Adjustments

It’s obvious that the job picture in the United States is not truly reflected in the raw unemployment numbers. For the vast majority of Americans, we work more, get paid less, get promoted less frequently when we are lucky enough to have full-time employment. Too many of us have either given up looking for work (and hence are not even reflected in the statistic) or have managed only to get unpredictable work in the part-time world. Average American buying power has been falling like a stone for more than a decade. We buy a new car on average every 11 years, live in smaller homes, take shorter and less expensive vacations, and are decreasingly able to pay for college education. Taking away the “top of the top” of American buying power, almost no one expects their children to live at the same or better level than they have.

Job security has vaporized. Pension stability is increasingly shaky even with ERISA guarantees. And too many workers only have nothing more than underfunded Social Security for a pension. Contract employment – being hired for a specific period to fulfill a limited role (without benefits of any kind) under a contract – and down and dirty traditional part-time work are increasingly becoming the norm, particularly for those at the beginning and end of their working life. While Obamacare remains controversial, for many, it is their only shot at health insurance, particularly for contract and part-time workers.

The other ugly sides of part-time work are the frequent requirements of constantly varying and unpredictable scheduling, which makes coordinating two or more part-time jobs (or going to school or getting someone to watch the kids) exceptionally difficult. For some, it is “on-call” work that destroys their lives. For many, this is just the way is it… and likely to be for the foreseeable future. Why is this a huge issue?

“In a climate where many retailers, restaurants and other businesses are still struggling after the recession, economists point to the increased uncertainty faced by employees. About 27.4 million Americans work part time. The number of those part-timers who would prefer to work full time has nearly doubled since 2007, to 7.5 million. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, 47 percent of part-time hourly workers ages 26 to 32 receive a week or less of advance notice for their schedule.

“In a study of the data, two University of Chicago professors found that employers dictated the work schedules for about half of young adults, without their input. For part-time workers, schedules on average fluctuated from 17 to 28 hours a week…

“As more workers find their lives upended and their paychecks reduced by ever-changing, on-call schedules, government officials are trying to put limits on the harshest of those scheduling practices… The actions reflect a growing national movement — fueled by women’s and labor groups — to curb practices that affect millions of families, like assigning just one or two days of work a week or requiring employees to work unpredictable hours that wreak havoc with everyday routines like college and child care.

“The recent, rapid spread of on-call employment to retail and other sectors has prompted proposals that would require companies to pay employees extra for on-call work and to give two weeks’ notice of a work schedule…

“Representative George Miller of California, the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, plans to introduce legislation this summer that would require companies to pay their employees for an extra hour if they were summoned to work with less than 24 hours’ notice. He is also proposing a guarantee of four hours’ pay on days when employees are sent home after just a few hours — something that happens in many restaurants and retailers when customer traffic is slow.” New York Times, July 15^th. The odds of this passing through a pro-business, gridlocked Congress are exceptionally low. With unions losing clout, virtually gone from the private sector, there are very few representatives for this seemingly disenfranchised segment of the labor market.

Instead, what little hope there is for such part-timers comes from state and local government, where these are not captives of the local campaign contribution machines of regional business powers. “Vermont and San Francisco have adopted laws giving workers the right to request flexible or predictable schedules to make it easier to take care of children or aging parents. Scott M. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, is pressing the City Council to take up such legislation. And last month, President Obama ordered federal agencies to give the ‘right to request’ to two million federal workers…

“In a referendum last year, voters in SeaTac, Wash. — the community near Seattle that also passed the nation’s highest minimum wage, $15 an hour for some workers — approved a measure that bars employers from hiring additional part-time workers if any of their existing part-timers want more hours. The move was a response to complaints from workers that they were not scheduled for enough hours to support their families. Some San Francisco lawmakers are seeking to enact a similar regulation.” NY Times. You can pretty much forget about protecting part-time workers in any region where social conservatives rule.

It is increasingly likely that what started out as temporary changes in work patterns to reflect the recession are settling into our economy with much longer consequences. If we care, and it doesn’t take much or inconvenience business unreasonably, perhaps we should reflect empathy and support reasonable laws and ordinances that protect these part-timers with a touch of normal dignity.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we are in this together, so let’s act like it!