The two U.S.-based automakers claiming they can’t afford union demands for better pay certainly can’t blame their tax bills: over the past five years Ford and General Motors have paid an average combined tax rate of just 1% on over $42 billion in total pre-tax income. And while some of those tax savings have found their way into rapidly rising compensation packages for the firms’ top executives and board members, wages of rank-and-file workers have lagged. Those are the findings of a report from Americans for Tax Fairness on the earnings, taxes and payouts of the two American corporations locked in contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers, which has threatened a strike as soon as next week over the firms’ intransigence on wages.