Hostess wages reasonable

Just thought you might want to print some interesting facts regarding the Hostess bankruptcy that I haven’t seen anywhere in the media.

I was curious as to what the union wages were for the two major unions at Hostess. The Teamsters’ (mostly drivers) average hourly wage is $20, and the bakers’ average hourly wage is $16 with a ceiling of $17.10. Hostess is asking them to take a second wage decrease in eight years, and at the same time greatly increase their pension and health care contributions out of the above hourly pay rates.

I realize that this is more than some people make, but certainly not the outrageous pay scale that many assume is automatically conferred by union membership. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage scale for bakers supports this. It reports a pay range of approximately $11 to $17 per hour for all bakers, union and nonunion.

Teresa Lowe

Greenacres