Scientific Journal "Sociology: Theory, Methods, Marketing"
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GLOBAL DIMENSION OF LABOR INEQUALITY
stmm. 2021 (2): 75-93
DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2021.02.075
VITALINA BUTKALIUK, Candidate of Sciences in Sociology, Research Fellow at the Department of Economic Sociology, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12, Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021)
vbutkalyuk@ukr.net
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1339-6393
The transition of the world economy from Keynesianism to neoliberalism at the end of the twentieth century entailed tectonic shifts in the sphere of labor and employment. The organization of the production process on neoliberal principles under the conditions of the post-Fordist regime of capital accumulation has led to instability and insecurity of employment, a high level of labor underutilization, widespread labor poverty, as well as the rapidly increasing inequality that threatens social development today and stability of society. Based on the economic-sociological approach the author examines the reasons for the expansion and the specifics of the manifestation of inequality in the world of work in the context of the post-Fordist neoliberal reform of the global economic system. The article characterizes the key trends in the functioning of the labor market, contributing to the increase in inequality over the past decades (a decrease of the labor share in the national income, a reduction in the relationship between productivity and wages growth, the erosion of the trade union movement and the destruction of the welfare state). The main attention is paid to the study of the phenomenon of labor income inequality, its dynamics and forms of manifestation in the modern world, as well as to identify the impact on this type of inequality, both individual characteristics of workers and the characteristics of the industry, size of the enterprise, as well as the level of socio-economic development of the country. Based on the study of these processes, the author concludes that the redistribution of income in favor of capital and their high differentiation are the quintessence of neoliberal capitalism. The economic and political depletion of nation states in the context of neoliberal reforms led to their low resources, insufficient either to carry out a broad social policy and help those in need, or to adequately combat the consequences of crises characteristic of capitalism or any force majeure situations, such as, for example, the current COVID-19 pandemic. To get the global economy out of the current crisis requires the implementation of fundamental changes not only in the field of economic policy, but also in the entire system of distribution of public goods.
Keywords: neoliberalism, post-Fordism, labor, socio-economic inequality, labor inequality, labor income inequality
References
Alvaredo, F., Chancel, L., Piketty, T., Saez, E., Zucman, G. (2017). World Inequality Report 2018. Laboratory of inequality in the world. DOI https://doi.org/10.3386/w23119
Anisimov, R.I. (2019). Precarious Labor: Who Wins? Theoretical and methodological analysis of approaches to the study of precarious work. [In Russian]. RUDN Bulletin. Ser.: Sociology, 19 (3), 543–552. [=Анисимов 2019]
Around the world, people yearn for significant change rather than a return to a “pre-COVID normal”. (2020). Retrieved from: https://www.ipsos.com/en/global-survey-unveils-profound-desire-change-rather-return-how-life-and-world-were-covid-19
Bradley, D. (2003). Distribution and redistribution in postindustrial democracies. World Politics. 55, 193–228.
Butkaliuk, V.A. (2021). Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Conditions of Economic Globalization. [In Russian]. Sociological research, no 1, pp. 121–131. [=Буткалюк 2021]
Calderon, C., Chong, A., Valdes, R. (2004). Labor market regulations and income inequality: Evidence for a panel of countries. Washington: Inter-American Development Bank. DOI https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1818715
Conclusions of the Meeting of Experts on Non-Standard Forms of Employment. (2015). International Labour Office.
Decoupling of wages from productivity: what implicarors for public policies? (2018). OECD Economic Outlook, Iss. 2.
Gupta, S., Lerner, J., McCartin, A. (2019). Why the Labor Movement Has Failed – And How to Fix It. Retrieved from: //bostonreview.net/forum/sarita-gupta-stephen-lerner-joseph-mccartin-why-labor-movement-has-failed%E2%80%94and-how-fix-it
Hein, E., Mundt, M. (2012). Financialisation and the requirements and potentials for wage-led recovery: a review focussing on the G20. Geneva: ILO.
ILO. (2017). Non-standard forms of employment. Analysis of problems and prospects for solutions in different countries. Geneva: International Labor Office.
ILO. (2018). Wages in the world in 2016–2017. International Labor Organization.
ILO. (2020). ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work. Fourth edition. Updated estimates and analysis. International Labor Organization.
In the United States, women with prestigious professions suffer the most from wage inequality. (2016). [In Russian]. Retrieved from: https://www.vedomosti.ru/management/articles/2016/05/25/642300-ssha-zarplatnogo-neravenstva-silnee-vsego-stradayut-zhenschini-prestizhnimi-professiyami [=В США 2016]
Klaus Shvab: Pandemic as a springboard. (2020). Euronews. Retrieved from: https://ru.euronews.com/2020/11/17/schwab-sujet.
Koeniger, W., Leonardi, M., Nunziata, L. (2007). Labor market institutions and wage inequality. Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 60 (3), 340–356. DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/001979390706000302
Malakhov, V.S. (2013). State in the context of globalization: textbook. 2nd edition, revised and enlarged.[In Russian]. Moscow: KDU. [=Малахов 2013]
Milanovic, B. (2016). Global inequality: from class to country of residence, from proletarians to migrants. [In Russian]. Economic policy, vol. 11, no 1, pp. 14–26. DOI https://doi.org/10.18288/1994-5124-2016-1-02 [=Миланович 2016]
Mishel, L., Gould, E., Bivens, J. (2015). Wage stagnation in nine charts. Economic Policy Institute.
Pasimeni, P. (2018). The Relation between Productivity and Compensation in Europe. European Commission Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Rueda, D., Pontusson, J. (2000). Wage inequality and varieties of capitalism. World Politics, 52, 350–383. DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/s0043887100016579
Skopek I, Triventi M., Kosyakova Y, Bukholz S., Blossfeld H.-P. (2016). Gender and the beginning of the career: the results of an international comparative study. [In Russian]. Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology, XIX, 5 (88), 98–126. [=Скопек, Тривенти, Косякова, Букхольц, Блоссфельд 2016]
Statistics on labour income and inequality. (2017). ILOSTAT. Retrieved from://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/labour-income
Steadman-Jones, D. (2017). The Birth of Neoliberal Politics: From Hayek and Friedman to Reagan and Thatcher. [In Russian]. Moscow; Chelyabinsk: Sotsium; Mysl. [=Стедмен-Джоунз 2017]
Stiglitz, J. (2020). People, Power, and Profit: Progressive Capitalism in an Age of Mass Discontent. [In Russian]. Moscow: Alpina Publisher. [=Стиглиц 2020]
The Inequality Virus. Bringing together a world torn apart by coronavirus through a fair, just and sustainable economy (2021). Oxford: Oxfam International. DOI https://doi.org/10.21201/2021.6409
Toshchenko, Zh.T. (2018). Precaria: from protoclass to a new class. [In Russian]. Moscow: Nauka. [=Тощенко 2018]
UNDP. (2015). Labor for human development. Human Development Report.
Visser, J., Hayter, S., Gammarano, R. (2017). Trends in collective bargaining coverage: Stability, erosion or decline? Geneva: ILO. Retrieved from: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/-ed_protect/-protrav/-travail/documents/publication/wcms_409422.pdf
Wages and Fair Growth 2012–2013 (2013). GTCP and ILO Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The International Labour Organization.
Wallerstein, M. (1999). Wage-setting institutions and pay inequality in advanced industrial societies. American Journal of Political Science, 43 (3), 649–680. DOI https://doi.org/10.2307/2991830
World of Work Report (2008). Income Inequalities in the Age of Financial Globalization. Institut for labour studies. International Labour Organization. DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/wow3.11
World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2019 (2019). Geneva: ILO.
World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2020 (2020). Geneva: ILO.
Zamore, L., Phillips, B. (2020). COVID-19 and Public Support for Radical Policies. Center on International Cooperation. Retrieved from: https://cic.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/zamore-phillips-covid19-public-support-radical-policies-web-final.pdf
Received 09.06.2021
GLOBAL DIMENSION OF LABOR INEQUALITY
stmm. 2021 (2): 75-93
DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2021.02.075
VITALINA BUTKALIUK, Candidate of Sciences in Sociology, Research Fellow at the Department of Economic Sociology, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12, Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021)
vbutkalyuk@ukr.net
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1339-6393
The transition of the world economy from Keynesianism to neoliberalism at the end of the twentieth century entailed tectonic shifts in the sphere of labor and employment. The organization of the production process on neoliberal principles under the conditions of the post-Fordist regime of capital accumulation has led to instability and insecurity of employment, a high level of labor underutilization, widespread labor poverty, as well as the rapidly increasing inequality that threatens social development today and stability of society. Based on the economic-sociological approach the author examines the reasons for the expansion and the specifics of the manifestation of inequality in the world of work in the context of the post-Fordist neoliberal reform of the global economic system. The article characterizes the key trends in the functioning of the labor market, contributing to the increase in inequality over the past decades (a decrease of the labor share in the national income, a reduction in the relationship between productivity and wages growth, the erosion of the trade union movement and the destruction of the welfare state). The main attention is paid to the study of the phenomenon of labor income inequality, its dynamics and forms of manifestation in the modern world, as well as to identify the impact on this type of inequality, both individual characteristics of workers and the characteristics of the industry, size of the enterprise, as well as the level of socio-economic development of the country. Based on the study of these processes, the author concludes that the redistribution of income in favor of capital and their high differentiation are the quintessence of neoliberal capitalism. The economic and political depletion of nation states in the context of neoliberal reforms led to their low resources, insufficient either to carry out a broad social policy and help those in need, or to adequately combat the consequences of crises characteristic of capitalism or any force majeure situations, such as, for example, the current COVID-19 pandemic. To get the global economy out of the current crisis requires the implementation of fundamental changes not only in the field of economic policy, but also in the entire system of distribution of public goods.
Keywords: neoliberalism, post-Fordism, labor, socio-economic inequality, labor inequality, labor income inequality
References
Alvaredo, F., Chancel, L., Piketty, T., Saez, E., Zucman, G. (2017). World Inequality Report 2018. Laboratory of inequality in the world. DOI https://doi.org/10.3386/w23119
Anisimov, R.I. (2019). Precarious Labor: Who Wins? Theoretical and methodological analysis of approaches to the study of precarious work. [In Russian]. RUDN Bulletin. Ser.: Sociology, 19 (3), 543–552. [=Анисимов 2019]
Around the world, people yearn for significant change rather than a return to a “pre-COVID normal”. (2020). Retrieved from: https://www.ipsos.com/en/global-survey-unveils-profound-desire-change-rather-return-how-life-and-world-were-covid-19
Bradley, D. (2003). Distribution and redistribution in postindustrial democracies. World Politics. 55, 193–228.
Butkaliuk, V.A. (2021). Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Conditions of Economic Globalization. [In Russian]. Sociological research, no 1, pp. 121–131. [=Буткалюк 2021]
Calderon, C., Chong, A., Valdes, R. (2004). Labor market regulations and income inequality: Evidence for a panel of countries. Washington: Inter-American Development Bank. DOI https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1818715
Conclusions of the Meeting of Experts on Non-Standard Forms of Employment. (2015). International Labour Office.
Decoupling of wages from productivity: what implicarors for public policies? (2018). OECD Economic Outlook, Iss. 2.
Gupta, S., Lerner, J., McCartin, A. (2019). Why the Labor Movement Has Failed – And How to Fix It. Retrieved from: //bostonreview.net/forum/sarita-gupta-stephen-lerner-joseph-mccartin-why-labor-movement-has-failed%E2%80%94and-how-fix-it
Hein, E., Mundt, M. (2012). Financialisation and the requirements and potentials for wage-led recovery: a review focussing on the G20. Geneva: ILO.
ILO. (2017). Non-standard forms of employment. Analysis of problems and prospects for solutions in different countries. Geneva: International Labor Office.
ILO. (2018). Wages in the world in 2016–2017. International Labor Organization.
ILO. (2020). ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work. Fourth edition. Updated estimates and analysis. International Labor Organization.
In the United States, women with prestigious professions suffer the most from wage inequality. (2016). [In Russian]. Retrieved from: https://www.vedomosti.ru/management/articles/2016/05/25/642300-ssha-zarplatnogo-neravenstva-silnee-vsego-stradayut-zhenschini-prestizhnimi-professiyami [=В США 2016]
Klaus Shvab: Pandemic as a springboard. (2020). Euronews. Retrieved from: https://ru.euronews.com/2020/11/17/schwab-sujet.
Koeniger, W., Leonardi, M., Nunziata, L. (2007). Labor market institutions and wage inequality. Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 60 (3), 340–356. DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/001979390706000302
Malakhov, V.S. (2013). State in the context of globalization: textbook. 2nd edition, revised and enlarged.[In Russian]. Moscow: KDU. [=Малахов 2013]
Milanovic, B. (2016). Global inequality: from class to country of residence, from proletarians to migrants. [In Russian]. Economic policy, vol. 11, no 1, pp. 14–26. DOI https://doi.org/10.18288/1994-5124-2016-1-02 [=Миланович 2016]
Mishel, L., Gould, E., Bivens, J. (2015). Wage stagnation in nine charts. Economic Policy Institute.
Pasimeni, P. (2018). The Relation between Productivity and Compensation in Europe. European Commission Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Rueda, D., Pontusson, J. (2000). Wage inequality and varieties of capitalism. World Politics, 52, 350–383. DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/s0043887100016579
Skopek I, Triventi M., Kosyakova Y, Bukholz S., Blossfeld H.-P. (2016). Gender and the beginning of the career: the results of an international comparative study. [In Russian]. Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology, XIX, 5 (88), 98–126. [=Скопек, Тривенти, Косякова, Букхольц, Блоссфельд 2016]
Statistics on labour income and inequality. (2017). ILOSTAT. Retrieved from://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/labour-income
Steadman-Jones, D. (2017). The Birth of Neoliberal Politics: From Hayek and Friedman to Reagan and Thatcher. [In Russian]. Moscow; Chelyabinsk: Sotsium; Mysl. [=Стедмен-Джоунз 2017]
Stiglitz, J. (2020). People, Power, and Profit: Progressive Capitalism in an Age of Mass Discontent. [In Russian]. Moscow: Alpina Publisher. [=Стиглиц 2020]
The Inequality Virus. Bringing together a world torn apart by coronavirus through a fair, just and sustainable economy (2021). Oxford: Oxfam International. DOI https://doi.org/10.21201/2021.6409
Toshchenko, Zh.T. (2018). Precaria: from protoclass to a new class. [In Russian]. Moscow: Nauka. [=Тощенко 2018]
UNDP. (2015). Labor for human development. Human Development Report.
Visser, J., Hayter, S., Gammarano, R. (2017). Trends in collective bargaining coverage: Stability, erosion or decline? Geneva: ILO. Retrieved from: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/-ed_protect/-protrav/-travail/documents/publication/wcms_409422.pdf
Wages and Fair Growth 2012–2013 (2013). GTCP and ILO Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The International Labour Organization.
Wallerstein, M. (1999). Wage-setting institutions and pay inequality in advanced industrial societies. American Journal of Political Science, 43 (3), 649–680. DOI https://doi.org/10.2307/2991830
World of Work Report (2008). Income Inequalities in the Age of Financial Globalization. Institut for labour studies. International Labour Organization. DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/wow3.11
World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2019 (2019). Geneva: ILO.
World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2020 (2020). Geneva: ILO.
Zamore, L., Phillips, B. (2020). COVID-19 and Public Support for Radical Policies. Center on International Cooperation. Retrieved from: https://cic.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/zamore-phillips-covid19-public-support-radical-policies-web-final.pdf
Received 09.06.2021
LATEST PRINTED ISSUE
LATEST FREELY ACCESSIBLE MATERIALS