While recession looms, workers work harder than ever for litte return
No real recovery, no raises, no vacation -- what gives?
| Two thirds through 2007, Americans face a looming recession, not fully recovered from the last one, and work longer and more productively than workers anywhere else but fail to earn either a raise or time off. We excerpt from Heather Boushey, writing about the faux recovery at AlterNet, August 30, Bradley S. Klapper on productivity for the Associated Press, September 7, and Don Monkerud on vanishing vacations at AlterNet, September 3. |
excerpted by Jeffery J. Smith
September, 2007
Ready for the next recession? Many of America's working families have not recovered from the last one of 2001 (Heather Boushey). According to the Census Bureau, median household grew 0.7% between 2005 to 2006 yet remained 2.0% below where it had been in 2000, at the last economic peak.
Families are worse off in this recovery, which began in the middle of 2001, than they were during the previous two recoveries. After five years of recovery in the 1990s, household income was only 1.3% below its prerecession peak and at the comparable point in 1980s, household income was only 0.9% below its prerecession peak.
Most of the growth in family income has gone to those not needing it. Since 2000, families in the top fifth have seen their income rise by 1.0% -- they were the only ones to see any growth at all -- while those in the bottom fifth saw theirs fall by 4.5%.
What's more, it's been more work, not rising earnings, that pushed incomes up. From 2005 to 2006, median full-time earnings fell 1.1% for men and 1.2% for women. This is the third year in a row that median earnings have fallen. Employment rates are higher, indicating that families are coping with lower earnings by working more.
Used to be wages did not fall but rose when workers created more output per input but not anymore, despite the United States leading the world in labor productivity, according to a UN report by the International Labor Organization (Bradley Klapper).
Divide a country's gross domestic product by the number of people employed. One finds: the average US worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg at $55,641, Belgium at $55,235, and France at $54,609.
Norway generates the most output per working hour, $37.99, a figure inflated by the country's billions of dollars in oil exports and high prices for goods at home. The US is second at $35.63, about a half dollar ahead of third-place France. Seven years ago, French workers produced over a dollar more than their American counterparts; they led Yanks in hourly productivity from 1994 to 2003.
In 2006, the US employee put in an average 1,804 hours, the Norwegian worker did 1,407.1 hours, and the French1,564.4. In Asia, seven economies -- South Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Thailand -- surpassed 2,200 average hours per worker.
China and other East Asian countries are catching up. Productivity in the region has doubled in the past decade and is accelerating faster than anywhere else. But workers there are only one-fifth as productive as laborers in industrialized countries.
In America, a manufacturing employee produced an unprecedented $104,606 of value in 2005. An American farm laborer created $52,585 worth of output, down 10% from seven years ago, when US agricultural productivity peaked.
Americans work more efficiently but don’t get paid more or get to take more time off -- just the opposite (Don Moneirud). Americans even continue to work while they are on vacation.
Many employees have no choice because, at the bottom of the pay scale, they must work more to make ends meet. A third of all women and a quarter of all men receive no paid vacation. Meanwhile, those raking in over $1 million a year (less than a quarter of one percent of all taxpayers) increased their incomes 26%.
The US remains the only industrialized country that has no legally mandated annual leave. France leads the world with 30 days off a year. Employees in Britain, German, Australia, Spain and Sweden have 20 or more days off a year, and Canada and Japan have 10 days off. The Chinese get three weeks off a year. Many employees take off more than the minimum; the French average 39 days and the English 24.
It's not like we don't need vacations. One in three American workers are chronically overworked. Those making over $50,000 a year report the highest levels of stress.
We can't expect to wait until retirement to have more time off, either. The number of those receiving pensions decreased by half since 1980. The age to receive full Social Security benefits increased to 67.
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JS: What we can do is demand an extra income apart from our labor, a la Alaska’s oil share, but from all sites and resources and to all registered voters. Getting a Citizens Dividend, humans can choose to work and play as much or as little as they need to live life fully.
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Jeffery J. Smith runs the Forum on Geonomics.
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Also see: Some Tax Cuts Are Wiser Than Others
Willing to Take On a Difficult Challenge?
Are Americans Vacation-Starved? |
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