Sprint, T-Mobile merger would cut pay: study

A merger between Sprint and T-Mobile would cut into the wages of wireless store employees - including those working at Verizon, AT&T and all four companies' authorized dealer stores, according to a new study.

Average weekly earnings for these retail workers 'would decline by as much as 7 percent” and between 1 percent and 3 percent 'in the bulk” of the markets affected by the merger, the report released by the Economic Policy Institute and the Roosevelt Institute said.

Among the 50 markets hit hardest by a merger, the study found wages could erode by as much as $65 a week, or $3,276 in a year, or as little as $10 a week, or $500 a year.

'These are meaningful amounts to the working people in these jobs,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, who spoke at a presentation of the study.

Among specific markets, the study said, wireless store employees would suffer among the larger losses in wages. Moreover, it said wages would fall even if the merger led to no layoffs.

The impact on workers' pay would extend beyond the two companies merging, the study said, and hurt wages of retail workers at Verizon, AT&T and independent retailers that serve as dealers for the various brands.

Schierholz explained that all wireless retail employees' bargaining power on the job would suffer from eliminating one of the four national wireless carriers.

'The threat that you could quit your job and get a decent job somewhere else also just went down,” Schierholz said.

Sprint and T-Mobile have said their combined business would create jobs from the first day of a merger, though they have acknowledged there would be duplication among jobs. The Communications Workers of America has argued that the merger would eliminate more than 28,000 jobs, mostly from closing retail stores.

Opponents of the proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile also have challenged its impact on consumers. They argue that moving from four national wireless carriers to three would reduce competition for wireless consumers and lead to higher prices as the companies flexed a greater degree of monopoly power.