The more you play a sport or instrument, the better you get. It’s the same story with work: with more experience, workers become more productive and earn higher pay.
Sadly, during the recession the length of the average workweek shortened. While work hours have since bounced back for many employees, poorer workers haven’t seen their hours reach their pre-recession levels.
A study released by The Heritage Foundation Thursday shows how weak the recovery has been for workers in the bottom fifth of the wage distribution. Over the past six years, the percentage of workers in the bottom quintile with full-time jobs has dropped by one-tenth. These workers’ average workweek has fallen by over an hour a week since the recession began, from 33.1 hours a week to 32.0 hours a week. Of course work hours normally fall in a recession – but they also normally come back afterward.
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The Heritage Foundation is the nation’s most broadly supported public policy research institute, with more than 453,000 individual, foundation and corporate donors. Heritage, founded in February 1973, mission is
to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
