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posted by martyb on Friday August 03 2018, @08:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the need-bigger-paychecks-or-shorter-weeks dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

America doesn't have a jobs crisis. It has a 'good jobs' crisis – where too much employment is insecure, and poorly paid

The official rate of unemployment in America has plunged to a remarkably low 3.8%. The Federal Reserve forecasts that the unemployment rate will reach 3.5% by the end of the year.

But the official rate hides more troubling realities: legions of college grads overqualified for their jobs, a growing number of contract workers with no job security, and an army of part-time workers desperate for full-time jobs. Almost 80% of Americans say they live from paycheck to paycheck, many not knowing how big their next one will be.

[...] The typical American worker now earns around $44,500 a year, not much more than what the typical worker earned in 40 years ago, adjusted for inflation. Although the US economy continues to grow, most of the gains have been going to a relatively few top executives of large companies, financiers, and inventors and owners of digital devices.

[...] Not even the current low rate of unemployment is forcing employers to raise wages. Contrast this with the late 1990s, the last time unemployment dipped close to where it is today, when the portion of national income going into wages was 3% points higher than it is today.

[...] By the mid-1950s more than a third of all private-sector workers in the United States were unionized. In subsequent decades public employees became organized, too. Employers were required by law not just to permit unions but to negotiate in good faith with them. This gave workers significant power to demand better wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions. (Agreements in unionized industries set the benchmarks for the non-unionized).

[...] Today, fewer than 7% of private-sector workers are unionized, and public-employee unions are in grave jeopardy, not least because of the supreme court ruling. The declining share of total US income going to the middle since the late 1960s – defined as 50% above and 50% below the median – correlates directly with that decline in unionization. (See chart below).

[...] This great shift in bargaining power, from workers to corporations, has pushed a larger portion of national income into profits and a lower portion into wages than at any time since the second world war. In recent years, most of those profits have gone into higher executive pay and higher share prices rather than into new investment or worker pay. Add to this the fact that the richest 10% of Americans own about 80% of all shares of stock (the top 1% owns about 40%), and you get a broader picture of how and why inequality has widened so dramatically.

[...] It is no coincidence that all three branches of the federal government, as well as most state governments, have become more "business-friendly" and less "worker-friendly" than at any time since the 1920s. As I've noted, Congress recently slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. [...] The federal minimum wage has not been increased since 2009, and is now about where it was in 1950 when adjusted for inflation.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @05:29PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @05:29PM (#716812)

    The more I read about the US, the more I'm reminded of the Ferengi. It seems like the US health 'industry' has been very diligent in their studies of the Rules of Acquisition. These few in particular seem to apply pretty consistently:

    5 Always exaggerate your estimates.
    6 Never allow (the patients') family to stand in the way of opportunity.
    13 Anything worth doing is worth doing for money.
    19 Satisfaction is not guaranteed.
    23 Nothing is more important than your health... except for your money.
    82 The flimsier the product, the higher the price.
    87 Learn the customer's weaknesses, so that you can better take advantage of him.
    141 Only fools pay retail.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @08:28PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 03 2018, @08:28PM (#716960)

    Ever try to get a refund for preventable complications, such as many of the deaths and injuries in the other article? We can cite another rule:

    1 Once you have their money, you never give it back.

    I'll bet none of those mothers (the ones who are still alive and doing science...) who were injured by incompetence ever got a refund of any kind.