At least 11 other coutries rank ahead of the U.S. in terms of the pay and benefits their workers receive. In all of those countries, every citizen is guaranteed health care, superior parental leave benefits, free or inexpensive college education, and far more vacation time.
Even in this "booming economy" of the richest country on earth, 30 percent of workers earn poverty or near-poverty wages. Low-wage U.S. workers are now the lowest-paid in the industrialized world. More than 20 percent of U.S. children live in poverty.
Young entry-level workers without a college education saw their real (inflation adjusted) wages fall by 20 percent between 1979 and 1997.
The average U.S. worker is now working the equivalent of an entire month longer than 20 years ago. Employees in the U.S. have now surpassed the Japaneese in working the longest hours of any other workers in the industrialized world. U.S. workers put in 234 more hours every year than the Canadians, 410 more than the Germans, and 567 more than the Norwegians. The number of U.S. citizens who work more than one job increased 92 percent between 1973 and 1997, and 37 percent of U.S. workers put in more than 50 hours a week.
Meanwhile, some U.S. citizens are doing extremely well. The rich have never had it so good. The CEO's of major corporations now earn 419 times more than their employees. The richest 1 percent of the population now owns as much wealth as the bottom 95 percent.
Establish a tax on wealth so that billionaires begin paying their fair share. There is no moral excuse for some having billions while children go hungry.
Raise the minimum wage to a living wage. The minimum wage today would have to be $7.33 today to have the same purchasing power it had in 1968. No american working 40 hours a week should live in poverty.
Enact a single-payer state-administered national health care program guaranteeing health care for all U.S. citizens. Our current system, at 14 percent of GNP, is the most costly in the world and yet leaves 80 million U.S. citizens uninsured or underinsured.