Hard Choices on Jobs and Wages

46:10

July 13, 2009

A line winds through the Cleveland Convention Center as people wait a job fair. May 2009. (AP) — A line winds through the Cleveland Convention Center as people wait at a recent job fair. (AP)

Headlines just today: Methodist bishops take pay cut. The publisher Gannett will shed 1400 jobs – those staffers just gone. University of California will have furloughs.

Economists say layoffs may be best for the bottom line. They get the pain “out the door." But in times this bad, many Americans are ready to share the pain to save jobs. To a point.

This hour, On Point: how the pain is shared – or not – when cutbacks hit the workplace.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.Guests:

Greg Ip, U.S. economics editor for The Economist. His recent piece, "The Quiet Americans," looked at employees, pay cuts and unpaid leave in the recession.
Truman Bewley, professor of economics at Yale University and author of the book "Why Wages Don't Fall During a Recession."
Katherine Newman, professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and author of several books on work and the American economic landscape, including "The Missing Class" and "Chutes and Ladders: Navigating the Low-Wage Labor Market."

This program aired on July 13, 2009.