A Working Nation: Workers, Work, and Government in the New Economy
By David T. Ellwood, Rebecca M. Blank, Joseph Blasi, Douglas Kruse, William A. Niskanen and Karen Lynn-Dyson
Dramatic changes in the U.S. economy are producing new winners and losers, and the relationship among workers, employers and government is being transformed. This collection of four perspectives on the new economy considers possible policy directions that could drastically affect the situation of low-wage workers.
- National income has been rising but the wages of most male workers have stagnated and the wages of less skilled workers have fallen sharply. The increase went for higher wages for more-skilled workers and to pay the much higher number of women in the workforce. Lower pay for less-skilled workers and changes in family structure mean that children in the bottom third are far worse off than they were 20 years ago.
- The risk of job displacement and layoffs has risen, but high-performance strategies by employers can still increase both productivity and worker satisfaction. Two workers in five, for example, are either involved in some kind of profit-sharing arrangement or own stock in their employers. These often seem to increase productivity.
- Pay and employment problems of the least-skilled could be addressed with strengthened basic K-12 education, school-to-work and apprenticeship programs, reliance on the Earned Income Tax Credit and improved job ladders.
The authors
disagreed on the value of wage or health care subsidies, but agreed
that low-road employer practices were growing. New alternatives must
be explored as they arise.
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David
T. Ellwood (David_ellwood@harvard.edu)
is Scott M. Black Professor of Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy
School of Government, Harvard University. He is also former Director
of the Aspen Domestic Strategy Group.
Rebecca M. Blank was on the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton. She is Henry Carter Adams Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and professor of economics at the University of Michigan.
Joseph Blasi is professor of sociology at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University.
Douglas Kruse is professor of economics at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, and research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
William A. Niskanen was on the Council of Economic Advisers under President Reagan and is chairman of the Cato Institute.
Karen Lynn-Dyson is Managing Associate for Corporate Communications at Caliber Associates, Inc., and was formerly Associate Director of the Aspen Institute's Domestic Strategy Group.
