Eight hours for rest
Eight hours for what we will.
Of course, as economist Heather Boushey points out in her new book Finding Time, with both parents working, families now eat up much of those “eight hours for what we will” in domestic chores, leaving far less free time than they had when one breadwinner was enough—couples now average 500 hours more paid work than in 1970. But that was generally a sexist arrangement—dad worked for pay and mom did the domestic duties, with far less recognition. Understandably, feminists were not happy with this.
Still, a big question persists—why two full-time jobs, often with overtime added? Given that US productivity has more than doubled since the 1960s, why couldn’t both parents now work 20, 25 or 30 hours a week and still provide an even higher material standard of living than back then, a time when most people felt pretty affluent? This is fundamental.
The inequality factor
The answer is pretty clear: for a variety of reasons, since 1980, wages have not kept up with productivity and the share of income going to workers has fallen sharply. What accounts for this?
1.Low-wage foreign competition, furthered in part by
questionable trade agreements.
2.The reduction of union representation from 30% of
the private workforce in 1980 to 7% today.
3.Tax redistribution (and multiple loopholes) favoring
the rich and reducing formerly low-cost services
such as college education.
4.Speculation by those who have benefited from the
tax cuts, driving up the price of essential goods such
as housing.
5.Loss of defined benefit pensions and employer-
provided health care.
6.A steady decline in the real value of the minimum
wage.
Businesses will argue that all these changes, which increase inequality and encourage more people to work longer hours, are needed to “compete in the global economy.” But in fact, other nations provide far higher levels of compensation and social services despite even more serious competition. It should be understood that the U.S. has an enormous domestic market, with 86% of our production being sold to Americans. Only 14% must be sold on the global market. By contrast, many small countries in Europe produce more than half of their output for global consumption. They are able to do so while offering better living standards to their workers. Germany, for example, maintains the world’s second largest manufacturing sector while paying its highest total compensation of salaries and benefits to employees. Its balance of trade is far better than ours, so it is clearly able to compete.
The secret to this is that these European companies accept lower rates of profit and executive compensation. Where U.S. CEOs earn 300 times as much as average workers, German CEOs only earn 30 times as much. Moreover, under a law imposed by the American occupation forces after World War II, German corporations are required to have half of their boards of directors elected by the workers. This system, called co-determination, means that while workers might reduce salaries to remain competitive, they will not ship their manufacturing plants to China as we have done. In other European countries, Works Councils, either union or non-union, help set company workplace policy.
An extreme makeover
To improve the American workplace and fully engage workers, while protecting their health and their right to “time for what we will,” an extreme policy makeover is necessary:
1.Democratize the workplace by introducing co-
determination and works councils as in Germany,
Sweden, etc.
2. Abolition of mandatory overtime (as in Finland and
Portugal).
3.Provide single-payer health insurance to reduce
employee’s dependence on their jobs for health care
and to reduce the high costs to business (for example,
in Canada, cars can be made for $1500 less because
the companies do not have to provide the health
insurance).
4. A more progressive income tax and capital gains tax
to decrease windfall CEO compensation and raise
funds for needed social supports such as free college
education.
5. The right to reduce working hours to part-time with
no reprimands, pro-rated benefits and no reduction in
hourly pay, as in the Netherlands.
6.Increase the minimum wage so that workers do not
need multiple jobs.
7.Provide paid family leave, paid sick days and paid
vacation time as is the case in every other wealthy
country and most poor ones.
Join us in Seattle
The Take Back Your Time movement, of which I am a co-founder, has been working for many of these things for 14 years, hoping to bring the United States into the 21st Century as it is experienced in most wealthy countries. We will be discussing many of these issues at our Time Matters: National Take Back Your Time Conference at Seattle University August 25-27. Do think about joining us. Information can be found at www.takebackyourtime.org
The Gallup Poll finds that Americans are 20% happier on weekends than on workdays, yet our work-time seems to be expanding while our leisure is being lost. It doesn’t have to be that way.