Regardless of profits, market share, and cost of living, all advantages in the past 30 years have shifted to the employer, the exception being those companies who have a monopolistic advantage. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, real wages in the United States fell through the 1980s and into the early 1990s, not recovering the average value in 1980 until the year 2000 (DOL, 1999). Since 1980, technology and globalization have given companies structure that is more horizontal. This is allowing for the subcontracting and outsourcing of production to geographies not affected by American labor laws, thus allowing companies to manufacture goods for low wages. Globalization and technology have now brought wage contention for the American worker full circle, mirroring those of the industrial revolution (Dau-Schmidt & Ellis, 2010). To further illustrate this, even the United States Department of Labor (1999) admits the American family is working harder all while membership in labor unions is down to 11.8 percent of the workforce, without any signs of improving (Meyerson,
Regardless of profits, market share, and cost of living, all advantages in the past 30 years have shifted to the employer, the exception being those companies who have a monopolistic advantage. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, real wages in the United States fell through the 1980s and into the early 1990s, not recovering the average value in 1980 until the year 2000 (DOL, 1999). Since 1980, technology and globalization have given companies structure that is more horizontal. This is allowing for the subcontracting and outsourcing of production to geographies not affected by American labor laws, thus allowing companies to manufacture goods for low wages. Globalization and technology have now brought wage contention for the American worker full circle, mirroring those of the industrial revolution (Dau-Schmidt & Ellis, 2010). To further illustrate this, even the United States Department of Labor (1999) admits the American family is working harder all while membership in labor unions is down to 11.8 percent of the workforce, without any signs of improving (Meyerson,