Wealth inequality will keep growing unless workers demand better

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/06/us-income-inequality-on-rise

With US unemployment near 8%, millions of Americans simply cannot find the work they need to keep a roof overhead, the lights on, and food on the table for their families. The problem is simple enough: there are not enough jobs to go around in an economy marked by slow growth and a growing number of job seekers.

To be sure, big and small firms alike are hiring to replace workers who
retire or to expand as the economy recovers. For the newly unemployed, the competition for these job openings is fierce. Many find themselves locking horns with dozens, hundreds and sometimes thousands of fellow job seekers, all of whom are jockeying to score not a job but a job interview with a living human being.

Employers, inundated with job applications, are taking shortcuts to winnow the field of job applicants, eliminating from consideration
applicants who are currently unemployed or have been out of work for
more than a few months. Some are excluding job candidates with their credit score.

In what is essentially a game of musical chairs, employers are taking
away more and more of the chairs before the music even starts. None of these strategies are unique to recessions; employers use them
when unemployment is high or low. But with the unemployment rate high, these practices are prolonging the pain for millions of Americans
unlucky enough to have a lost a job following the worst recession in
decades.