However, operating margins contracted to 7.8% from 10% in the previous year quarter due to a combination of higher costs of materials and an increase in average retail incentive offered by GM.
But trade-union rules make it difficult to hire and fire workers, lower-paid jobs for the less skilled are hard to come by, and a combination of high taxes on low incomes and generous welfare payments reduces the incentive to seek work at all.
It is an organic creation that is more than the mechanical combination of boxes on the org chart and the interaction of job descriptions and carefully crafted incentive formulas.
Employees are trained for up to four weeks before they hit the sales floor and, once they do, those employees are paid a combination of salary and bonuses to avoid an all-commission sales floor where their financial incentive might disrupt the customer experience.