The Big Squeeze

I read the below passage from a book entitled, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker. The Leonard Cohen song, "Everybody Knows", just keeps playing in my head... "Since 1979, hourly earnings for 80 percent of American workers (those in private-sector, nonsupervisory jobs) have risen by just 1 percent, after inflation. The average hourly wage was $17.71 at the end of 2007. For male workers, the average wage has actually slid by 5 percent since 1979. Worker productivity, meanwhile, has climbed to 60 percent. If wages had kept pace with productivity, the average full-time worker would be earning $58,000 a year; $36,000 was the average in 2007. The nation's economic pie is growing, but corporations by and large have not given their worker's a bigger piece."

Books:

• There is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America


• From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend


• Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do

Web:

• Interviews conducted by Studs Terkel with everyday working people.


• Under appreciated gains hard won by the labor movement.