REPORT: Temp and Subcontracted Workers Erode Wages, Undermine Worker Protections

http://wepartypatriots.com/wp/2012/09/04/report-temporary-and-subcontracted-workers-erode-wages-and-undermine-worker-protections/



A new report from the UC Berkely Center for Labor Research and Education, Poverty and the Rise of Temporary and Contingent Work, studies the correlations between temporary workers and their need to be on government assistance.

Though Newt Gingrich attempted to paint Barack Obama as the “food stamp President,” the big business policies promoted by members of Gingrich’s party are actually a bigger factor in the surge of “entitlements” than any policy of Obama’s. Jobs that once paid middle class wages are now being performed by temporary or subcontracted workers who do not receive the same protections and benefits as full-time employees. The study looks into data from California which researchers suggest closely mirrors the national scene:

In California, almost one-quarter of a million people worked in the temporary help services industry in 2010; another 37,000 people worked for employee leasing firms totaling 282,000 workers in these two industries. This accounted for approximately 2.0 percent of all non-farm employment in California in 2010, approximately the same ratio as for the U.S. as whole. Employment services workers span a wide range of occupations, from professional white collar occupations like nursing, accounting, and computer programming, to blue collar work in transportation and material moving, housekeeping and landscaping, and manufacturing.