Without an increase in five years, minimum wage workers, 60 percent of whom are women, have experienced a sharp decline in real earnings. Over seventeen million Americans fall outside the federal provision and rely on inadequate state standards. Overtime and tipping laws are discussed. Social costs of maintaining the "working poor" outweigh…

From 1978-79 incidence of long hours among full-time wage and salary workers dropped for the first time since the 1974-75 recession. Of those who worked long hours, about 43% received premium pay (time and one-half the regular wage for hours worked in excess of forty per week). Employers used overtime hours to cope with disequilibrium phenomena…

A representative survey of over 30,000 people aged 16-64 years across the 15 member states of the European Union and Norway sought Europeans' preferences for increasing or reducing the number of hours worked per week. Key finding included the following: (1) 51% preferred to work fewer hours in exchange for lower earnings while 12% preferred to…