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The United States is a low-wage nation: USA leads developed countries in percentage of workers earning less than 2/3 of...

abaldwin360:

The United States is a low-wage country. (Here a chorus of Republicans pipes up: Yes, but it’s the greatest low-wage country in the world, and don’t you forget it!) In fact, in 2009 the United States led developed nations, with 24.8 percent of workers earning less than two-thirds of the median income. By comparison, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland and Germany all came in at between 20 and 21 percent of workers earning less than two-thirds of their respective median incomes. (Republicans: We’re number one!!!)

John Schmitt of the Center for Economic and Policy Research offers a set of policy conclusions stemming from this observation. A key problem is that the United States has set its minimum wage too low, so that the minimum wage doesn’t exert upward pressure on low wages defined in relation to the median: “In France in the mid-2000s, for example, the minimum wage was set near the country’s low-wage threshold and that country had among the lowest levels of low-wage work in the OECD.” In the United States, though, that’s not the case even in states with minimum wages set well above the federal level.

The growing prevalence of low-wage work in the United States contributes to income inequality from the bottom, just as the increasing wealth of the top 1 percent, and especially the top 0.1 percent, adds to inequality from the top. The middle is a shrinking place, and you can bet that, without a major shift of economic and political direction, its future is not only to shrink but to be squeezed downward.

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tpmmedia: “The continuing growth of the wage gap between high and middle earners is the result of various laissez-faire policies (acts of omission as well as commission) including globalization, deregulation, privatization, eroded unionization, and weakened labor standards…The gap between the very highest earners — the top 1 percent — and all other earners, including other high earners, reflects the escalation of CEO and other managers’ compensation and the growth of compensation in the financial sector.” — Larry Mishel, President of the Economic Policy Institute, speaking about the institute’s forthcoming study, “The State of Working America.” TPM’s Brian Beutler looks the EPI’s new reflections on the status of the U.S. worker over the last several decades.
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tpmmedia:

“The continuing growth of the wage gap between high and middle earners is the result of various laissez-faire policies (acts of omission as well as commission) including globalization, deregulation, privatization, eroded unionization, and weakened labor standards…The gap between the very highest earners — the top 1 percent — and all other earners, including other high earners, reflects the escalation of CEO and other managers’ compensation and the growth of compensation in the financial sector.”

— Larry Mishel, President of the Economic Policy Institute, speaking about the institute’s forthcoming study, “The State of Working America.”

TPM’s Brian Beutler looks the EPI’s new reflections on the status of the U.S. worker over the last several decades.

A message to the Republican voting base Your ADD hurts us all. William Saletan thinks the GOP candidates waged class warfare during the debate last night, with their many protests about over-taxing the proletariat. He says: I’m not suggesting, of course, that the Republicans are actually Marxists. They’re just speaking up for compassion, social mobility, and progressive taxation. There’s nothing wrong with that. What’s wrong is crying “class warfare” when Obama does the same thing. Saletan must not be aware of the proud tradition of double-standards inherent with the GOP. Whatever they do / say is fine. Different rules for Democrats though.
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A message to the Republican voting base

Your ADD hurts us all.

William Saletan thinks the GOP candidates waged class warfare during the debate last night, with their many protests about over-taxing the proletariat. He says:

I’m not suggesting, of course, that the Republicans are actually Marxists. They’re just speaking up for compassion, social mobility, and progressive taxation. There’s nothing wrong with that. What’s wrong is crying “class warfare” when Obama does the same thing.

Saletan must not be aware of the proud tradition of double-standards inherent with the GOP. Whatever they do / say is fine. Different rules for Democrats though.

Hoffa Threatens GOP At Obama Event: "Take These Son Of Bitches Out"

tumblrtribune:

“We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They’ve got a war, they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner. It’s going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We’re going to win that war,” Jimmy Hoffa said to a heavily union crowd.

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AND THEN HE WENT ON TO SAY….

President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. AndPresident Obama, we want one thing: jobs, jobs, jobs… That’s what we’re going to tell him. He’s gonna be … and when he sees what we’re doing here, he will be inspired. But he needs help. And you know what? Everybody here’s got to vote. If we go back, and we keep the eye on the prize, let’s take these son of a bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong.

A call to vote. Heavens! 

Artist – Mitt Priggee via Bob Cesca … Labor Day: the middle-class was built by unions and will die without them Think Progress explains:  …despite the many benefits unions have provided the United States, right-wing politicians and business interests have for years sought to undermine the ability of Americans to organize to demand better pay, benefits, and conditions. From the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act to the recent GOP-led efforts to kill public worker collective bargaining rights, these assaults have successfully decreased union membership over time. In the prosperous 1950′s, nearly one in three Americans was in a union. Today, it is closer to one in ten. This has had a detrimental effect on the American middle class. As the following chart from CAP’s David Madland and Karla Waters demonstrates, as union membership fell from the 1970′s to the present, the middle class’s share of national income fell as well: So what’s the GOP Teaparty have to offer that would replace middle-class incomes and union-bargained benefits? A simple three-stage plan: the rich get richer, no minimum wage, and you never retire.   You might wish to vote accordingly.
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Artist – Mitt Priggee via Bob Cesca

…

Labor Day: the middle-class was built by unions and will die without them

Think Progress explains: 

…despite the many benefits unions have provided the United States, right-wing politicians and business interests have for years sought to undermine the ability of Americans to organize to demand better pay, benefits, and conditions. From the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act to the recent GOP-led efforts to kill public worker collective bargaining rights, these assaults have successfully decreased union membership over time. In the prosperous 1950′s, nearly one in three Americans was in a union. Today, it is closer to one in ten.

This has had a detrimental effect on the American middle class. As the following chart from CAP’s David Madland and Karla Waters demonstrates, as union membership fell from the 1970′s to the present, the middle class’s share of national income fell as well:

So what’s the GOP Teaparty have to offer that would replace middle-class incomes and union-bargained benefits? A simple three-stage plan: the rich get richer, no minimum wage, and you never retire.  

You might wish to vote accordingly.

. Another Republican ‘jobs’ plan: using free inmate labor to replace public sector workers ONE MORE GIFT TO WORKING- AND MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICA from Wisconsin’s own Scott Walker: While Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) law dismantling collective bargaining rights has harmed teachers, nurses, and other civil servants, it’s helping a different group in Wisconsinites — inmates. Prisoners are now taking up jobs that used to be held by unionized workers in some parts of the state. As the Madison Capital Times reports, “Besides losing their right to negotiate over the percentage of their paycheck that will go toward health care and retirement, unions also lost the ability to claim work as a ‘union-only’ job, opening the door for private workers and evidently even inmates to step in and take their place.” Inmates are not paid for their work, but may receive time off of their sentences. Maybe we can all get thrown in prison so everyone will have a job!
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Another Republican ‘jobs’ plan: using free inmate labor to replace public sector workers

ONE MORE GIFT TO WORKING- AND MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICA from Wisconsin’s own Scott Walker:

While Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) law dismantling collective bargaining rights has harmed teachers, nurses, and other civil servants, it’s helping a different group in Wisconsinites — inmates. Prisoners are now taking up jobs that used to be held by unionized workers in some parts of the state.

As the Madison Capital Times reports, “Besides losing their right to negotiate over the percentage of their paycheck that will go toward health care and retirement, unions also lost the ability to claim work as a ‘union-only’ job, opening the door for private workers and evidently even inmates to step in and take their place.” Inmates are not paid for their work, but may receive time off of their sentences.

Maybe we can all get thrown in prison so everyone will have a job!

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