Global real wage growth has stagnated compared to productivity in recent decades contributing to widening income inequality. Economic desperation is compounded by the fact that half of the world’s population lacks any form of social protection.
Four-day workweek pilots are emerging across the globe, with some companies now shifting from the pilot phase to implementing the policy permanently. Beyond the U.S., political leaders are voicing support for the concept.
The upward redistribution of income has cost Americans workers $50 trillion over the past several decades. On average, extreme inequality is costing the median income full-time worker about $42,000 a year.
Long before the 2008 financial collapse rocketing, debt and financial wizardry masked the deep underlying fragility of finance-led growth, with wages and productivity stagnating, inequality exploding and ecological systems teetering.
This holiday season, Amazon will move millions of packages at dizzying speed. Internal injury reports suggest all that convenience is coming at the expense of worker safety.
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David Cooper and Lawrence Mishel
Economic Policy Insitute
Over the last few decades, productivity has grown substantially, but the hourly compensation of the typical worker has grown much less. Any effort to reestablish a link between pay and productivity growth will need to promote policies that enable workers to once again join unions and bargain collectively.
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