
Why are you so sure $16 isn't what they're worth. A person's value in the marketplace is what a company is willing to pay for their services. Aetna has decided those services are worth $16 an hour. Why are they wrong?
Does Aetna do outsourcing, so that lower end jobs are actually costing them much less per hour?
A mandatory minimum wage costs jobs one way or another.
If they wanted to pay them $16, couldn't they have done that without issuing a press release?
Aetna is acting on behalf of the Democrat party. They are making a political statement that ALL companies should pay $16 and hour minimum and if they don't they are SELFISH.
That was my question. Every time min wage rises, many companies raise every other working employee’s wages to match the offset. Many companies don’t. Wonder if AETNA did? AZ has a min wage (last Jan it started, larger than federal) and new hires where my kid works started at a higher salary than some who had been there for a year or more. Incentive wages or job promotions that had been earned were NOT offset and increased. Bottom line, some that had been there a year were making what new hires got. If you didn’t like it (or were a longer term and had earned RAISES and you didn’t think it was RIGHT or FAIR), “don’t let the door hit ya in the butt on the way out”. So Much for Govt. being “FAIR”. The Govt. “fair” is always “unfair”.
Your point of view and opinion is respected.
However NoOne here should Ever espouse someone should be “shot” for their political point of view.
Its strident remarks like that which gets FR listed as a violent or hate site and gets us banned by internet filtering software.
FR is too valuable to have its reputation damaged.
I (unfortunately) have Aetna insurance - not my choice. Every time I call in to Aetna I get a person who is only vaguely familiar with the English language. Ebonics is their first language and they are typically in Kentucky or Phoenix. If they are making $16/hr then Atena is run by idiots(I already knew that. This OP only proves it again).
As an aside tidbit, what AETNA does that they don’t tell you about (and I’m sure every other health insurance company does), is USE a “health rating” company to get around the Health Privacy Laws. This is similar to a credit rating and ought to scare the crap out of everyone. I found out about this from an AETNA employee when I was trying to get insurance as COBRA was way too expensive for an unemployed, just divorced, full-time stay-at-home-mom with 4 minor kids.
My doctor had prescribed a drug, for an off-label use. I paid CASH. No insurance involved. Either of three places that I used for prescriptions, fed this drug info to a database: Walgreens, CVS or Target. When I was trying to get insurance, the three agents I had spoke to kept insisting to ME that I had diabetes, which I did NOT and never had, and had repeatedly every year had a glucose test that was fine. The fourth AETNA agent slipped up and admitted why, because their info said that in 2006 I had taken (fill in the blank) drug, which one of the uses is diabetes. I asked after being shocked at the info, how the hell did they have that info as I had NEVER BEEN INSURED BY AETNA AND HAD NEVER USED INSURANCE FOR THAT ONE-TIME PRESCRIPTION, and I HAD PAID CAST. She (AETNA) then told me about their “health rating” database that they subscribe too and how it doesn’t violate the health privacy laws. This was around 2008 or so.
oops, can’t blame CAST instead of CASH on the CATS jumping over my keyboard. I own the typo.
Probably, but so what? They may well attract qualified job applicants from their competition as a result.
Aetna is acting on behalf of the Democrat party. They are making a political statement that ALL companies should pay $16 and hour minimum and if they don't they are SELFISH.
I think you're reading things into it.
Worth repeating.
That's your opinion.
My opinion is that you're an SEIU plant.
My opinion is worth as much as your opinion.
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