That Union Thing
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, when adjusted for inflation, median wages have fallen 1.9 percent in the 18 months since President Trump became president.
While median wages rose by 1.27 percent, or about $11 a week, from January 2017 to June 2018, inflation totaled 3.77 percent, resulting in the buying power of median wages falling by $16.80 per week.
Amazon has announced that it will establish a company minimum wage of $15 per hour, effective November 1. There has been intense political scrutiny of tech giants, and Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced the Stop BEZOS Act, which would levy a steep 100 percent tax on aid employees of large companies receive from the federal government, to be paid by the employer. Sanders and others have praised Amazon's decision to increase pay.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2012 and 2017 the number of union members under the age of 35 increased by over 450,000. Last year, 76 percent of the growth in union membership was from workers under the age of 35.
A study by JPMorgan Chase Institute shows that gig economy drivers are earned half as much in 2017 as they did in 2013. According to the study, average monthly payments for those working for a transportation app such as Uber or Lyft fell from $1,469 to $783. The share of the population participating in the online gig economy rose from 2 percent in 2013 to 5 percent in 2018, but most are using the work to supplement a regular job rather than as full-time employment itself. The study shows that gig economy employment on represents less than 20 percent of total income for the average employee. A previous study by Uber corroborates this, showing that a majority of their drivers work less than 10 hours per week.
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