The Great Recession and the Pressure on Workplace Rights

This paper explores the impact of the Great Recession on the rights of workers in the U.S. and overseas. While secular trends in play before the economic downturn began had already eroded employment benefits and workers’ right, recent economic conditions have exacerbated conditions for workers. With the Great Recession have come record levels of long term unemployment, a rise in the number of involuntary part-time workers, and a growth in the already high rates of youth unemployment. All of these conditions, along with the decline of union representation, have placed downward pressure on wages and forced workers to give back hard won benefits, thereby increasing inequality within and between groups