Working Less To Save More, Effects Of Gas Price Rise Spreads Out

Everyone with a car knows how bad it is to fill up their tanks. Just ten years ago, gas was a dollar and a change and now prices are anywhere from four to five dollars a gallon. The rapid jump in prices, especially in the last couple years has had a profound effect on the American economy. Retail spending was reduced to pay for gas, raw materials increased in price because it costs more to ship them and debt has skyrocketed to keep American families afloat in the moment. Now it is becoming hard for people to pay to drive to work, so extraordinary measures are being taken by employers.

From Financial Week:

In America’s struggling automaking heartland, the shorter workweek offers employers a way of rewarding employees when the budget does not allow a salary increase, said Oakland County, Michigan, executive L. Brooks Patterson.

“By allowing employees to work four 10-hour days it will save them 20 percent on their commute costs and ease the financial pinch of filling up their cars,” said Mr. Patterson, who last week proposed the compressed week for county workers.

Gasoline prices have begun altering U.S. commutes in many ways, a survey released on Thursday showed.

Some 44% of respondents said they have changed they way they commute—doing things such sharing a ride or driving a more fuel-efficient car—or are working from home or looking for a closer job in order to reduce gasoline costs, according to staffing services company Robert Half International. That’s up from 34% two years ago.

On Long Island, New York, Suffolk County legislator Wayne Horsley also has proposed employees have the option of working four 10-hour shifts, rather than five eight-hour shifts, saying it would save 461 barrels of oil in a 120-day pilot project.

“This is a gasoline-driven proposition and we’re looking to change people’s long term philosophies of life,” Mr. Horsley said.

In these times of ridiculous gas prices the government that has failed to take appropriate action against greedy oil companies. Nor has it provided a suitable transition to an economy that relies on solar and wind power. Therefore employers and even local legislators are coming together to help people make a living and not lose all their money to the hands of executives at Shell, ChevronTexaco and the behemoth ExxonMobil.