Honda, Nucor try new paths

* Pay at automaker and steelmaker is at least partly tied to the company's profit.

Two-tier and three-tier wage structures are common across the country, but they're not the only tools used to boost productivity and profits.

At Honda of America Mfg. in Marysville, production workers form teams that are moved around the plant where needed. These workers, called "associates," also are paid well. Associates earn a uniform base pay of $19.60 an hour, with profit-sharing and attendance bonuses that bring the average compensation to $22.77 an hour.

`We have never even entertained the thought of a tiered wage system,' said Tim Garrett, the company's vice president of administration.

The company also has never had a layoff.

At the nonunion Nucor Steel plant in Crawfordsville, Ind., workers and managers share the sacrifice in hard times - and reap the rewards in profitable years. About 60 percent of wages are tied to the productivity and performance of teams, and objective standards such as tons of steel produced can boost a production worker's annual earnings to $75,000 a year.

The plant has almost no turnover.

`I love working for Nucor. It's a very fair company,' said Norm Libengood, a furnace lead man. `We share in the profit, and we share in the pain.'

Main story:

CHANGING WORKPLACES
Nucor: share pain, gain
  Teamwork boosts morale, and paychecks, at the steel plant, but also shrinks checks when times are tough

Sidebars:

HONDA
No tiers, no unions, lots of flexibility
   Honda workers can beat the pay of those at the Big Three because they play by different rules.

FOOD WORKERS
Employees found separate scales left bitter taste
   The union has mounted a recruitment drive to find its unity in numbers.