For Labor Day, The Pew Research Center takes a look at today’s workforce and presents a series of data trends and observations: 8 facts & trends about American workers. We’ve summarized the major findings – read the full article for details and charts.
1. Over the past three decades, the share of American workers who are union members has fallen by about half.
2. There is broad support for the right of workers to unionize across a range of occupations.
3. Millennials are now the largest generation in the labor force.
4. American women earn 83 cents on the dollar compared with men, but the youngest working women are narrowing that gap substantially.
5. On virtually every measure of economic well-being and career attainment, young college graduates are outperforming their peers with less education to a greater extent than in the past.
6. A much smaller share of U.S. teens work today compared with in the 1970s.
7. The idea of raising the federal minimum wage has broad popular support, but less among Republicans.
8. New overtime rules could make more than 5 million white-collar workers newly eligible for extra pay.
Here are some other interesting facts about the average workforce this Labor Day in an infographic from Monster.com
