Penelope
Diamond Member
- Jul 15, 2014
- 60,260
- 15,767
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May 8, 2018
With Unemployment So Low Why are Wages Stagnant?
Last Friday the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate dropped to 3.9%–the lowest rate since the 1990s. Yet with this drop wages have yet to increase very much, especially since the Great Recession of 2008. Why? Venerable neo-liberal economists, such as the New York Times’ Paul Krugman, hypothesize that employers are reluctant to raise wages for fear they cannot cut them in the future.(insert hyperlink here) Others contend that we have not fully recovered from the recession or that the actual labor force participation rates are still high, making wage increases sticky. All of these explanations miss the point. Employers are not raising wages because they do not have to. The reason is that labor unions are so week now that they cannot do what they historically have done which is to pressure employers to increase wages.
Last week was May 1–May Day. Yet people forget why we have unions. The last 150 years of American history is the battle of workers and unions against corporations. America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was the country of trusts. It was the emergence of the railroads, steel, big oil, and monopolies. It was also the era of sweatshops, child labor, adulterated and unsafe foods, and the six day, 70 hour+ work weeks. It was also the era of piecemeal below subsistence wages, poor working conditions and high injury rates, no health benefits, no retirement benefits, and no protections against discrimination and harassment. It was the world of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Unions were illegal, and workers who stood up for their rights were beat up by the Pinkertons–company hired security–or arrested by the newly created public police forces which were created to control and brake unions.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/08/with-unemployment-so-low-why-are-wages-stagnant/
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Why are the wages not going up, and when are they going to go up? I understand the market is higher now, great for the young people, but you will lose it and will be in for a bumpy ride. Soon they will want to end SS and have you all in the market with IRA's and 401K's, the rich will get your money anyway they can , but not for seniors as we remember to keep money safer as we age, as the market goes up and down, like a teeter- totter. Regan blew a hole in the unions and the GOP and Trump are putting a nail in it.
With Unemployment So Low Why are Wages Stagnant?
Last Friday the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate dropped to 3.9%–the lowest rate since the 1990s. Yet with this drop wages have yet to increase very much, especially since the Great Recession of 2008. Why? Venerable neo-liberal economists, such as the New York Times’ Paul Krugman, hypothesize that employers are reluctant to raise wages for fear they cannot cut them in the future.(insert hyperlink here) Others contend that we have not fully recovered from the recession or that the actual labor force participation rates are still high, making wage increases sticky. All of these explanations miss the point. Employers are not raising wages because they do not have to. The reason is that labor unions are so week now that they cannot do what they historically have done which is to pressure employers to increase wages.
Last week was May 1–May Day. Yet people forget why we have unions. The last 150 years of American history is the battle of workers and unions against corporations. America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was the country of trusts. It was the emergence of the railroads, steel, big oil, and monopolies. It was also the era of sweatshops, child labor, adulterated and unsafe foods, and the six day, 70 hour+ work weeks. It was also the era of piecemeal below subsistence wages, poor working conditions and high injury rates, no health benefits, no retirement benefits, and no protections against discrimination and harassment. It was the world of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Unions were illegal, and workers who stood up for their rights were beat up by the Pinkertons–company hired security–or arrested by the newly created public police forces which were created to control and brake unions.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/08/with-unemployment-so-low-why-are-wages-stagnant/
====================================
Why are the wages not going up, and when are they going to go up? I understand the market is higher now, great for the young people, but you will lose it and will be in for a bumpy ride. Soon they will want to end SS and have you all in the market with IRA's and 401K's, the rich will get your money anyway they can , but not for seniors as we remember to keep money safer as we age, as the market goes up and down, like a teeter- totter. Regan blew a hole in the unions and the GOP and Trump are putting a nail in it.
