Today President Obama is giving a speech promoting the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Paradoxically, he\u2019s chosen to give it at Nike headquarters in Oregon.<\/p>\n
Nike isn\u2019t the solution to the problem of stagnant wages in America. Nike\u00a0is\u00a0the problem.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that over the past two years Nike has added 2,000 good-paying professional jobs at its Oregon headquarters, fulfilling the requirements of a controversial tax break it wrangled from the state legislature. That\u2019s good for Nike\u2019s new design, research and marketing employees.<\/p>\n
But Nike\u2019s U.S. workers make only a tiny percent of Nike\u2019s products.<\/p>\n
In fact, Americans made only 1 percent of the products that generated Nike\u2019s $27.8 billion revenue last year. And Nike is moving ever more of its production abroad. Last year, a third of Nike\u2019s remaining 13,922 American production workers were laid off.<\/p>\n
Most of Nike\u2019s products are made by 990,000 workers in low-wage countries whose abysmal working conditions have made Nike a symbol of global sweatshop labor.<\/p>\n
As wages have risen in China, Nike has switched most of its production to\u00a0Vietnam<\/a>\u00a0where wages are less than 60 cents are hour. Almost 340,000 workers cut and assemble Nike products there.<\/p>\n