U.S. Tops Rich Nations In Worst Place To Work

U.S. sweats workers the best!

A new report by Oxfam finds among 38 rich nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the U.S. is first — number one! — among the bottom feeders in wages, worker protection and labor rights.

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The U.S. ranks 36 out of 38 in wage policies, Mexico is at the bottom.

The U.S. ranks 38 out of 38 in worker protections: no nation beat us in being worse in protecting workers in terms of equal pay for equal work, protections from sexual harassment, provision of disability, sickness, and parental leave and protection from chaotic scheduling.

The United States is a little better at protecting workers’ rights. We rank 32 out of 38 in rights to organize. But the countries the United States beats is embarrassing — they are known to be human rights violators: Columbia, South Korea, and Chile.

Which countries are great for workers? The usual suspects — France and Scandinavian countries — but even Iceland, Portugal, Slovenia, and New Zealand (you name it) are much better places to work than the Untied States.

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The OXFAM report called “Where Hard Work Doesn’t Pay Off,” reports on their new index of labor policies which is a remarkable achievement matched by many efforts by political science and other academics. I always liked Professors Neumark and Waschers’ comparative work – though they aren’t known as pro-union advocates, they are noted skeptics of raising on the minimum wage.

Professor Buchele and Christiansen in 1995 found that despite many economists blaming higher unemployment in Europe on labor market regulation these scholars found worker rights promoted productivity and real wage growth.

The Oxfam report is a good corrective to The World Bank which surveyed and compared worker rights; but from the point of view of business. The World Bank measured how easy it was to fire workers, how many regulations did they have to adhere to in order to hire workers and whether or not the workers had any protection for working overtime without compensation. If a country had parental leave, health and safety protections, rules on split scheduling The World Bank would penalize them in their ranking!

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I recommend a click on the OXFAM report, to get some situational analysis coming up to our July 4 national pride holiday. It compares 56 labor policies across 38 nations that fall roughly into three categories: wage policies, worker protections, and rights to organize.

In summary, the U.S. consistently ranks near the bottom: #36 in wage policies, #38 in worker protections, and #32 in rights to organize. These rankings reflect the fact that most other peer nations mandate rights and protections for all workers, while the U.S. regards them as privileges for people in “good” jobs.

The U.S. is the only economically-advanced nation to deny its workforce the fundamental right of paid-leave and we are the richest in the world.