archive

Working lives

Marshall Steinbaum (Roosevelt Institute): Antitrust, the Gig Economy, and Labor Market Power. New research suggests the $15 minimum wage is not bad for workers like economists feared (and more). The cooperative movement is showing that worker-owned businesses can not only survive, but thrive. Could expanded ESOPs be the next big economic policy? The trouble with the “working hypothesis”: James K. Galbraith reviews The Once and Future Worker by Oren Cass. How a woman called “Big Labor” could shape economic policy for 2020. Low wage, not low skill: Why devaluing our workers matters. The US is experiencing a widespread worker shortage — here’s why. Workers on corporate boards? Germany’s had them for decades.

William Scarborough, Danny Lambouths, and Allyson Holbrook (UIC): Support of Workplace Diversity Policies: The Role of Race, Gender, and Beliefs about Inequality. Next stop, Uberland: The onrushing algorithmic future of work. Like so many of our lofty ideals, the “American Work Ethic” is actually two different standards — one for the wealthy and one for the poor — with two different interpretations of what work looks like. The death of job stability: Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein reviews Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary by Louis Hyman. Companies often mislabel employees as “freelancers” to cut costs — workers are fighting back. Can the working class speak? (and more) How to rebuild the labor movement, state by state: What progressives can learn from conservative anti-union advocacy.

From the New York Times Magazine, a special issue on work. Brands are using prison labor to provide inmates with jobs and training — but is it possible and ethical to build a profitable fashion business behind bars? Los Angeles teachers just proved that the common wisdom about unions is wrong. The con of the side hustle: The language portraying second jobs as liberating or glamorous masks the reality of the insecure working lives of many Americans. Minimum wage would be $33 today if it grew like Wall Street bonuses have (and more). Rich Yeselson reviews A History of America in Ten Strikes by Erik Loomis.