The Gloves-off Economy

The Gloves-off Economy PDF Author: Annette D. Bernhardt
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780913447970
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Across the United States, increasing numbers of employers are breaking, bending, or evading long-established laws and standards designed to protect workers, from the minimum wage to job safety standards to the right to organize. This "gloves-off economy," no longer confined to a marginal set of sweatshops and fly-by-night small businesses, is sending shock waves into every corner of the low-wage labor market. In the process, employers who play by the rules are under growing pressure to follow suit, intensifying the search for low-cost business strategies across a wide range of industries and ratcheting up into ever higher reaches of the labor market. Although other books have touched on pieces of this problem, The Gloves-off Economy is the first to provide a comprehensive, integrated analysis--and quite a disturbing one.This book examines a range of gloves-off practices, the workers who are affected by them, and strategies for enforcing workplace standards. The editors, four respected labor scholars, have brought together economists, sociologists, labor attorneys, union strategists, and other experts to offer varying perspectives on both the problem and the creative solutions currently being explored in a wide range of communities and industries. Annette Bernhardt, Heather Boushey, Laura Dresser, and Chris Tilly and the volume's other authors combine rigorous analysis with a stirring call to renew worker protections in the twenty-first century.

The Gloves-off Economy

The Gloves-off Economy PDF Author: Annette D. Bernhardt
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780913447970
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
Across the United States, increasing numbers of employers are breaking, bending, or evading long-established laws and standards designed to protect workers, from the minimum wage to job safety standards to the right to organize. This "gloves-off economy," no longer confined to a marginal set of sweatshops and fly-by-night small businesses, is sending shock waves into every corner of the low-wage labor market. In the process, employers who play by the rules are under growing pressure to follow suit, intensifying the search for low-cost business strategies across a wide range of industries and ratcheting up into ever higher reaches of the labor market. Although other books have touched on pieces of this problem, The Gloves-off Economy is the first to provide a comprehensive, integrated analysis--and quite a disturbing one.This book examines a range of gloves-off practices, the workers who are affected by them, and strategies for enforcing workplace standards. The editors, four respected labor scholars, have brought together economists, sociologists, labor attorneys, union strategists, and other experts to offer varying perspectives on both the problem and the creative solutions currently being explored in a wide range of communities and industries. Annette Bernhardt, Heather Boushey, Laura Dresser, and Chris Tilly and the volume's other authors combine rigorous analysis with a stirring call to renew worker protections in the twenty-first century.

What Works for Workers?

What Works for Workers? PDF Author: Stephanie Luce
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610448197
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
The majority of new jobs created in the United States today are low-wage jobs, and a fourth of the labor force earns no more than poverty-level wages. Policymakers and citizens alike agree that declining real wages and constrained spending among such a large segment of workers imperil economic prosperity and living standards for all Americans. Though many policies to assist low-wage workers have been proposed, there is little agreement across the political spectrum about which policies actually reduce poverty and raise income among the working poor. What Works for Workers provides a comprehensive analysis of policy measures designed to address the widening income gap in the United States. Featuring contributions from an eminent group of social scientists, What Works for Workers evaluates the most high-profile strategies for poverty reduction, including innovative “living wage” ordinances, education programs for African American youth, and better regulation of labor laws pertaining to immigrants. The contributors delve into an extensive body of scholarship on low-wage work to reveal a number of surprising findings. Richard Freeman suggests that labor unions, long assumed to be moribund, have a fighting chance to reclaim their historic redistributive role if they move beyond traditional collective bargaining and establish new ties with other community actors. John Schmitt predicts that the Affordable Care Act will substantially increase insurance coverage for low-wage workers, 38 percent of whom currently lack any kind of health insurance. Other contributors explore the shortcomings of popular solutions: Stephanie Luce shows that while living wage ordinances rarely lead to job losses, they have not yet covered most low-wage workers. And Jennifer Gordon corrects the notion that a path to legalization alone will fix the plight of immigrant workers. Without energetic regulatory enforcement, she argues, legalization may have limited impact on the exploitation of undocumented workers. Ruth Milkman and Eileen Appelbaum conclude with an analysis of California’s paid family leave program, a policy designed to benefit the working poor, who have few resources that allow them to take time off work to care for children or ill family members. Despite initial opposition, the paid leave program proved more acceptable than expected among employers and provided a much-needed system of wage replacement for low-income workers. In the wake of its success, the initiative has emerged as a useful blueprint for paid leave programs in other states. Alleviating the low-wage crisis will require a comprehensive set of programs rather than piecemeal interventions. With its rigorous analysis of what works and what doesn’t, What Works for Workers points the way toward effective reform. For social scientists, policymakers, and activists grappling with the practical realities of low-wage work, this book provides a valuable guide for narrowing the gap separating rich and poor.

Finding Time

Finding Time PDF Author: Heather Boushey
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674660161
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
“Ambitious, fast-paced, fact-filled, and accessible.” —Science “A compelling case for why achieving the right balance of time with our families...is vital to the economic success and prosperity of our nation... A must read.” —Maria Shriver From backyard barbecues to the blogosphere, working men and women across the country are raising the same worried question: How can I get ahead at my job while making sure my family doesn’t suffer? A visionary economist who has looked at the numbers behind the personal stories, Heather Boushey argues that resolving the work–life conflict is as vital for us personally as it is essential economically. Finding Time offers ingenious ways to help us carve out the time we need, while showing businesses that more flexible policies can actually make them more productive. “Supply and demand curves are suddenly ‘sexy’ when Boushey uses them to prove that paid sick days, paid family leave, flexible work schedules, and affordable child care aren’t just cutesy women’s issues for families to figure out ‘on their own time and dime,’ but economic issues affecting the country at large.” —Vogue “Boushey argues that better family-leave policies should not only improve the lives of struggling families but also boost workers’ productivity and reduce firms’ costs.” —The Economist

Canadian Labour Policy and Politics

Canadian Labour Policy and Politics PDF Author: John Peters
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774866152
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Canadian Labour Policy and Politics is essential reading for undergraduates studying Canada’s labour market. This comprehensive textbook traces the causes and rise of labour inequities and outlines solutions for a more sustainable future. Written in clear and accessible language by leading experts and practitioners, this book demonstrates how and why laws and public policy – intended to protect workers – often leave employees vulnerable and with little economic or social security. Based on up-to-date data and framed in the context of international developments, this essential text provide readers with real-world examples and case studies of how globalization, labour laws, employment standards, COVID-19, and other issues affect workers on and off the job. Canadian Labour Policy and Politics invites students into defining a policy agenda for developing greater economic equality and political inclusiveness while fostering a green recovery. Key features include chapter summaries and outlines, suggestions for further reading, and glossaries of key terms.

Collaborating for Change

Collaborating for Change PDF Author: Susan D. Greenbaum
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1978801157
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Collaborating for Change: A Participatory Action Research Casebook documents the stories of a dozen community-based research projects in the United States. The book is for social justice activists and their research allies that learn best from real stories and real projects that bring insight about how democratizing research supports social change and our understanding of complex social issues.

The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Work and Employment

The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Work and Employment PDF Author: Stephen Edgell
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1473943272
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1187

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Book Description
The SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Work and Employment is a landmark collection of original contributions by leading specialists from around the world. The coverage is both comprehensive and comparative (in terms of time and space) and each ‘state of the art’ chapter provides a critical review of the literature combined with some thoughts on the direction of research. This authoritative text is structured around six core themes: Historical Context and Social Divisions The Experience of Work The Organization of Work Nonstandard Work and Employment Work and Life beyond Employment Globalization and the Future of Work. Globally, the contours of work and employment are changing dramatically. This handbook helps academics and practitioners make sense of the impact of these changes on individuals, groups, organizations and societies. Written in an accessible style with a helpful introduction, the retrospective and prospective nature of this volume will be an essential resource for students, teachers and policy-makers across a range of fields, from business and management, to sociology and organization studies.

Precarious Claims

Precarious Claims PDF Author: Shannon Gleeson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520963601
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Precarious Claims tells the human story behind the bureaucratic process of fighting for justice in the U.S. workplace. The global economy has fueled vast concentrations of wealth that have driven a demand for cheap and flexible labor. Workplace violations such as wage theft, unsafe work environments, and discrimination are widespread in low-wage industries such as retail, restaurants, hospitality, and domestic work, where jobs are often held by immigrants and other vulnerable workers. How and why do these workers, despite enormous barriers, come forward to seek justice, and what happens once they do? Based on extensive fieldwork in Northern California, Gleeson investigates the array of gatekeepers with whom workers must negotiate in the labor standards enforcement bureaucracy and, ultimately, the limited reach of formal legal protections. The author also tracks how workplace injustices—and the arduous process of contesting them—carry long-term effects on their everyday lives. Workers sometimes win, but their chances are precarious at best.

The Palgrave Handbook of Bottom-Up Urbanism

The Palgrave Handbook of Bottom-Up Urbanism PDF Author: Mahyar Arefi
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319901311
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
Who shapes our cities? In an age of increasing urban pluralism, globalization and immigration, decreasing public budgets, and an ongoing crisis of authority among designers and planners, the urban environment is shaped by a number of non-traditional stakeholders. The book surveys the kaleidoscope of views on the agency of urbanism, providing an overview of the various scholarly debates and territories that pertain to bottom-up efforts such as everyday urbanism, DIY urbanism, guerilla urbanism, tactical urbanism, and lean urbanism. Uniquely, this books seeks connections between the various movements by curating a range of views on the past, present, and future of bottom-up urbanism. The contributors also connect the recent trend of bottom-up efforts in the West with urban informality in the Global South, drawing parallels and finding contrast between social and institutional structures across the globe. The book appeals to urbanists in the widest sense of the word: those who shape, study, and improve our urban spaces.

The Routledge Handbook on Spaces of Urban Politics

The Routledge Handbook on Spaces of Urban Politics PDF Author: Kevin Ward
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317495012
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 845

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Book Description
The Routledge Handbook on Spaces of Urban Politics provides a comprehensive statement and reference point for urban politics. The scope of this handbook’s coverage and contributions engages with and reflects upon the most important, innovative and recent critical developments to the interdisciplinary field of urban politics, drawing upon a range of examples from within and across the Global North and Global South. This handbook is organized into nine interrelated sections, with an introductory chapter setting out the rationale, aims and structure of the Handbook, and short introductory commentaries at the beginning of each part. It questions the eliding of ‘urban politics’ into the ‘politics of the city’, reconsidering the usefulness of the distinction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ urban politics, considering issues of ‘class’, ‘gender’, ‘race’ and the ways in which they intersect, appear and reappear in matters of urban politics, how best to theorize the roles of capital, the state and other actors, such as social movements, in the production of the city and, finally, issues of doing urban political research. The various chapters explore the issues of urban politics of economic development, environment and nature in the city, governance and planning, the politics of labour as well as living spaces. The concluding sections of the Handbook examine the politics over alternative visions of cities of the future and provide concluding discussions and reflections, particularly on the futures for urban politics in an increasingly ‘global’ and multidisciplinary context. With over forty-five contributions from leading international scholars in the field, this handbook provides critical reviews and appraisals of current conceptual and theoretical approaches and future developments in urban politics. It is a key reference to all researchers and policy-makers with an interest in urban politics.

Alternative Criminologies

Alternative Criminologies PDF Author: Pat Carlen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351657240
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 629

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Book Description
Alternative Criminologies celebrates a kaleidoscopic process of permanent critique and a diversity of social and scientific knowledges. It examines complex and global crime issues in light of the many alternative scientific, artistic, empathetic, campaigning and otherwise imaginative criminologies that attempt to understand and/or fundamentally change why crime and justice take the forms they do. From cutting edge topics such as crimes against humanity, the criminology of mobility, terrorism, cybercrime, corporate crime and green criminology; to gendered perspectives on violence against women, sexualities and feminist and queer criminologies; to key issues in penology such as mass incarceration, the death penalty, desistance from crime, risk and the political economy of punishment; Alternative Criminologies demonstrates the breadth, the variety and the vibrancy of contemporary perspectives on crime, criminalization and punishment. Bringing together 34 leading experts from around the world, this international collection unites fresh and insightful theoretical positions with innovative empirical research and marks an important juncture for criminologies and their imagined futures. Alternative Criminologies is essential reading for students of crime and criminal justice.