As I mentioned in a prior post, I am going to be playing around with monthly Current Population Survey microdata to produce some datasets of interest to me. Today I decided to look into what percent of the employed adult civilian population answered that they were absent from work due to a labor [...]

So I already wrote about right-to-shirk (aka right-to-work) laws, and made the basic freedom of contract argument. By its functional operation, right-to-shirk laws prevent two parties (a union and an employer) from agreeing to certain terms. I am not actually interested in the argument itself; I just raise it to mock the hypocrisy [...]

So the Michigan lower house has decided to pass a right-to-work bill. This is a pretty standard right-wing maneuver over the last few decades. The idea is to make it impossible for unions to negotiate closed shops, which creates a free rider problem that will ultimately lead to their demise. That is good for owners [...]

Last week, Demos released a study that proposed raising wages for workers at big box retailers. According to the study, establishing a $25,000 wage floor at big box retailers would cost big box retailers $20.8 billion per year. If that additional cost were made up through price increases alone, it would amount to [...]

The Chicago Teachers are striking for various reasons. I support them, and hope they win. It occurred to me — once again — that confusions about causation have muddied the debate here. And since I now apparently write about theories of causation often, why not do it again here.

The effect that we are trying [...]

Complain about working conditions and pay around a conservative and you are sure to hear the following: you agree to those working conditions and pay by choosing to work there. Nevermind that that may be your only employment option or all other employment options have similar working conditions and pay. So long as you choose [...]

Declining union density is one of the contributing factors to the last few decades of rising inequality. Estimates on its impact vary, but one often-cited study found that declining union density accounts for around 20 percent of the recent inequality growth. The Economic Policy Institute had a blog post yesterday with [...]

Scott Walker avoided a recall last night in what was in large part a union-driven initiative to remove him from office. Perhaps worrisome, 36% of voters from union households voted for Scott Walker in the recall. The outcome of this election will doubtlessly fuel more discussion about unionization and the future of organized [...]

Despite the two-year anniversary of the official end of the latest recession, around 14 million people are still unemployed, and the unemployment rate is at a staggering 9.2 percent. With the last couple of months having been monopolized by the high-stakes debt-ceiling theatre, this particular problem has been completely neglected with the exception of a [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released their June employment report today, and almost all of the findings recorded in the report were awful. Unemployment is up to 9.2 percent, more than 0.4 percent higher than it was two months ago. This puts the total number of unemployed people — a term which only [...]