“What’s being referred to as a recovery in manufacturing is to a large extent a recovery in profitability,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington-based group funded by unions and private foundations Continue reading
Almost 140 Bangladeshi garment factories were shut on Monday as thousands of workers protesting at a new minimum wage clashed with police outside Dhaka, police and manufacturers said. Continue reading
American workers are making less than they did in 2007, before the financial crisis, according to new data from PayScale Continue reading
Profits as a share of income are at or near record highs while the compensation share is around a 50-year low Continue reading
Let’s face it. Something’s broken here in an economy that serves up low wages to significant numbers of adults whose families depend on their earnings (the typical worker earning between the minimum wage and $10 an hour earns half of his or her family’s income; 88 percent are adults). And something’s broken when the media and … Continue reading
workers’ wage growth has been uneven across the country’s metros. To chart where wages have grown the most during America’s recovery, my Martin Prosperity Institute colleague Charlotta Mellander ran the numbers on average change in wages and salaries for all 350-plus U.S. metros between 2009 and 2012 (the latest year available) based on data from the … Continue reading
Fast-food workers went on strike and protested outside McDonald’s, Burger King and other restaurants in 60 U.S. cities on Thursday, in the largest protest of an almost year-long campaign to raise service sector wages. Rallies were held in cities from New York to Oakland and stretched into the South, historically difficult territory for organized labor. … Continue reading
In the wake of the July employment report released last week, an interesting graphic appeared in a Wall Street Journal article with the somewhat distressing title “Low Pay Clouds Job Growth.” Comments Continue reading
A new paper by a trio of researchers confirms some old news: Adjusted for inflation, wages began stagnating for both men and women 10 years ago. Men’s wages have actually decreased slightly since 2000, while women’s wages, which had been rising steadily for decades, flattened out nearly to zero. But it could have been worse. … Continue reading
Myth #1: Hordes of Minimum-Wage Workers Very few Americans are actually working for the federal minimum wage—it’s just 2.9 percent of all workers in the United States. In other words, 97 percent of American workers make more than minimum wage. Myth #2: The “Working Poor” Getting By on Minimum Wage More than half of minimum-wage … Continue reading
As bad as the current job recovery has been — and it’s by far the weakest since World War II — the recovery in wages has been far worse. Five years after the recession began in December 2007, total wages in the economy have yet to fully recover in real terms, Commerce Department data show. … Continue reading
“The U.S. economy over the past decade has worked primarily to the advantage of a small sliver of winners” writes Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute. (Excepts to follow) Meanwhile, the vast majority of workers have not fared well—a trend that stretches back to the late 1970s. Contrary to some political rhetoric of late, this is … Continue reading
Analysis of the 2006 census found certified male apprentices had earnings similar to men with a community college education, according to two papers to be published in the Canadian Labour Market and Skills Researcher Network monthly publication. The first study, by University of Toronto professors Morley Gunderson and Harry Krashinsky, found male apprentices earn 24 … Continue reading
The battle over factory pay in Indonesia is intensifying, with vocal local trade unions joining hands with a US non-governmental organisation to pressure Nike suppliers into paying minimum wages. A yawning gap is opening up between employers, who argue that hefty minimum wage increases are destroying their profitability, and trade unions, who argue that wages … Continue reading
“Over the last two decades, high – and, in some countries, rising – rates of low-wage work have emerged as a major political concern” writes John Schmitt in Low-wage Lessons (Choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor to follow) According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 2009, about one-fourth of U.S. workers were in low-wage … Continue reading