Increased focus on the working class is sorely needed. Wages for workers without a four-year college degree have stagnated over the past five decades, even as corporate CEOs’ compensation soared and corporate profits approached record highs.
A key reason for this wage stagnation is that workers do not have sufficient power to negotiate for higher compensation. Decades of attacks against unions have weakened worker power. By supporting good-quality, high-wage jobs and empowering workers to bargain for decent wages and working conditions, lawmakers can strengthen their local economies.
To this end, states are starting to take action, but there’s still much more to do.
In recent years, some states have adopted laws recognizing and defending the collective bargaining rights of workers. For example, last year voters in Massachusetts granted union rights to ride-share drivers who are excluded from federal labor law. In 2023, Michigan repealed its right-to-work law and New Jersey expanded eligibility for striking workers to collect unemployment insurance benefits. Meanwhile, several states have enacted laws supporting fair bargaining for public-sector workers after a 2018 Supreme Court decision undermined the labor rights of state and local government workers.
What’s more, states including California, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada and New York are boosting pay and improving training and safety in sectors where bargaining with individual employers is very difficult, such as home care and fast food, by bringing workers and employers together in new bodies called industry standards boards.
And by attaching standards to government spending, policymakers are supporting quality jobs and workforce stability across the private sector while creating a more level playing field for companies that respect workers’ rights and pay market wages. For example, New Jersey has adopted prevailing-wage standards for service and construction projects, and Maryland encourages project labor agreements that set standards and prevent disruptions on major construction projects.
For the most part, these reforms have been adopted in states where Democrats hold power. But workers across partisan lines are increasingly supportive of unions, and some jurisdictions not noted for friendliness to labor rights have also been acting. Arizona and Florida, for example, provide workers with a robust private right of action so they can take law-breaking companies to court, and dozens of cities and counties across Indiana require bidders for government funds to report prior workplace violations and participate in a registered apprenticeship program.
Indeed, policymakers of all political stripes would do well to focus on these strategies to strengthen worker power. Working-class frustration over flat wages, high inflation and a lack of political will to enact laws that rebalance power in the economy may be at the heart of their abandonment of progressive policymakers in the last election. Whoever is able to deliver for them now will not only help rebalance the U.S. economy and enable more workers to share in its growth but also show everyday Americans whose side they’re on.
Karla Walter is a senior fellow for inclusive economic policy and David Madland is a senior fellow and senior adviser for the American Worker Project at the Center for American Progress.
Governing’s opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing’s editors or management.
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