Taking a Look at Labor Economics

The ensuing conflict, between labor vs. capital, during the late 1800s initiated a struggle of power in the workforce between the rich-industrialists (or corporate leaders) and the middle-class/lower-class workers. The Capitalists had intervened with the protests orchestrated by the workers, ensuring that the power remains with them. The strategies of the industrialists and the unique ways of protesting from the workers, contributes to spur a vigorous argument between the employers and their employees. The workers tried their best to ameliorate their working conditions by forming numerous unions, trying to fix currency (gold to paper) to economically help themselves, refusing to go to work, resorting to violence and non-violence, etc. However, the Corporate leaders kept an upper hand and dissolved the workers’ ambitions by hiring scabs, creating a strong relationship with the military (Pullman strike), controlling and fixing policies at work, hiring immigrants for cheap labor, etc. Throughout the late 1800s, the corporate leaders have been able to successfully prevent workers who had resorted to: forming unions, protests (ex. Pullman strike and Homestead strike), violence (ex. Haymarket Sq. Riot), etc., from achieving a radical solution to the workers issues with the management by using several different strategies including but not limited to: hiring scabs/immigrants in the Homestead strike, using government support in the Pullman strike and keeping the power on their side

Ira Knight, who is an author of article “Let’s Make the Minimum Wage a Living Wage”, expresses an opinion that increasing the minimum wage would help all struggling workers and at the same time improve U.S economy. On the other side, Janice Steele in her article “Keep the Minimum Wage Where It Is” argues that raising the minimum wage would have bad effects on workers, consumers and small businesses. Ira Knight’s article seems to be the stronger of the two positions because her arguments are based on several recent studies, and last but not least, she had a personal experience with the minimum wage job.

This research paper will be addressing minimum wage and the comparison and correlation of it from when it was first instituted through the Fair Labor Act of 1938 to now in 2015. This paper will also go into the inequality of pay concerning women as well. Some factors that I’m focusing on are instances that have affected minimum wage, firstly the affect that unions had in guaranteeing the continuing rise of minimum wage along with inflation until it began to stagnate in the 1970s, which seemed to happen in correlation with the decline of companies encouraging unions; and, secondly what has happened to the work force as a result of women transitioning from free home and domestic work to paid jobs in the market place in such great numbers.

The articles "Rethinking Work" and "Higher Minimum Wage" has many differences but also some similarities. A difference is in rethinking work it talks about people hating work and in minimum wage it talks about people liking work if they got paid more. This shows how different they are because one is supporting that people don't like to work and the other is saying people do like to work. A similarity that they share though is that If people get paid a little money they will be less willing to work than if you paid them lots of money. It shows that even though the two articles are different they have a connection to each other. Another difference is that they are based around different themes. Rethinking work talks about people not liking

The United States’ minimum wage has been a concerning issue amongst the low wage earners because of the amount they earn is not enough for them to live on their own. Therefore causing the citizens who earn minimum wage to have an impossible time finding a place to stay and expenses for daily survival. Increasing the minimum wage will solve the issues that the minimum wage earners make, thus increasing the chances of survival for the entire population. Inflation is one of the reasons why minimum wage is a big issue, the minimum wage has not been keeping up with inflation at all causing things that would regularly be cheap to be more costly than it used to be. There are people who are against the raise of the minimum wage and may say that there will be an increase between of unemployment rate between the younger people because of the fact

In the show, “The Office” we can apply an economic lens. We can apply the economic lens through the workers and how they see and act towards one another. Michael Scott is the dictator of this show, he tells everyone what to do and when to do it. When the warehouse people were finishing up training people on safety in the workplace,Michael got offended when Darrell told him it was like playing nerf in the workplace, that basically it’s a joke and it tested Michaels authority at work. He then changed his attitude to make everyone think that it’s the best job ever. He tried to convince all the workers while acting depressed and tried to kill himself by jumping off the roof of the building and calling the workers “blue collared workers” while everyone was watching, even though he wasn’t actually going to jump off the building. He tried to explain through his actions that the workplace is a much more dangerous environment than they make think. This was made out to be really funny but could happen in real life to some companies.

Nearly 80% of teens are currently working 20 plus hours a week just to try and make a minimal living. Most teenagers that go to college end college in $30,000 in student loan debt. No wonder the idea of going to college after high school is becoming an unpopular idea for teenagers who are faced with thousands of dollars of debt after college and their only 21, and trying to make a living while trying to go to college is nearly impossible. Let alone trying to start a life while a life of debt is looming in college student’s futures. Most young people end up not being able to start their life’s because it is simply too expensive. Many students after college end up putting off living on their own, starting a family and end up

Huppke’s and “The Economists” articles have conflicting opinions about the argument of minimum wage. Economists’ article stays neutral on the purpose of minimum wage; “If, at a higher minimum wage, some of these low wage workers end up being unemployed, that is very destructive, but if research suggests that large numbers of workers can find jobs

The introduction of minimum wage, or an increase in the minimum wage burdens the employer with increased costs, so the employer will seek to levy this burden onto the labor force to compensate for these additional costs. Veldhuis supports this by contending that minimum wage causes employers to “respond by reducing the number of workers they employ and/or the number of hours their employees work”. (1) This reaction is explained by theories of producer behavior. Economic theory states that firms are profit maximizers. Therefore, to maximize profits, the firm must minimize costs. A firm minimizes costs when the slope of the Marginal Rate of Technical Substitution is equal to the rate at which capital can be traded for labor in the market (-w/r). This is expressed by the equation = . As illustrated in

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) started in July 1935 to protect the rights of employees, rather, they be union or nor-union employees (Pozgar, 2012). The employees are protected under the Act or may employ in bubble-like, rigorous goings-on in situations other than the customary union organizations and cooperative bargaining. The National Labor Relations Board regulates the employers from interfering with the rights of the employees to implement or organize and join with a groups that offers assists with collective bargaining purposes like organization union or joining one (Pozgar, 2012). The employer may not restrain, coerce or stop employees

In the U.S. labor relations, a group of employees who desire to bargain collectively rather than individually, are those who typically form a union (Dooley, 1957). This demonstrates to the employer that the majority of its employees support the union and the organizing process begins. First, employees cannot form a union without abiding by certain basic procedural steps and legal standards that are required. Decisions to vote against or for a union are based on factors such as satisfaction with their job, beliefs of the effectiveness of the union, and the culture or social environment in which the employee works. Next, when an employer exerts undue punishment to an employee who the employer suspects as being an illegal alien, this may be poor public policy. From a legal perspective, a recent federal court case, Singh v. Jutla & C.D. & R. Oil, Inc., 214 F. Supp. 2d 1056 (N.D. Cal. 2002) spoke to this issue. In this case, when the plaintiff Singh filed a wage claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the employer fired him and reported him to INS as an illegal alien (Labor Law, 1969). Likewise, the union certification process which was established by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935 was a victory for workers waning union representation upon its initial implementation. Workers could petition the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a determination made democratically of whether a majority of workers favored unionization (Labor Law, 1969). This effort

These policies also encourage employers to increase training investments. Economists Daron Acemoglu and Jörn‐Steffen Pischke showed in their study (1999) that compression in the structure of wages can cause firm-sponsored training. They concluded “When the wage structure is distorted away from the competitive benchmark and in favor of less skilled workers, firms may want to invest in the general skills of their employees” In their research, in 2001, they also state “In noncompetitive labor markets, minimum wages tend to increase training of affected workers because they induce firms to train their unskilled employees.”

Employment or labor laws have been developed to facilitate smooth relationship between employers and employees. Employment laws provide rules and regulations that should govern both the employer and the employees in their places of work. Employment laws discuss issues related to child labor, wages and salaries, retirement, working conditions, compensations, incentives and employment benefits among others. The major objective is to ensure the employer does not exploit the employee and on the other hand, the employee honors the terms and conditions of the job as presented by the employer.

1. Assess proposals to institute pay for performance in federal agencies. What are the consequences of adopting new labor–management procedures at a time when the United States is deeply involved with homeland security and other national security concerns?

Critique: Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania