The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker

May 6, 2008, 12:30pm - 2:00pm

In his new book, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker, Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times takes a fresh, probing, and often shocking look at the stresses and strains faced by tens of millions of American workers as wages have stagnated, health and pension benefits have grown stingier, and job security has shriveled. Greenhouse goes behind the scenes to tell the stories of software engineers in Seattle, hotel housekeepers in Chicago, call center workers in New York, and janitors in Houston, as he explores why, in the world's most affluent nation, so many corporations are intent on squeezing their workers dry. Greenhouse finds that the post–World War II social contract that helped build the world's largest and most prosperous middle class has been replaced by a startling contradiction: corporate profits, economic growth, and worker productivity have grown strongly while worker pay has languished and Americans face ever-greater pressures to work harder and longer.