Bargaining Power and Job Quality in the United States

The age and educational attainment of the US workforce have increased significantly since 1979.  Since older and better educated workers generally have higher pay and better benefits, one might expect a greater share of workers to be in good jobs today compared to 30 years ago.

In a Center for Economic Policy and Research brief entitled "Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone?", John Schmitt and Janelle Jones instead find that the proportion of US workers in good jobs -- defined as paying at least at least $18.50 per hour/$37,000 per year, with employer-provided health insurance and a workplace retirement plan -- fell from 27.4% in 1979 to 24.6% in 2010.  Much of this overall decline is accounted for by a drop in the share of workers with employer-provided health insurance, especially among men.

Measured against the expected increase in the share of good jobs resulting from a more-experienced, better-educated workforce, the authors estimate that the US economy lost approximately a third of its capacity to create good jobs over the 30 year time frame.

The authors find that workers at all levels of educational attainment were less likely to hold a good job in 2010 than they were three decades earlier.  Ruling out technological change and the failure of workers' qualifications to keep pace as an explanation, Schmitt and Jones argue that the economy’s declining ability to generate good jobs is linked to the weaker bargaining power of workers, particular those at lower and middle income levels.