[Feedback] Proposed law to fix unemployment in the United States

Misaki

Senior Member
Jul 8, 2011
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The problem facing the US economy is simple: too many people feel obligated to work full time. Other than this, corporate profits and productivity are fine.

All that needs to be done is to give businesses a standardized way to employ skilled workers at less than full time and clear benefits from doing this, so that those who wish to work less than 40 hours per week can.


A third major way to determine employee compensation, in addition to a flat salary and hourly wages:

The first 20 hours are paid at 1.2 times the current average rate for full-time work.

Work beyond 20 hours in a single week is paid at 0.8 times the current average rate.


This system depends on the employee and employer trusting each other. If they can, flexible hours are better. If there is no mutual trust, then a flat salary would be better. Part of trust is having additional options in case that trust was misplaced, whether it was trust in intentions or in capabilities. While options are available to everyone, it can feel like the cost associated with some options prevents them from being used in normal circumstances.

The widespread adoption of this work concept would reduce unemployment and therefore increase the options available to an employee who was dissatisfied with their current workplace, but several additional legislative changes would be needed to increase trust between the employee and employer.

The first is that while a business using this method could require employees to work the minimum of 20 hours per week, neither party would be penalized if that employee refused to work more than that and was separated from their position as a result. The employee could not be made to accept any unusual penalties in their employment contract for refusing to work more than the minimum of 20 hours, and the business would not have any of the usual obligations or fees from firing an employee for this reason.

The second change would be to the overtime law, so that similar to salaried workers, employees who used this work concept would be exempt from receiving higher overtime pay.

The third, for government employees, would be that additional hiring would be required within a certain time frame in any case where someone was forced to work more than 40 hours per week.


Businesses who used this work concept instead standard wages or salaries would benefit for a simple reason: increased efficiency and productivity in the workplace. While the understanding of how to address inefficient practices by both workers and management has been continuously evolving, there is a concise description of the problem in the ideas of scientific management of the early 20th century:

'Taylor observed that some workers were more talented than others, and that even smart ones were often unmotivated. He observed that most workers who are forced to perform repetitive tasks tend to work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished. . . . Taylor used the term "soldiering" and observed that, when paid the same amount, workers will tend to do the amount of work that the slowest among them does.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management#Soldiering

The unexpected ways that workers will change their productivity was noted in experiments at the Hawthorne Works conducted from 1924-1932. In particular, shortening the work day actually resulted in an increase in total output, and one experiment that linked pay to the individual productivity of workers in a group resulted in a decrease in productivity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

While financial incentives linked to performance are successful in some industries and occupations, experiments have shown that for mental tasks higher compensation can sometimes decrease performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

Furthermore, even physical work suffers a significant decrease in productivity for periods of scheduled overtime that last for several weeks. According to a review of the existing data on the use of overtime in construction work, "there is about a 10% increase in efficiency losses for each additional 10 hr per week added to the schedule beyond 40 hr."
http://cmdept.unl.edu/drb/Reading/overtime2.htm

A recent survey has shown the importance of social media to college graduates in the younger generation, with one in three saying that being able to use social media such as Facebook at work was more important than financial compensation and more than half saying that "if they were offered a job at a company that banned social media use, they would either turn it down, or find a way to flout the policy."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...important-large-salary-college-graduates.html

This collection of evidence shows the potential benefit for businesses that compensate employees with both time and a higher average wage for increasing their productivity and accepting a variable schedule.

While the necessary amount of work would be continuously negotiated based on the needs of the employee and the business, trust from having options available in the case of a disagreement would prevent either side from feeling like they are being exploited in the arrangement. Involuntary unemployment in the United States would no longer be a problem.
 
The benefit of having more people work (ie less unemployed) by making it so currently full time workers work part time; would be very good for the economy for a few reasons
1) Becoming/being unemployed is associated with a lot more health care costs
2) Every day that you are unemployed your skills decrease, meaning when the economy begins recovering we will have to waste resources retraining old workers
 
The benefit of having more people work (ie less unemployed) by making it so currently full time workers work part time; would be very good for the economy for a few reasons
1) Becoming/being unemployed is associated with a lot more health care costs
2) Every day that you are unemployed your skills decrease, meaning when the economy begins recovering we will have to waste resources retraining old workers
There is another reason: so future generations don't have to pay the huge government debt created by supporting the working poor and the unemployed with welfare.
 
Unemployment hittin' Baby Boomers hard...
:eek:
GAO: 6-Fold Increase in Americans 55 or Older Unemployed 6 Months or Longer
May 17, 2012 - – In the last four years, there was a 6-fold increase in the number of Americans over 55 who had been unemployed for 6 months or longer, a federal auditor told CNSNews.com.
With this increasing number of older workers experiencing long-term unemployment, concerns are growing about their retirement income. "For 2007, the number of all older workers age 55 and older who were out of work for 27 weeks or more was 188,552; and then in 2011, it went to 1,126,948," Charles Jeszeck, the director of education, workforce, and income security at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), told CNSNews.com. "While it is crucial that the nation help people of all ages return to work, long-term unemployment has particularly serious implications for older workers (age 55 and over)," Jeszeck said. "Job loss for older workers threatens not only their immediate financial security, but also their ability to support themselves during retirement."

The GAO noted that Social Security retirement benefits are reduced if people work fewer years, because those benefits are partly based on a calculation of the worker’s average monthly earnings over 35 years. Moreover, people who are not working are not contributing to 401(k)s or other employer-sponsored retirement accounts. Long-term unemployment may also force older workers to file at an earlier age for Social Security benefits. "Many unemployed older workers in our focus groups said that they were planning to claim Social Security retirement benefits as soon as they were eligible or had already done so because they needed a source of income to help pay for living expenses," said Jeszeck. "Moreover, a 2012 study found that high unemployment increases Social Security retirement claims among men with limited education."

The GAO describes long-term unemployment as not having a job for more than 6 months (27 weeks or more). "Older workers tend to be out of work longer than younger workers, threatening their retirement savings during a period of their lives when they have may have less opportunity to rebuild them," concluded Jeszeck. "Even when they are able to obtain reemployment, they often do so at lower wages, making it even more difficult to replenish the lost earnings and reduced retirement savings that they suffered."

At a May 15 hearing before the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Jeszeck testified about the state of unemployed older since the economic recession began in December 2007 and how their situation has affected their retirement security. The GAO found that older black and Hispanic workers had “significantly higher” unemployment rates in both 2007 and 2011 compared with older white workers.

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Granny says dey got nowhere to go an' nuttin' to do but stand onna street corner watchin' all the girls go by...
:eusa_eh:
688,000 More Teenagers Unemployed Since Obama Was Inaugurated
July 10, 2012 - The unemployment rate for American teenagers (both sexes, ages 16-19) was 23.7% in June -- down from a seasonally adjusted 24.6% in June 2011, but above the 20.7 percent in January 2009, when President Barack Obama took office.
When Obama was inaugurated, 5,216,000 teenagers were employed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but in June 2012, that number had dropped 688,000 to 4,528,000. Breaking it down by race, the unemployment rate for black teens was 39.3% last month, compared with 20.9% for white teens.

“For young Americans, through no fault of their own, their story is one of few opportunities, delayed dreams, and stalled careers," said Paul T. Conway, a former chief of staff for the Department of Labor who now heads a conservative group that "seeks to educate and organize young Americans" on the economic challenges facing the nation. "Today’s unemployment numbers tell the story of millions of young Americans who are paying the price for the failed policies coming out of Washington that have inhibited economic opportunity and job creation,”

Conway said companies, in difficult economic times, often cut back on seasonal, summer jobs, or else fill them with members of the current workforce. "So it becomes very tough from the perspective of those who are actually trying to find work, because the economy directly impacts those decisions that businesses are making,” Conway said.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for teenagers ages 16-19 has not dropped below 22.2% since President Obama took office, according to DOL statistics. “While leaders in Washington travel to communities to make campaign promises and seek to place blame for the results of their failed policies, young Americans are looking for more than rhetoric,” Conway said. "Now I think in this economy what you’re seeing is that the government -- by growing so quickly and interfering through regulation and taxation so much -- has created a huge amount of reluctance and hesitancy in terms of (business) investment in positions and the creation of entry-level jobs.

“But the people that are really taking it on the chin are the youngest workers and those who are millenials who are just getting started in their careers and graduating. It is extremely tough right now and extremely competitive, and we would suggest that what you’re seeing is the true impact of over-involvement by the government, overly interfering in the economy and creating less opportunity." This is why in our opinion, elections matter, who you elect matters and policy matters in everyday life and in the future of not only individuals, but the country,” Conway added.

Source
 
what you’re seeing is the true impact of over-involvement by the government, overly interfering in the economy and creating less opportunity."

A liberal will lack the IQ to understand how capitalism creates full employment while liberalism creates high unemployment, recessions and depressions.
 
Mebbe she needs to join the ranks of the unemployed - might change her opinion...
:eusa_eh:
Labor Secretary Cheers Youth Unemployment Rate of 17.1 Percent
August 23, 2012 – Labor Secretary Hilda Solis cheered a slight decline in the youth (16-24) unemployment rate, saying that it was a sign that the job market was improving for America’s young people.
“As young Americans all across the country prepare to head into a new school year, I'm excited to say that many more will take with them lessons learned through summer jobs,” Solis said Wednesday in a press release. “It's no secret that the effects of the 2007 recession had a significant impact on job prospects for youth, but today's report showed positive signs that job prospects for young people picked up pace in 2012,” she said.

Solis’ statement marked the release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual youth unemployment report. Solis said that the report showed positive signs for young job seekers, noting that the youth unemployment rate had fallen to 17.1 percent over the past two years. “Yesterday's report shows that youth employment rose by 2.1 million between April and July 2012, with 19.5 million young people employed last month. That's up from 18.6 million a year ago,” Solis said. “The youth unemployment rate showed a significant decline, falling to 17.1 percent — down a percentage point from last year and two points from 2010. Meanwhile, the share of young people employed in July 2012 climbed back up to 50.2 percent from its historic low last year,” she added.

However, the youth unemployment report Solis cited only covers April to July, when youth employment swells as summer job seekers fill hospitality and food service jobs. The same report found that the number of unemployed youth during this time period was 4 million, a number BLS said was “little changed” from last year’s figure of 4.1 million. The report also underscored the fact that the youth unemployment rate actually increased from April to July, rising from 15.4 percent to 17.1 percent.

Her comments also leave out the fact that the number of unemployed youths hasn’t changed much, meaning that other factors besides a better labor market are behind the decline in the unemployment rate. In fact, youth employment in July is little changed since President Barack Obama took office. In July 2009, 19.3 million young Americans were employed. In 2012, that number had risen by just 0.2 points to 19.5 million.

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See also:

Claims for unemployment benefits rise 4K
23 Aug.`12 WASHINGTON (AP) – The number of people seeking first-time unemployment benefits rose a slight 4,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 372,000, evidence that the job market's recovery remains modest and uneven.
The Labor Department said Thursday that the four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased 3,750 to 368,000. Applications are a measure of the pace of layoffs. When they fall consistently below 375,000, it generally suggests hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate. Applications have risen for two straight weeks. Some economists said that indicates that hiring in August may slow from July's solid gain of 163,000 jobs. The increases "suggest … that job growth continued in August, but at a slower rate than July's pop," said Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets. "So job growth there shall be, but not strong enough."

Weak hiring may prompt the Federal Reserve to take more action to stimulate the economy, Lee said. At the Fed's last meeting, policymakers signaled that they were moving closer to launching another round of bond-buying, according to minutes released Wednesday. The goal of more bond purchases would be to lower longer-term interest rates to encourage more borrowing and spending. Meanwhile, fewer people continue to receive benefits. The total fell to 5.6 million in the week that ended Aug. 4, the latest period for which figures are available. That's down about 110,000 from the previous week. Some of that decline may have resulted from those out of work finding jobs. But many also likely exhausted all their benefits.

The economy and job growth have been improving a bit after falling into a midyear slump, though neither is particularly strong. One area of improvement has been the housing market, which is slowly but steadily recovering. Sales of previously occupied homes rose 2.3% in July from June, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. Sales jumped more than 10% in the past year. Other recent reports have contributed to the picture of a healing industry. Home prices are rising nationwide. And builders are growing increasingly confident because they're seeing more traffic from potential buyers. An index of builder confidence rose to its highest level in five years in August.

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Something to think about: It was only after deregulation that financial markets locked up

too stupid!!!! markets were higher regulated by Fan/Fred, Federal Reserve, CRA, FHA, etc etc.



What planet has this liberal been living on??
 

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