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Two of Obama’s labor nominees, Patricia Smith for Department of Labor Solicitor and Lorelei Boylan to run the Wage and Hour division, are stuck in the Senate because of Senator Mike Enzi’s obstructionism.
These appointments come at a crucial time. A recent report indictated that 68% of low-wage workers have been cheated out of pay in the last week:
In surveying 4,387 workers in various low-wage industries, including apparel manufacturing, child care and discount retailing, the researchers found that the typical worker had lost $51 the previous week through wage violations, out of average weekly earnings of $339. That translates into a 15 percent loss in pay.
The researchers said one of the most surprising findings was how successful low-wage employers were in pressuring workers not to file for workers’ compensation. Only 8 percent of those who suffered serious injuries on the job filed for compensation to pay for medical care and missed days at work stemming from those injuries.
Even people lucky enough to have jobs in this economy are feeling the pinch, and employers are actively cheating them out of their wages. And Mike Enzi is blocking the nomination of people to fix the problem, even as the Labor Department plans a ramp-up in enforcement.
Today, as we all remember that the American worker is what made this country what it is, take a moment and write the members of the Senate HELP committee and tell them to move these nominations along.
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Now, the US has increased its productivity very substantially since 1970, but working Americans have captured very little of the resulting extra wealth. It has been hogged by the rich. William Domhoff notes, “Although [by 2004] overall income had grown by 27% since 1979, 33% of the gains went to the top 1%.” Silver’s graph is eloquent.
Graph is here
Domhoff adds, “As of 2007, income inequality in the United States was at an all-time high for recent history, with the top 0.01% — that’s one-hundredth of one percent — receiving 6% of all U.S. wages, which is double what it was for that tiny slice in 2000; the top 10% received 49.7%, the highest since 1917 (Saez, 2009).”
“As we barbecue on imported grills and watch sports on our foreign-made LCD televisions and lament the bad economy, we should take a moment Monday to celebrate not just the individual worker but what is left of the American labor movement, since only if it is strengthened is our country likely to succeed in stepping back from the abyss. Aristotle warned us that each form of legitimate government is subject to decay. Aristocracies too easily become juntas. And democracies too easily become demogoguery and mob rule. The first eight years of the twenty-first century took us perilously close to both at once.”
The above -and more- can be read here
I for one have had a bad exeperience with a workers comp claim. In a way it is hard to blame the employers. They are caught in the same crack we will be if there is a individual mandate without a public option in health care. They are required to carry the insurance without any real pressure to control premiums. Almost any claim will cause their premiums to skyrocket and comes straight out of their bottom line. So the shit rolls downhill onto the workers.
If it wasn’t for Unions NONE of us would be able to make a decent living. Paying decent wages is antithetical to Corporate interests! We need more and better Unions so the middle class can make a resurgence back to solvency!
I don’t think so. The more money circulating within a society, the more money people have to spend on those corporations’ goods and services. This is especially true over the long-term.
Repubs and self-proclaimed “pro-business” types bastardize the charters of corporations as meaning “maximizing profits” only for the uber-wealthy and only for the short term.
In my opinion, this is the fundamental economic fallacy of the Repub philosophy. Totally unsustainable, as we’re seeing right now.
Well wee hee! Show me the corporations that are giving generous raises instead of cutting jobs these days, if you please.
Then I ask why have wages stagnated over the last few decades? Just as I have at the same time seen first hand corporations that no longer care about their people as they once did and only see them not much better than chattel. I have worked for several large corporations and watched as this took place. Once they highly valued good employees now virtually you are just a number. It was Regan and his me me me philosophy of making as much money for the bottom line and his breaking every Union he could. This has been a free for all since the 80’s.
The only companies that give a shit are the start ups and small companies which don’t report to Wall Street.
I agree completely, especially as a small corporation founder, and years before working for multi-national conglomerates.
I was simply addressing how they use that excuse of maximizing profits to get John Q. Nascar to vote against his own self-interest. Trickle down economics and all that jazz.
I’m saying it doesn’t have to be this way, and I’d like to change what it means to be “pro-business,” because pro-worker does in fact mean pro-business in the truest sense, in my opinion.
Thom Hartmann speaks very well on this topic.
What both corporate and labor alike must understand is that were it not for labor, there would be no wealth of any kind, anywhere. None. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Nothing. If and when labor ever gets a clue, corporate will find itself in a position of having to share a bigger portion of the wealth with the people who actually create it.
Now that makes sense. Like I said there was a time hen they did care about the welfare of their workers but that day has come and gone.
Juan Cole did a piece today that knocks it out of the ball park on the very issues being discussed in the comments here.
Enjoy:
Informed Comment: “Where have All the broad Shoulders Gone? Or Labor Day in a Kleptocracy”…History, Foreign Policy, Middle East, South Asia, Religious Studies, War on Terror.
http://www.juancole.com/…/where…..ne-or.html – 21 hours ago – Similar
@8
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
Abraham Lincoln
I thought the real evil highlighted in this article was Enzi and his obstructionism. Did I miss something?
No, that’s about right.
Jason how does this not aptly demonstrates how ineffectual & incompetent Harry Reid’s ability as Senate leader ?Think of the progress Reid’s leadership has hindered.It really won’t worry me none if he looses his senate re-election bid.I say good riddance to Harry Reid.