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In Philadelphia, the poorest big city in the U.S., the minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 per hour for the past 15 years. That’s the minimum wage everywhere in Pennsylvania, and it matches the federal minimum wage. However, minimum wage workers in other big American cities earn significantly more: $16 an hour in New York and $15 an hour in Boston, for example. If Philadelphia’s $7.25-per-hour minimum wage were to keep up with inflation alone, it would need to be raised to at least $10.38 today, according to the federal Consumer Price Index inflation calculator. We asked Michael O’Bryan, founder of the Wealth and Work Futures Lab at...... Read Full article on HadNews

There have been massive gains in productivity over the past century. So why are people still working so hard for so long? Output per worker increased by almost 300% between 1950 and 2018 in the U.S. The standard American workweek, meanwhile, has remained unchanged, at about 40 hours. This paradox is especially notable in the U.S., where the average work year is 1,767 hours compared with 1,354 in Germany, a difference largely due to Americans’ lack of vacation time. Some might argue that Americans are just more hardworking. But shouldn’t more productive work be rewarded with more time free from work? This is the central theme o...... Read Full article on HadNews

Slovak porters - The last in Europe | DW Documentary Delivery service in the world’s smallest high mountain range is still done the traditional way. In the Alps and other European mountains, porters have long been replaced by helicopters and cable cars. But not in the High Tatras of Slovakia. When loaded, the wooden carrying frames used by the so-called ‘Tatra Sherpas’ weigh up to 100 kilos or more. The porters climb up to 2,000 meters with their loads, supplying essentials to remote mountain huts in the Slovakian national park. Števo Bačkor is one of around 60 porters in the region today. Two to three times a week, the 47-year-old loads...... Read Full article on HadNews

Men’s employment in the U.S. reached a 20-year high in 2023, with nearly 90% of men ages 25 to 54 in the workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This supports the broad expectation – some might say stereotype – that full-time employment is the norm for American men. Yet examining employment at a single point in time leaves out important information about whether people are able to maintain stable work. Our recent study of male baby boomers’ working lives – spanning more than two decades – tells a very different story. In fact, men’s labor force participation has been steadily declining since the 1970s, and workers ar...... Read Full article on HadNews