How Michael E. Porter’s seminal model can help us plan for the future of work
Michael E. Porter’s Five Forces has been an influential framework to model business strategy since its original publication in 1979. Porter, an influential economist and Harvard Business School professor, developed the Five Forces as a tool through which to assess the competition within an industry. The premise is simple: business…
A comparison of the minimum wage, annual leave, unionization, and corporate governance around the world
In the 1930s, FDR and Labor Secretary Frances Perkins introduced sweeping reforms to American labor policy. The New Deal era is responsible for the invisible guardrails that feel like immutable features of work: a federal minimum wage, 40 hour work week, and the right to unionize. But besides small amendments…
And the problems with our classification systems
What occupations are considered “skilled”? Maybe it’s the jobs that require a college degree. Or the ones with the highest wages. Perhaps it’s the level of judgement required.
Although “skilled” and “unskilled” remain common terms used to describe and analyze the workforce, there isn’t a consistent way to classify work…
A Brief Overview of the Current (And Potential) Regulatory Solutions To Address Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States
For months, governments around the world have been sorting through the economic devastation caused by the Coronavirus Pandemic, putting in measures in an attempt to spur a U-shaped recovery, and avoid what seems to be an inevitable K-shaped one. …
The History of Classifying Occupations and How It Affects Our Perception of Work
To help match the unemployed with employment opportunities in the depths of the Great Depression, Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor under Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal administration, worked to pass The Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933, creating Employment Service field offices across the country. After recognizing the value of the employment…
Lessons Learned From Industry Experts at the 2020 Jobs For the Future Horizons Conference
Every job has been impacted by the pandemic. Millions have become unemployed and many others have seen the very nature of their work change dramatically. It has revealed social and economic vulnerabilities in the United States that have been persisting under the surface for far too long.
A Brief Overview of the Labor Landscape in this Dynamic Southeast Asian Country
It can be all too easy to visit a country and focus on the visible: how people dress, the price of food, the different social norms. …
What Our Failed Startup Can Teach Others About Organizational Distance
During the last few months of 2017 I was in a constant state of outrage. I woke up every morning terrified of the next inevitable crisis, exhausted from putting out fires. …
How thinking about the future puts constraints on the present
One of the most fascinating quirks of human psychology is our reluctance to change our course of action. We commit to jobs, relationships, investments and social activities with a limited set of information, and then go about the process of reconciling our expectations with our lived experience, often rationalizing any…
The power of outside options in explaining wage discrepancies
In an ideal world, the amount that you see on your paycheck is an accurate reflection of the value that your productive work creates for your employer. But wages aren’t set in a vacuum — the amount you earn is affected by everything from how long you’ve been with the…
Amanda Silver
Obsessed with people & process; advocate for labor dignity, voice & ownership. Subscribe to Workable for monthly news on changing work: https://bit.ly/2LAonT2
