More than 30 percent of men in their prime are either unemployed or earn less than what’s needed to keep a family of four out of poverty, according to estimates by Lawrence Katz of Harvard.
.. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that wages in the middle of the distribution have increased by all of 6 percent since 1979.
.. For this she would have an extremely powerful force on her side: demography.
“The labor force is already shrinking,” said Alan Krueger, a Princeton economist who served as chief economic adviser to President Obama from late 2011 to the summer of 2013. “As it gets harder to hire, companies will come around to recognize that investments in their work force are in their long-term interest.”
Inequality can be addressed only if we start talking about the ‘working class
Here is a new theory that I expound upon in detail in a recent article and a forthcoming book: unions declined because class issues have been de-legitimized in America. In a nation where class is politically invisible, unions have been unable to claim a legitimate role as defenders of working class interests.
Instead, unions have been painted as just another special interest. For decades now, labor’s status as a special interest has weakened unions’ legitimacy, eroded workers’ legal protections and constrained labor’s ability to act.
.. Unlike in the US, Canadian unions were not painted as a “special interest.” In politics and in the courts, unions were accepted as legitimate representatives of working-class interests.
.. More broadly, politicians, civic leaders and organizations seeking to stem rising inequality need to stop talking about a mushy – and somewhat meaningless and outdated – “middle class.” They need to acknowledge the real and growing class divide between the wealthy and the working class.
Growth in the ‘Gig Economy’ Fuels Work Force Anxieties
The venture capitalist Nick Hanauer and the labor leader David Rolf argue in the latest issue of Democracy Journal, is a “transformation that promises new efficiencies and greater flexibility for ‘employers’ and ‘employees’ alike, but which threatens to undermine the very foundation upon which middle-class America was built.”
.. Last year, 23 percent of Americans told Gallup they worried that their working hours would be cut back, up from percentages in the low to midteens in the years leading up to the recession. Twenty-four percent said they worried that their wages would be reduced, up from the mid- to high teens before the recession.
.. “Whether America will be America or not hinges on whether we have a downward spiral around wages,” said Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a think tank closely aligned with Mrs. Clinton.
.. “In the past, firms overstaffed and offered workers stable hours,” said Susan N. Houseman, a labor economist at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. “All of these new staffing models mean shifting risk onto workers, making work less secure.”
.. Apple is a vivid example of the trend toward relying on outsiders, directly employing fewer than 10 percent of the more than one million workers around the world who are involved in designing, making and selling all those iMacs and iPhones.
The Good Jobs Strategy
the problem was that these companies viewed their employees “as a cost that they tried to minimize.” Workers were not just poorly paid, but poorly trained. They often didn’t know their schedule until the last moment. Morale was low and turnover was high. Customer service was largely nonexistent.
.. Yet when she asked executives at these companies why they put up with this pattern, she was told that the only way they could guarantee low prices was to operate with employees who were paid as little as possible, because labor was such a big part of their overhead. The problems that resulted were an unavoidable by-product of a low-price business model.
.. I think the answer is that the conventional approach of lowering the pay and importance of employees has hung on because it is more satisfying to the egos of managers.
American bosses take pride in being the hard nosed, “practical”, two fisted type willing to make the “hard decisions” without regarding who gets hurt — it make them feel good.