The Declining Fortunes of American Workers: Six Dimensions and an Agenda for Reform

At the turn of the century, I undertook an assessment of the then-current state of workplace rights and obligations. I concluded that the balance of power between employers and workers was “badly skewed” in favor of employers. This Article revisits that topic for the purpose of assessing twenty-first-century trends through the lens of six workplace dimensions. They are: workforce attachment, union–management relations, employment security, income inequality, balancing work and family, and retirement security.

An examination of these dimensions reveals that the status of U.S. workers has significantly declined during the first sixteen years of the twenty-first century. This Article then sets out a proposed agenda for reform designed to recalibrate the current imbalance in the respective fortunes of employees and employers.