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+27 +1
Catch-22 for workers who are too young to retire, too old to rehire
Are you prepared for the possibility of being too old to hire and too young to retire? Over the past five years, the Employee Benefit Research Institute's Retirement Confidence Survey (to download the survey, click here) has shown that between 45 percent and 50 percent of retirees leave the workforce earlier than planned. The American Society on Aging, meanwhile, found that 45 percent of unemployed 55- to 64-year-olds were reported as unemployed long-term (i.e., 27 weeks or longer) versus 33 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds.
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+37 +1
Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad?
Fears of civilization-wide idleness are based too much on the downsides of being unemployed in a society premised on the concept of employment. People have speculated for centuries about a future without work, and today is no different, with academics, writers, and activists once again warning that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by inequality: A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.
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+30 +1
In Pentagon bomb squad, an investigation and a fight to stave off financial ruin
The Pentagon bomb squad's pay was effectively cut 25 percent. By Dan Lamothe.
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+25 +1
This List of Ways People Are Dying at Work [in the U.S.] Will Make Your Stomach Churn
Be thankful you have a job. Be thankful you’re alive. By Luke O’Neil. (May 9, 2016)
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+17 +1
“Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night”
Extract from ‘Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London’ by Matthew Beaumont. (Apr. 2016)
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+22 +1
Don’t let yourself get pushed into a job promotion
People who accept a management job they don’t really want are twice as likely to end up quitting. Dear Annie: I really identified with Fortune’s recent article about turning down a promotion, because I’m facing a dilemma. I like what I’m doing now, as the logistics person on a brand-management team, and I know I’m really good at it. But our company has an unwritten rule where everyone moves “up or out,” and lately my boss has been making noises about promoting me to management.
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+34 +4
Being Rich Doesn't Mean You're More Hardworking: Economist Says Markets Amplify Luck
Why do hardworking people with similar talents and training often earn such dramatically different incomes? And why, too, have these earnings gaps grown so much larger in recent decades? Almost no other questions have proved more enduringly fascinating to economists. The traditional approach to these questions views labor markets as perfectly competitive meritocracies in which people are paid in accordance with the value of what they produce. In this view, earnings differences result largely from individual differences...
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+6 +1
‘I have to be taller’: the unregulated world of India’s limb-lengthening industry
Young Indians are paying for complex, painful procedures despite the absence of medical oversight in the race to improve career and marriage prospects. By Vidhi Doshi. (May 8, ’16)
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+23 +3
America’s Workforce Runs on Uppers
Uppers like Benzedrine and cocaine provided a willing workforce for our capitalist economy. Now, Americans are turning to ADHD medications. By Kate Bielamowicz.
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+22 +4
Why the Very Poor Have Become Poorer
The most obvious explanation for the increase in extreme poverty between 1996 and 2011 is that jobs were harder to find in 2011, but that is only half the story. Christopher Jencks reviews “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America” by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer.
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+2 +1
5 Reasons to Be Wary of Amnesty’s Prostitution Policy
Move could increase sex trafficking and reduce quality of life for prostitutes. By Darren Geist.
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+19 +1
The Bittersweet Victories of Women
At first glance, the answer to the question “What is sex discrimination?” seems obvious enough: treating men and women differently, because of sex. But at second glance, considering that men and women actually are different in ways that might have some relevance to the workplace, complexities soon emerge. Linda Greenhouse reviews “Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women’s Lives at Work” by Gillian Thomas.
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+17 +1
A Portrait of a Coal Town on the Brink of Death
A failing coal industry has left many residents of West Virginia with few options: move away, die, or try to scrape out a future in an unforgiving economic climate. By Jacob S. Knabb.
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+13 +2
Yelp Raises Wages After Talia Jane’s Open Letter
How “Lady Murderface” ended up a successful labor rabble-rouser. By Lauren Smiley.
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+35 +4
Hillary, the Panama Papers, and the death of American kleptocracy
The wealth that Hillary Clinton and her husband have accumulated through their political connections is exactly what a growing number of voters are rebelling against. Can her campaign survive the overthrow of the American kleptocracy? By Will Bunch.
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+8 +1
Why Do Cats Love Bookstores?
Protecting Books and Witholding Affection for Centuries. By Jason Diamond.
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+4 +1
Sexual Harassment Investigation Will Expand to Entire National Park System
National Park Service director Jonathan Jarvis has ordered a survey to determine if misconduct at the Grand Canyon represents a widespread problem. By Elizabeth Shogren and Lyndsey Gilpin.
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+2 +1
You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive
Patty Loveless
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+14 +2
Outrage after big labor crafts law paying their members less than non-union workers
When Los Angeles City Council members voted two years ago to give hotel workers a raise, Bill Martinez was the type of worker they said they wanted to help. Martinez, a 53-year-old bellhop… By Peter Jamison. (Apr. 9)
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+9 +1
The Surrogacy Cycle
Promising an escape from poverty, transnational surrogacy has left many Indian women with little to show for their efforts. What went wrong? By Abby Rabinowitz.
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