Your Source for NPR News & Music

The State Of American Labor

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio

Rideshare drivers hold signs during a protest outside of Uber headquarters on in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Labor in the United States faces myriad challenges in 2019. For one, the market for it is slowing down. Job postings in the U.S. decreased for the second month in a row in July compared to a year earlier.

The federal minimum wage hasn’t risen in a decade and many workers also do not have paid time off.

Gig economy workers are particularly vulnerable. Earlier this year, the Trump administration classified ride-share drivers as contractors and not employees, making it more difficult for them to receive worker protections.

So what is the state of U.S. labor in 2019? What worker protections are needed in a changing labor market? We talk with a panel of experts to find out.

GUESTS

Steven Greenhouse, Author, “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor”; former labor and workplace reporter, The New York Times @greenhousenyt

Janice Fine, Assistant professor of labor Studies and employment relations & director of strategy and research at the Center on Innovation and Worker Organization, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Roxana Tynan, Executive director, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE); @roxtynan

For more, visit https://the1a.org.

© 2019 WAMU 88.5 – American University Radio.

Copyright 2019 WAMU 88.5

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Related Stories
  1. Texas charging another large group of migrants with “riot participation”
  2. El Pasoans catch glimpse of solar eclipse
  3. Texas criminally charges more than 200 migrants involved in alleged “riot” at the border
  4. Lebanese migrant allegedly tied to terrorist group appears in federal court with a black eye