Spring ‘19: 150th Anniversary
Employment in an Ever-Changing America by LAUREN LARRICK Just as American culture constantly evolves, so does its workplace. Over the past seventy years, the demographics of the workforce and the issues employers and employees face have changed unrecognizably. While there are innumerable contributing factors to explain today’s economic landscape and workplace demographics, several stand out:
Employee Protection and Employer Regulation The American workplace of 1950 would seem entirely foreign to today’s employees. The typical employee was a white male with a high school degree. Women made up only one-third of the workforce, and minorities only 10 percent. (By contrast, today, almost 47 percent of American workers are women and 22 percent are minorities.)i There was very little regulation by the government over private
employers. In 1950, the only highimpact employment law in place was the Fair Labor Standards Act, enacted in 1938 to create a right to minimum wage and prohibit most employment of minors. Since then, several significant laws have been enacted to regulate the workplace: •
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Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: prohibits discrimination against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin and religion; Age Discrimination and Employment Act of 1967: protects individuals 40 years of age or older from employment discrimination based on age; Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970: ensures safe working conditions; Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990: along with its amendments in 2008 (referred to as the ADAAA), this legislation prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life including employment; and Family Medical Leave Act of 1993: provides eligible employees job-protected unpaid leave for family and medical reasons.
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With each law, employees received more protection while employers’ potential for liability increased. Needless to say, there has been a large uptick in employment litigation since the 1950s.
The Great Recession Shakes Up Workplace Demographics The Great Recession, which was closely linked to the dramatic decline in housing prices that began in late 2006, also impacted the workplace as we see it today. During that time, the U.S. employment rate dropped from 63 percent in 2007 to 58.4 percent in 2011.ii The economy reacted in two ways to this unemployment rate. The first was an increase in part-time employment. Additionally, the economy saw a rise in individuals going back to school for higher level degrees, in the hopes of becoming more marketable. Attendance at vocational and technical schools declined during the Great Recession, resulting in a higher-educated workforce. In 1980, adults with a bachelor’s degree made up 17