Author Description

For much of the twentieth century, American workers were the world's leaders in productivity, wages, and positive workplace conditions. American unions championed free enterprise and high labor standards, and American businesses dominated the world market. But, as editor Richard B. Freeman cautions in Working Under Different Rules, despite our relatively high standard of living we have fallen behind our major trading partners and competitors in providing good jobs at good pay - what was once considered "the American dream." Working Under Different Rules assesses the decline in the well-being of American workers - evidenced by spiraling income inequality and stagnant real earnings - and compares our employment and labor conditions with those of Western Europe, Canada, Japan, and Australia.