Inequality and the Growth of Bad Jobs. (November 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vidal, Matt
• Is Part Of: Contexts. Volume 12:Number 4(2013)
• Page Start: 70
• Page End: 72
• Publication Date: 2013-11
• Subjects: bad jobs -- employment relations -- class struggle -- deunionization -- low-wage work -- job quality -- profit rate -- low-skill work -- inequality -- corporations -- wage share; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- United States -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1177/1536504213511221
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1536-5042

Abstract

The share of jobs that are low-skill declined by 15% from 1960 to 2005, yet low-wage jobs have made up an increasing share of total job growth over that period. Scholar Matt Vidal discusses how the manufacturing-based, nationally bound economy of the postwar years allowed employers to pay decent wages for low-skill jobs, but in today's postindustrial, internationalized economy, wage-based competition has returned with a vengeance.