Labor

Harvard economist Gregory Mankiw, writing in The New York Times, wants you to believe that a worker's acceptance of a job for no more than minimum wage and a person's acceptance of a pre-ACA, bare bones insurance policy reflect voluntary arrangements. Even a moment's consideration shows there is nothing genuinely voluntary about either of these arrangements.

American Farm Bureau Federation study confirms agricultural sector's deep reliance on wildly underpaid workers. It warns that shrinking labor supply would spark "large-scale restructuring" of farm sector. But don't we need that if current system only survives by relying so heavily on unfree labor?

As most media continue to beat the "no choice but to cut pensions" drum, we reprise a story not constrained by those assumptions. Our reporting at the end of last year demonstrated that the state’s argument that the pension promises made to public workers were not contracts is a “radical shift” from legal norms.

The psychological consequences of underemployment have been largely ignored. The research that does exist, however, is not encouraging. Underemployment is associated with increased incidence of depression, less job satisfaction, lower self-esteem, and can also result in deep-seated, persistent feelings of shame. Originally published 17 months ago; still timely reading.