According to BLS statistics, the labor market is exceptionally tight, a scenario which has converged over the last six months with what economists are calling the Great Resignation, with a record number of workers quitting in November. In the popular media, the narrative emerging from this phenomenon is one in which workers are in possession of more power than they have been for quite a while, which has resulted in an increase in wages, especially for the working class.
The power, however, ultimately remains in the hands of bosses, and many workers’ experiences do not neatly coincide with the narrative. The post-Recession jobs recovery under presidents Obama and Trump was more the result of an increase in part-time jobs, gig work, and freelancing in the amorphous and unstable “service economy,” exacerbating a trend from the end of US’s post-War economic boom when corporations, faced with with declining rates of profit, turned to union-busting, subcontracting and a reliance on part-time workers.
According to the New York Times, much of the current situation, with rising wages but no attendant benefits like schedule stability or full-time work, is due to employers having gotten very used to worker flexibility since the Great Recession. They have not changed during the pandemic. Workers may be experiencing short-term gains, especially in rising wages, they are not seeing more long-term ones, like full-time employment and schedule stability.
So, while wages may be going up, employee satisfaction or security remains at a low ebb, and many of the recent labor actions that have received national coverage, such as the grocery chain King Scooper’s strike last month, are centered not over pay but over demands for things like full-time employment. Additionally, with private sector union membership continuing its historic decline, many workers, such as Chipotle workers or those working through the DoorDash delivery app both featured in the Times’s story, lack any bargaining power or in some cases even recognition that they are employees of the company.
