Labor Policy

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

Essayist and cultural critic Barbara Ehrenreich has always specialized in turning received wisdom on its head with intelligence, clarity, and verve. With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, she decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at $6 to $7 an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet.

As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at $675 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home assistant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test.

So, do the poor have survival strategies unknown to the middle class? And did Ehrenreich feel the "bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform?" Nah. Even in her best-case scenario, with all the advantages of education, health, a car, and money for first month's rent, she has to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost winds up in a shelter. As Ehrenreich points out with her potent combination of humor and outrage, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed. Rental prices skyrocket, but wages never rise. Rather, jobs are so cheap as measured by the pay that workers are encouraged to take as many as they can. Behind those trademark Wal-Mart vests, it turns out, are the borderline homeless. With her characteristic wry wit and her unabashedly liberal bent, Ehrenreich brings the invisible poor out of hiding and, in the process, the world they inhabit--where civil liberties are often ignored and hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket out of poverty. --Lesley Reed

The Craftsman

Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life

Moonlighting on the Internet

Turn the Internet Into Your Money Machine

“Well-written, practical, useful, money-earning advice for anyone interested in using the internet to create an extra $500 to $5,000 a month. Yanik Silver, one of the internet's truly remarkable success stories, holds nothing back. Instead of lots of meaningless claptrap contained in most books about the internet, the author shares the inside secrets of what really works. And what doesn't.” -Ted Nicholas, author of Billion Dollar Marketing Secrets

“Moonlighting Online is a breath of fresh air. Yanik Silver doesn't claim you'll become a millionaire online, but he can show you 5 effective and simple ways to pull in a lot more money than you're earning now-and do it month after month. This is brilliant advice from a true professional. I strongly recommend this book.” -Joseph Sugarman, chairman, BluBlocker Corporation

“Forget all the hype and B.S. you see about making money on the internet-Yanik Silver has truly provided the easiest and most down-to-earth ways of legitimately socking away a little (or a lot of) extra 'life-changing' money each month online.” -Robert Scheinfeld, New York Times bestselling author of Busting Loose From The Money Game

“Imagine waking up every morning and finding orders waiting for you in your email box. While you were sleeping, customers from around the world were sending you money. I've been doing just that for over 12 years and Yanik Silver shows you how you can do it, too. It's a thrill every day.” -Melvin Powers, author of How to Get Rich in Mail Order

“If you want to get rich overnight, this isn't the book for you. If you want simple-to-use strategies for making an extra $500+ per month online with minimal effort, listen to Yanik. He is one of the few who truly knows how this works.” -Timothy Ferriss, New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek

Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Borzoi Books)

From the greatly admired author of The Work of Nations and The Future of Success, one of America's greatest economic and political thinkers as well as a distinguished public servant in three national administrations, a breakthrough book on the clash between capitalism and democracy.

Mid-twentieth-century capitalism has turned into global capitalism, and global capitalism—turbocharged, Web-based, and able to find and make almost anything just about anywhere—has turned into supercapitalism. But as Robert B. Reich makes clear in this eye-opening book, while supercapitalism is working wonderfully well to enlarge the economic pie, democracy—charged with caring for all citizens—is becoming less and less effective under its influence.

Reich explains how widening inequalities of income and wealth, heightened job insecurity, and the spreading effects of global warming are the logical outcomes of supercapitalism. He shows us why companies, fighting harder than ever to maintain their competitive positions, have become even more deeply involved in politics; and how average citizens, seeking great deals and invested in the stock market to an unprecedented degree, are increasingly loath to stand by their values if it means biting the hands that feed them. He makes clear how the tools traditionally used to temper America's societal problems—fair taxation, well-funded public education, trade unions—have withered as supercapitalism has burgeoned.

Reich sets out a clear course to a vibrant capitalism and a concurrent, equally vibrant democracy. He argues forcefully that the spheres of business and politics must be kept distinct. He calls for an end to the legal fiction that corporations are citizens, as well as the illusion that corporations can be "socially responsible" until laws define social needs. Reich explains why we must stop treating companies as if they were people—and must therefore abolish the corporate income tax and levy it on shareholders instead, hold individuals rather than corporations guilty of criminal conduct, and not expect companies to be "patriotic." For, as Reich says, only people can be citizens, and only citizens should be allowed to participate in democratic decision making.

The Employer's Legal Handbook

The plain-English resource every employer, manager and HR professional needs.

New laws affect every aspect of being an employer -- from interviewing and hiring, to handling employee benefits to firing.

The most complete guide to your legal rights and responsibilities, The Employer's Legal Handbook shows you how to comply with the most recent workplace laws and regulations, run a safe and fair workplace and avoid lawsuits. Learn everything you need to know about:

The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker (Borzoi Books)

The Big Squeeze takes a fresh, probing, and often shocking look at the stresses and strains faced by tens of millions of American workers as wages have stagnated, health and pension benefits have grown stingier, and job security has shriveled.

Going behind the scenes, Steven Greenhouse tells the stories of software engineers in Seattle, hotel housekeepers in Chicago, call center workers in New York, and janitors in Houston, as he explores why, in the world’s most affluent nation, so many corporations are intent on squeezing their workers dry. We meet all kinds of workers: white collar and blue collar, high tech and low tech, middle income and low income; employees who stock shelves during a hurricane while locked inside their store, get fired after suffering debilitating injuries on the job, face egregious sexual harassment, and get laid off when their companies move high-tech operations abroad. We also meet young workers having a hard time starting out and seventy-year-old workers with too little money saved up to retire.

The book explains how economic, business, political, and social trends—among them globalization, the influx of immigrants, and the Wal-Mart effect—have fueled the squeeze. We see how the social contract between employers and employees, guaranteeing steady work and good pensions, has eroded over the last three decades, damaged by massive layoffs of factory and office workers and Wall Street’s demands for ever-higher profits. In short, the post–World War II social contract that helped build the world’s largest and most prosperous middle class has been replaced by a startling contradiction: corporate profits, economic growth, and worker productivity have grown strongly while worker pay has languished and Americans face ever-greater pressures to work harder and longer.

Greenhouse also examines companies that are generous to their workers and can serve as models for all of corporate America: Costco, Patagonia, and the casino-hotels of Las Vegas among them. Finally, he presents a series of pragmatic, ready-to-be-implemented suggestions on what government, business, and labor should do to alleviate the squeeze.

A balanced, consistently revealing exploration of a major American crisis.

Labor Relations: Striking a Balance

John Budd continues to present the most dynamic, engaging approach to understanding labor relations in the 21st century with Labor Relations, 2/e. Budd’s well-received and award-winning presentation shows labor relations as a system for striking a balance between employment relationship goals (efficiency, equity, and voice) and between the rights of labor and management. Labor Relations moves beyond a process-based focus in studying this topic by placing the discussion of contemporary U.S. processes into the context of underlying themes: what are the goals of the system; are those goals being fulfilled; and are reforms needed. Central topics are placed in the broader context of the goals of the employment relationship, conflicting rights, and the environment of the 21st Century. Budd’s broader context therefore makes labor relations more engaging and relevant to students. It also allows instructors to raise important “big picture” ideas that go beyond mere how-to descriptions.

The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed and Overworked- 21st Century Edition

Ernie Zelinski has taught more than 150,000 people what THE JOY OF NOT WORKING is about: learning to live every part of your life—work and play, employment, and retirement alike—to the fullest. In this completely revised and expanded edition, you'll learn how to create an excellent work/life balance by working less, producing more, and being more leisurely; how to gain the courage to leave a life-draining job; and, if you are recently retired or unemployed, how to bring purpose and community back to your life. Plus, new to this edition are 30 inspiring letters from readers detailing how the book helped them live a more exciting and rewarding life. Illustrated with eye-opening exercises, thought-provoking diagrams, and lively cartoons and quotations, THE JOY OF NOT WORKING will guide you to living a more exciting and rewarding life—at work and at play.

Triangle: The Fire That Changed America