Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
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Re: Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
#2It started in the 1990s when part-time people were downsized and replaced with full-time people. Then overtime was killing coroprations so they moved people to salary instead of hourly. No more overtime pay, one salary no more sick and vacation days but PTO or paid time off hours instead.
You are expected to work 60 to 80 hours a week, or else you get bad performance reviews and fired.
In most at will employment states the company can fire you for any reason not related to civil rights law. They don't like your tie, fired. They don't like the way you walk or smile, fired. Someone accuses you of something they have no evidence or proof of, like being rude, you are fired.
This is done to avoid civil suits, fired for no reason, or fired for a petty reason not related to civil rights. Say you have 25 years in IT, you are African-American, but in your older age things change. You wear your tie differently because you found a new tie knot style. They can't fire you for your race or age, so they Instead fire you for not tying your tie the same way everyone else does.
I wrote about this problem before and nobody took it seriously.
Re: Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
#3It started in the 1990s when part-time people were downsized and replaced with full-time people. Then overtime was killing coroprations so they moved people to salary instead of hourly. No more overtime pay, one salary no more sick and vacation days but PTO or paid time off hours instead. You are expected to work 60 to 80 hours a week, or else you get bad performance reviews and fired. In most at will employment stat…
Your comment sounds like speculations and gross generalisation. Do you base your say on things that could be discussed(if yes, please share them)? Or is it a frustrated rant?
Re: Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
#4Because we are never satisfied with a stable standard of living; people want to live better than their parents did. Automation only decreases the need for labor if you hold standard of living constant.
Re: Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
#5People's perceived needs grow but that is not the whole story.
Many people now are spending almost 50% of their pre-tax income on housing, and most of that is the price of land and goes to landlords. It seems that landlords inevitably capture a big chunk of people's salary increases.
Additionally in the US your health insurance is generally tied to your job; even after Obamacare you probably have to work to pay for your monthly insurance.
If housing costs went way down and health insurance were universal, I suspect many people would feel much less need to work so many hours.
Re: Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
#6Among other good reasons mentioned here lets not forget inequality went up and a lot of the progress is materialized at the top.
Re: Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
#7People's perceived needs grow but that is not the whole story. Many people now are spending almost 50% of their pre-tax income on housing, and most of that is the price of land and goes to landlords. It seems that landlords inevitably capture a big chunk of people's salary increases. Additionally in the US your health insurance is generally tied to your job; even after Obamacare you probably have to work to pay for y…
I think this is just a very visible specific case of assets becoming worth more relative to wages
Re: Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
#8Because we are never satisfied with a stable standard of living; people want to live better than their parents did. Automation only decreases the need for labor if you hold standard of living constant.
This comment ignores the fact that wages have stagnated while productivity has skyrocketed.
Re: Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
#9Most people don't get to choose how many hours they work.
Employers, especially those that pay benefits, want you working as much as possible. Anything less is money on the table.
(I'm not an employer.)
It's good for an employer if you work overtime, all he has to pay is time, or time and a half, or nothing if you're salaried. He doesn't have to pay more benefits, as he would with an additional employee. Of course an employer wants to get as much work out of you as possible for benefits paid.
As an employee, working overtime only gets you more cash (or even none). Working less makes your benefits more valuable.
Even if employment is strictly for money, with no benefits at all, there's an administrative overhead to hiring and managing more employees.
As long as we are employed by employers, and especially if we get health insurance through our employer, there will always be pressure to work more, not less.
Re: Why hasn't economic progress lowered work hours more? (2016) [video]
#10It has. The low-work-hours future is here... It's just unevenly distributed.