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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSalary Gap And Salary Cap New Reality For Most Workers
What the Reagan Revolution and the demise of unions did more than anything else was establish a salary gap and salary cap on most workers pay. The best kept secret about the economy is that a great many jobs paying between $30,000 and $60,000 a year have disappeared. And the other little secret is that a high paying job is now considered to be $30,000 a year with limited or no benefits.
Along with that the full time job is disappearing more and more being replaced with seasonal, part time, temporary or fixed price contract work. It is not just the number of jobs being created. It the the kind and the economic value of the jobs that are created. Most labor stats hide or understate the quality of the job market.
I am quite surprised in some ways even though I predicted what I see today in 1981. What Reagan was up to with the help of big business cronies was so obvious yet voters kept buying the Kool Aid. I have to congratulate the Reaganites, the GOP, conservatives and corporate America is that they succeeded.
The biggest reason that I KNOW that they have succeeded is that I heard a young lady who will graduate this spring comment, "I WILL BE HAPPY IF I CAN GET A JOB MAKING $30,000 a year.
THAT WOULD BE A LOFTY GOAL WHEN BUSINESS IS TOUTING THE FACT THAT $14.00 IS A HUGELY HIGH PAYING JOB. AND THAT EVEN $10.00 AN HOUR IS EVEN MORE GENEROUS.
THE QUESTION IS HOW MUCH LONGER ARE WORKING AMERICANS GOING TO ACCEPT THIS CORPORATE DRIVEL!!!!?????
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)brewens
(13,616 posts)a week making ends meet. I worked with union guys that had been bullied into working almost 60 hours a week. The bosses at the Budweiser distributor had diabolically set things up to ensure they had to put in that kind of time. I was non-union because I was wine department. I really had no respect at all for those guys. It was in their contract that they were supposed to get over-time pay. All they had to do was demand it. They had a couple short-timers that were scared of being fired too close to retirement that were in the way.
After I left, the company was being sold and they finally did it. They sued for back OT and got a pathetic settlement. Still, from that time on they got their OT if they worked it. The result was that it forced the new owners to hire another driver. That should have been the case years before.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Initech
(100,099 posts)We've tightened our belts enough - when is it going to be these douchebags' turn to contribute after they're done taking it all for themselves?