Space Machines, Wages, and the American Economic Drift -- Our Mounting Economic Dangers -- The Consumption Lag Is Basic -- Wage Lag Underlies Consumption Lag -- Wages Have Lagged Behind Investment In Means Of Production -- Wages Have Lagged Behind Profits -- Wages Have Trailed Prices, And Wage Costs Have Not Justified Price Inflation -- Wages Have Not Caused Inflation Through Too Much Purchasing Power, And Full Employment Is Not Inflationary -- Wage Rates Have Not Been Too High From Viewpoint Of Productivity -- Wages And The Public Interest -- Wage Progress And The Farmer -- Goals For Wage Earners, Farmers, And All The People -- Wage Progress, National Security, And Domestic Public Programs -- Explanatory Notes.

For Security And Economic Strength, We Must Quickly Remedy The Wage Lag.

Collection of recent statements by the Secretary of Labor.

From the author of the acclaimed Behind the Kitchen Door, a powerful examination of how the subminimum wage and the tipping system exploit society’s most vulnerable “No one has done more to move forward the rights of food and restaurant workers than Saru Jayaraman.” —Mark Bittman, author of The Kitchen Matrix and A Bone to Pick Before the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the country, more than six million people earned their living as tipped workers in the service industry. They served us in cafes and restaurants, they delivered food to our homes, they drove us wherever we wanted to go, and they worked in nail salons for as little as $2.13 an hour—the federal tipped minimum wage since 1991—leaving them with next to nothing to get by. These workers, unsurprisingly, were among the most vulnerable workers during the pandemic. As businesses across the country closed down or drastically scaled back their services, hundreds of thousands lost their jobs. As in many other areas, the pandemic exposed the inadequacies of the nation’s social safety net and minimum-wage standards. One of New York magazine’s “Influentials” of New York City, one of CNN’s Visionary Women in 2014, and a White House Champion of Change in 2014, Saru Jayaraman is a nationally acclaimed restaurant activist and the author of the bestselling Behind the Kitchen Door. In her new book, One Fair Wage, Jayaraman shines a light on these workers, illustrating how the people left out of the fight for a fair minimum wage are society’s most marginalized: people of color, many of them immigrants; women, who form the majority of tipped workers; disabled workers; incarcerated workers; and youth workers. They epitomize the direction of our whole economy, reflecting the precariousness and instability that is increasingly the lot of American labor.

The first comprehensive examination of the economic concept now being implemented across the nation with dramatic results.

Designed as a comprehensive overview of public sector compensation, the book addresses strategies for change, with the author warning that failure of the profession to address this issue will ultimately lead to citizens taking matters into their own hands. The author's issues-oriented approach addresses his core message--that the escalation of public sector compensation is impacting the ability of government to meet its core responsibility and the failure of government to address this has serious consequences. Not just a critique, the book presents context, analysis, and suggestions for reform. Reilly outlines specific plans for reform, including more openness; education and engagement of the public; state-level reforms governing the awarding of increases for public sector compensation plans; eliminating outdated vestitures of public sector compensation such as longevity pay, payments for sick leave accumulated upon termination, and automatic cost-of-living adjustments; and adoption of pay-for-performance programs and one-time bonus awards for meritorious performance, among others. Two unique and valuable features of the book are the author's detailed model of public-versus-private sector compensation, constructed to gauge the cost of lifetime compensation, and his model of the Iron Triangle to illustrate how elected politicians, management and labor representatives engage in nontransparent discussions involving public pay and benefits.