Catherwood LibraryILR School

As the economy has dropped sharply from the highs of the late 1990?s, and pension and healthcare costs have skyrocketed, many of the gains in benefits that workers made during those boom years of low unemployment and tight job-markets, have been eliminated by employers looking to cut costs. With pay and bonuses for CEO?s and other executives soaring even as workers and retirees are taking massive hits in pay, healthcare, pensions and vacation time, employment experts are forecasting lower morale and loyalty among employees when job markets tighten up again. While employers have defended the cuts as necessary to deal with rising costs and falling revenues, critics in the labor movement and beyond have condemned many of the cuts as exploitation of the economic situation to win concessions aimed at improving profits or making up for poor financial management.