Who makes what?
New visualization shows that the percentages of workers at various pay levels have not changed significantly between 1994 and 2014. Interactive tool allows you plug in any hourly wage up to $100 in 25 cent intervals.
Equally free to sleep under the bridge
Harvard economist Gregory Mankiw, writing in The New York Times, wants you to believe that a worker's acceptance of a job for no more than minimum wage and a person's acceptance of a pre-ACA, bare bones insurance policy reflect voluntary arrangements. Even a moment's consideration shows there is nothing genuinely voluntary about either of these arrangements.
Economic disaster for agriculture or proof of brutality of current system?
American Farm Bureau Federation study confirms agricultural sector's deep reliance on wildly underpaid workers. It warns that shrinking labor supply would spark "large-scale restructuring" of farm sector. But don't we need that if current system only survives by relying so heavily on unfree labor?
A promise is a promise…unless it’s inconvenient
As most media continue to beat the "no choice but to cut pensions" drum, we reprise a story not constrained by those assumptions. Our reporting at the end of last year demonstrated that the state’s argument that the pension promises made to public workers were not contracts is a “radical shift” from legal norms.
From Kelly Girls to Permatemps
Erin Hatton discusses her book, “The Temp Economy: From Kelly Girls to Permatemps in Postwar America.” The modern temporary worker industry has grown dramatically since its origins in the 1940s and 1950s, Hatton says, but its influence extends far beyond the roughly 2 percent of workers in the U.S. it currently employs.
The hidden toll of underemployment
The psychological consequences of underemployment have been largely ignored. The research that does exist, however, is not encouraging. Underemployment is associated with increased incidence of depression, less job satisfaction, lower self-esteem, and can also result in deep-seated, persistent feelings of shame. Originally published 17 months ago; still timely reading.
From Kelly Girls to Permatemps
The temporary worker industry has thrived by convincing business owners that workers are “liabilities” to the bottom line who can and should be easily replaced.