Lin’s research has shown that a greater focus by
companies on shareholders and share prices
typically leads to a decline in employment, with
blue-collar production and service workers hit
hardest. Though many American workers are
invested in the stock market, Lin said, “their
reality is more tied to their role as a worker, and
their reality is more tied to what’s happened to
their paycheck.”
Few sectors of the workplace have endured more
turmoil since the recession than retail. Nearly 16
million people work for retailers in the United
States. Some, including Payless, Gymboree
and Charlotte Russe, have filed for bankruptcy
protection this year. Collectively, retailers have
so far closed more than 7,500 stores this year ,
according to Coresight Research.
Such pressures have weighed on workers like
Patty Tamez, who wonders whether she has
a future in retail. Tamez began working at the
Gap in Florida in 2006, transferred to Texas and
became a manager. When the store she worked
in closed in 2013, Gap found her a similar job in
another store.
But three years later, when another store where
she worked was closed, Gap didn’t offer her an
equivalent position, and she left for another
retailer. Tamez returned to Gap in 2018 but
noticed a difference.
Shipments and store changes often came with
little warning. It was clear, she said, that business
wasn’t doing well. The difficulties trickled down
to workers. Shifts would sometimes be cut with
less than a day’s notice.
“We’re constantly changing the schedules every
week,” said Tamez, 42, of Fort Worth, Texas. “It’s
pretty stressful. I do schedules, and sometimes
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