A Raw Deal for American Workers

Comparison Statistics Among Advanced Industrial Countries 

How does the record of the United Stares compare with that of other advanced industrial countries?

"Among the three dozen industrial nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States, in 2019,was exceeded only by Latvia in having the highest percentage of low-wage workers. This is not surprising, as the U.S. minimum wage has been kept at $7.25 an hour since 2009, placing the United States behind Luxembourg ($13.78), Australia ($12.14), France ($11.66), New Zealand ($11.20), Germany ($10.87), Belgium ($10.38), Britain ($10.34), Ireland ($9.62), Canada ($9.52), and Israel ($7.94). [1]

Furthermore, American workers put in more hours on the job than did their foreign counterparts. At the beginning of 2020, full-time U.S. workers had a longer work week than full-time workers in 24 OECD nations. In addition, the United States remained the only country with an advanced industrial economy that did not guarantee workers a paid vacation. The European Union guaranteed workers at least 20 paid vacation days a year, with some countries mandating as many as 30. Although the U.S. government failed to require any paid holidays, most advanced industrial countries offered at least six per year. Consequently, American workers averaged many more days on the job than did workers in almost any other advanced industrial society. The United States also remained the only advanced industrial nation that failed to guarantee paid maternity leave to workers."

Lawrence Wittner, political science professor at Albany University in New York, has found that in 2016 (the last year for which comparative statistics are available), the death rate for U.S. workers on the job was considerably higher than the rate in comparable nations --more than twice as high as in Japan, three times higher than in Canada, and more than five times higher than in Sweden. Furthermore, in 2019, unemployment insurance benefits were considerably lower than in many advanced industrial societies.

Another finding of professor Wittner is that roughly half of unorganized workers said they would join a union if they could, "union membership in the United States fell to an all-time low, with severe consequences for workers."

ADDENDUMS:

*Trump's rant in Cleveland on August 6: "He's [Biden] following the radical left agenda. Take  away your guns. Destroy your Second Amendment. No religion. 'No anything! Hurt the Bible! Hurt God! He's against God! He's against guns! He's against energy, our kind of energy. Uh, I  don't think he's going to do well in Ohio."

*Acting Homeland Secretary Chad Wolf and Acting Deputy Secretary Cuccinelli were illegally appointed to their positions says the Government Accountability Office. They violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. 

*Trump says that Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic Convention was "extremely divisive." "She was over her head, and frankly she shouldn't made the speech live, which she didn't do. She gets these fawning reviews..."

*Trump's tweet of August 18: "Somebody explain to Michelle Obama that Donald J. Trump would not be here, in the beautiful White House if it weren't for the job done by your husband, Barack Obama. Biden was merely an afterthought, a good reason for the very late and unenthusiastic endorsement..."

*The Rio Grande section of Trump's border wall is collapsing due to erosion and faulty construction.

*The Congressional Budget Office finds that this year's deficit will reach $3.3 trillion,more than double the $1.4 trillion in 2009 during the Great Recession.