CEPR Report:How to Create More 'Good' Jobs

AFL-CIO ^ | 4/29/2013 | Kenneth Quinnell

[mdittmar]

A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows the country needs to increase union membership significantly, create universal health care, a universal retirement system (beyond Social Security), expand college attainment and achieve gender pay equity to create more "good" jobs in the United States. 

CEPR defines a good job as one that pays at least $19 per hour, has employer-provided health insurance and has some kind of retirement plan. In previous reports, they showed there has been a significant decline in the past 30 years in the share of good jobs in the United States. The decline comes despite increases in productivity and educational attainment of the workforce. 

The report notes that one of the key reasons for the decline in good jobs in recent decades is the decline in union participation. Increasing the percentage of the workforce that belongs to unions translates to an increase of good jobs of just less than 7%.

In the report, CEPR has five primary conclusions:

1. It will take big steps to increase the number of good jobs in the economy, and none of the policies they propose would be sufficient alone.

2. Eliminating bad jobs is easier than creating good jobs.

3. Pursuing more than one of these policies would raise the number of good jobs more than the sum of the two policies individually.

4. Increasing the membership of unions creates more good jobs than a comparable expansion of college attainment would, and it would do it more quickly than expanding college attainment.

5. Gender pay equity would erase most of the good jobs gap between men and women.

Read the full report.

[mdittmar]

Well,there is the union plan,wonder why union membership is decreasing?

[nascarnation]

I still don’t understand why Republicans won’t pass a $20/hour min wage bill in the House and dare the Senate and Baraq to make it happen.

[ClearCase_guy]

Clearly, we need a communist revolution so that the proletarian masses can usher in a new utopian era in which everyone has a good job.

It's kind of like taking off and nuking the site from orbit, but you don't have to take off.

[Kriggerel]

$19 an hour?

I’ve never made more than $14 per hour in my entire life, and I’m 41 years old and have a Master’s Degree in Biology.

...And I probably never WILL have a job above $11-12 per hour ever again in my entire working life in this economic “new normal”.

[piytar]

Yup. Keep killing businesses and making the US uncompetitive will create more “good jobs.” We’ll, for the corrupt communists it will. After all, maybe DiFi’s or Pelosi’s husbands can score some more big wins, as well as obastard’s “green energy” buddies...

[JimSEA]

The first thing they want is the elimination of all forms of capitalism except crony capitalism (so the union bosses can maintain their standard of living). They are doing a bang up job of eliminating “bad jobs”. Syndicalism was big in the 1930s as well but Stalin eliminated the unions and their leaders. A bad idea never dies.

[Mygirlsmom]

They forgot a pony. I want a pony.

[Chode]

get rid of the mutt in the white hut, outlaw unions, throw out the illegal aliens and it would be good times hello!!!

[Colorado Doug]

Well, now! There’s a plan for you. How are all those union members doing that worked at Hostess? Out creating new jobs, I guess.