 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
WHY WE FAST |
“The squeeze on the American worker has meant more poverty, more income inequality, more family tensions, more hours at work, more time away from the kids, more families without health insurance, more retirees with inadequate pensions, and more demands on government and taxpayers to provide housing assistance and health
coverage.”
- The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker
by Steven Greenhouse, 2008
“In terms of power and influence…there is no more powerful institution in society than business. I believe it is now more important than ever before for business to assume a moral leadership. The business of business should not be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed.”
- Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
Excerpts from The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker “If wages had kept pace with productivity, the average full-time worker would be earning $58,000 a year; $36,000 was the average in 2007.” (p. 5) “More than one-fourth of the 45 million workers under age thirty-five do not have health insurance from any source…” (p. 267) “The typical CEO earns 369 times as much as the average worker, up from 131 times in 1993 and 36 times in 1976.” (p. 41) “Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company, promised its chief executive, Harry McKinnell, an annual pension of $6.6 million, representing 100% of his annual salary and bonus, even though Pfizer’s stock had plunged $137 billion in value – 43% – during his tenure as CEO." (p. 285) “In 1982, 84% of full-time workers in companies with more than one hundred workers had traditional pensions, which promise a monthly income stream for life after retirement. Today less than 33% do.” (p. 276) “…in the modern middle-class American household, both parents taken together work 540 more hours per year - 13.5 more weeks per year - than parents did a generation ago.” (p. 92) |
|
Last Updated:03/02/2009
© Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State
