RESTORING REWARDS TO WORK
Hartmann, Heidi & Spalter-Roth, Roberta
Restoring Rewards to Work BY HEIDI HARTMANN AND ROBERTA SPALTER-ROTH Empowering workers constitutes the first step toward a stronger economy and a stronger citizenry. It is a vital step toward...
...It is a vital step toward overcoming inequality in American society...
...The intervention in the Persian Gulf has silenced virtually all discussion of the "peace dividend...
...Roberta Spalter-Roth, a sociologist and deputy director for research at IWPR, is also an adjunct professor of women's studies at George Washington University, where she directs the graduate-level Women and Public Policy Program...
...The number of workers fired illegally each year is approximately equal to one-fourth the number who vote for a union in a representation election...
...More than half of all low-wage workers are the only wage workers in their families (or live alone...
...Union membership also translates into political power that can be used to promote policies that imHigh wages are key to a strong economy— an economy that produces real goods and services that its workers can afford to buy...
...In addition, policies such as tax credits for working parents do nothing to increase the political power of working women and men...
...two million of them work full-time, year-round...
...unions are organizing in new industries among new constituencies...
...Employment no longer provides an escape from poverty...
...It is time to restore a more equal playing field...
...more than two-fifths of such children are poor...
...High wages also lead employers to make productivity-enhancing investment decisions...
...But the proportion of the work force that is unionized has fallen, especially since 1970...
...Even if generous income assistance were available, the wages employers pay would be held to a minimum...
...Heidi Hartmann is an economist and director of the Washington-based Institute for Women's Policy Research, a nonprofit organization that produces and disseminates "user-friendly" research on policy issues of special importance to women...
...Low-wage employment falls disproportionately on women of all races and nonwhite men, significantly reducing their chances of earning a wage sufficient to support a family of four above the poverty level...
...A worker's right to collective representation is guaranteed by the Wagner Act of 1935, but that right is not backed up by meaningful penalties against employers who knowingly violate the Act...
...Unions are an important force for wage equality, since they tend to bring up the wages at the bottom more than those at the top, just as they help minorities and women more than white men...
...White women are more than three times as likely as white men to be low-wage workers, and men of color more than one-and-a-half times as likely...
...Union-representation elections are still won by unions in about the same proportion as formerly, but fewer and fewer organizing campaigns reach the election stage...
...We are paying dearly for the de-democratization of both our economy and polity...
...Government programs to supplement the income of the working poor are desirable, but the ability to increase such programs may be limited, given the Federal budget deficit, the savings-and-loan bailout, and U.S...
...To redemocratize, we must restore the power of working people...
...Our research shows that unionization is among the most effective strategies for raising pay, especially for women and minority men...
...More than seven million poor children have at least one working parent...
...Women and minorities make up a disproportionate share of new union members...
...And the Federal Government enacted no new policies to facilitate the integration of work and family, as working women and working families suffered a loss in political power as well...
...We have witnessed a decade of skewed national priorities, in which Congress and the White House provided tax breaks for the rich and cut spending programs for the poor...
...While labor unions have not always exhibited adequate flexibility, foresight, or inclusiveness, the labor movement today is responding to industrial change, shifting economic growth, and a changing work force...
...Just as Henry Ford thought, high wages create a stable domestic market...
...Being a union member, or being covered by a collective-bargaining agreement, raised 1984 wages by $ 1.79 per hour for Hispanic men, $1.32 for black men, $1.26 for Hispanic women, $1.01 for black women, $0.68 for white women, and $0.41 for white men, when all other factors (such as occupation, industry, firm size, education and experience) were held constant...
...Employers are on the offensive against collective bargaining...
...prove the quality of life...
...real wages fell for most workers...
...the number of workers fired illegally for union activity has increased dramatically in the same period...
...Rising real wages and a more equal income distribution are also key to a strong economy—an economy that produces real economic growth (not paper growth based on junk-bond mergers) and real goods and services that its workers can afford to buy...
...Women of color are four times as likely to be low-wage workers as are white men with comparable skills and experience...
...Along with women's groups, labor unions have strongly supported such policies as family and medical leave and subsidies for child care...
...history...
...During the 1980s, the need for better wages for all workers increased as women, traditionally secondary earners, assumed greater responsibility for their own and their children's well-being...
...More than eight million working adults are poor...
...Even when women and minority men have educational background and work experience comparable to white men, they are more likely to be low-wage workers...
...We also "invested" in the most expensive peacetime arms build-up in U.S...
...military involvement in the Middle East...
...Unions have also strongly supported civil-rights legislation and pay equity, policies that contribute to equalizing incomes...
...What can be done to restore the rewards to work...
...When that one working parent is a low-wage worker, the children have no better chance of escaping from poverty than if the parent were not working at all...
...Yet the ability to move families to a decent living standard through wage work decreased...
...In percentage terms, the union increase was more than 15 per cent for blacks and Hispanics, 11 per cent for white women, and 4 per cent for white men...
...And for many, union membership provides an extended community and a social support network that assists families in times of need...
...High wages can be as much the spur to sound economic growth as the by-products of that growth...
Vol. 54 • November 1990 • No. 11
