The middle class is the great engine of the American economy. Organized workers built a powerful middle class by taking direct action and advocating for government policies to give workers a fair share of economic wealth. But over the past 40 years, this pattern has been reversed as corporate owners and managers have taken an … Continue reading
Today in labor history in 1900 the International Ladies Garment Workers Union was founded in New York City by seven local unions, with a few thousand members between them. The union grew rapidly in the next few years but began to stagnate as the conservative leadership favored the interests of skilled workers, such as cutters. … Continue reading
Understanding unemployment and wage growth are crucial for understanding developments in the world’s second largest economy, not to mention the future price of everything from Nike sneakers to Apple iPhones. The official data is improving, with new information on migrant worker and private sector wages. But it remains scarce and in some cases unreliable, especially … Continue reading
France’s Socialist government may clinch a deal on labor reform by the end of this year but its cautious approach means the outcome may fall short of business leaders’ hopes for a “competitiveness shock” to revive the economy. President Francois Hollande wants a quick agreement that will help companies adjust more nimbly during economic downturns, … Continue reading
Migrant workers who look for jobs in cities in China are now leaving the cities and going back to their home towns as jobs losses mount amid economic slowdown. This wave of migrant workers leaving cities emerges for the first time since the financial crisis 2008/09. A lot of migrant workers who were originally living … Continue reading
While the wage gap has certainly narrowed with the past generation of working women—in 1967 women only earned about 58 cents to a man’s dollar—progress has stalled in recent years. If progress continues at its current rate, it will take 45 years to eradicate the wage gap. Given the unfortunate fact that the gender wage … Continue reading
Good Mexican restaurants in rural Ontario, small-town church services in Spanish, and gridlocked Friday nights with busloads of men wiring money home and crowding into the local grocery store. These are a few of the visible signs of the growth of Canada’s migrant agricultural worker programs, which are becoming an increasingly permanent fixture of the … Continue reading
Accelerating growth in Bangladesh’s per capita income has added nearly 1.2 million new jobs every year and improved job quality between 2000 and 2010. Wage workers have seen their wages — adjusted for price increases — rise by nearly 2 percent a year. Poverty rates among the self-employed have fallen. The quality of jobs, as … Continue reading
This paper addresses the question of how effectively youth wages and reduced minimum shift lengths promote fairness and equality. It focuses on the majority of young workers employed on a casual or part-time basis in the retail, hospitality and fast food industries under the General Retail Industry Award 20105 (‘Retail Award’), the Hospitality Industry (General) … Continue reading
The coalition has given its strongest signal so far that it is prepared to block an increase to the wages of the lowest paid workers in the country amid concern over rising unemployment. The separate minimum wage rates for young people are the most likely to be frozen to make it easier for firms to … Continue reading