Thread by @greenhousenyt

There's tons of talk about American exceptionalism, but there's one type of American exceptionalism that gets far too little attention: American's anti-worker exceptionalism.

Worker power is weaker in the U.S. than in any other industrial nation—My Story: nytimes.com/2019/08/03/opi…

In no other industrial nation do corporations fight so hard to keep out unions.

The consequences are enormous, not only for wages & income inequality, but also for our politics & policymaking & for the many Americans who are mistreated at work.

• The U.S. is the only industrial nation that doesn't have laws that guarantee paid parental leave. (European nations average 20 weeks)

• The US is the only industrial country other than S. Korea that doesn't guarantee paid sick days.

• The U.S. is the only industrial nation that doesn't have laws guaranteeing paid vacation. The European Union's 28 nations guarantee at least 4 weeks.

The US is the only industrial nation w/o universal health coverage. This means we're the only industrial country where if you lose your job, you & your family can lose heath coverage—the only industrial nation where 1,000 workers can lose health insurance if their factory closes.

• Of 36 industrial nations, the U.S. has the lowest minimum wage as a percentage of the median wage--just 34% of the typical wage compared with 62% in France.

• Among industrial nations, the U.S. has the second-highest percentage of low-wage workers, exceeded only by Latvia.

As I explain in my new book, The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor, there is an important, but little understood reason behind America's anti-worker exceptionalism & that is that worker power in the U.S. has fallen to its weakest point in decades penguinrandomhouse.com/books/246798/b…