This follow-up study to "Relation Between Job Strain, Alcohol, and Ambulatory Blood Pressure" (Schnall, et al, 1992) replicates the results of the original, providing further evidence that job strain is an occupational hazard in the etiology of hypertension.

Contains a brief history of the national living wage movement, background materials such as ordinance summaries and comparisons, drafting tips, research summaries, talking points, and links to other living wage-related sites. (Please also visit for the latest on minimum wage ballot initiatives across the country.)

A seminal study providing strong evidence that even anticipation of job loss raises blood pressure. The study also finds that blood pressure is increases in men during unemployment, especially for those with more general stress and longer periods of unemployment. The findings were subsequently reinforced by later studies.

Seven unions and six million workers united in Change to Win in 2005 to build a new movement of working people equipped to meet the challenges of the global economy and restore the American Dream in the 21st century: a paycheck that can support a family, affordable health care, a secure retirement and dignity on the job.

The American Dream is under threat today as never before in our lifetimes. To learn more about this challenge and what working people are doing to meet it, see The American Dream Survey, our ongoing research project on the state of the American Dream.

The report helps to develop measures to clarify how different types of jobs, threat of unemployment affect workers’ health. 

This is an interim report, submitted by the Employment Conditions Knowledge Network to develop the Commission's final report in May 2008.

Considering the effects of the current recession on health, the article looks at recent research that shows negative health outcomes for those who have lost their jobs and had trouble finding new ones, those worried about job insecurity, and even those who found have found employment again after a layoff.

This report examines how globalization’s dynamics and processes affect health outcomes: trade liberalization, integration of production of goods.

This is an interim report, submitted by the Globalization Knowledge Network to develop the Commission's final report in May 2008.

In Michigan, as in other parts of the country, there's a growing chasm between the "haves" and the "have nots." As unemployed workers struggle to make ends meet and suffer declining health as a result, the wealthiest Americans are enjoying the spoils of our "winner-take-all" society.

This study looks at the question: How does worker health relate to the health of the economy in the new system, and what public policies will promote the health of both? The authors find a powerful positive relationship between the level of self-employment in a society and the health of its citizens—even in the face of frequent change in an economy where knowledge produces benefits. This suggests that policies encouraging entrepreneurship—even inside large corporations—may provide a cushion against job loss and promote a mutually beneficial cycle of individual health and group prosperity.

Job loss doesn't just affect individuals. It impacts families and even whole communities. Stress, uncertainty, and lost income affect children in various ways.

A seminal article linking stress and high demand / low control work to heart disease and other health problems.

The purpose of this site is to bring together, for public dissemination, information about and related to Job Strain (specifically) and Work Stress (in general).

Jobs with Justice engages workers and allies in campaigns to win justice in workplaces and in communities where working families live. JwJ was founded in 1987 with the vision of lifting up workers’ rights struggles as part of a larger campaign for economic and social justice. We believe in long-term multi-issue coalition building , grassroots base-building and organizing and strategic militant action as the foundation for building a grassroots movement, and we believe that by engaging a broad community of allies, we can win bigger victories. We reach working people through the organizations that represent them—unions, congregations, community organizations—and directly as JwJ activists. Nearly 100,000 people have signed the Jobs with Justice pledge to "Be There at least five times a year for someone else’s struggle as well as their own."

Since 1992, the Labor Project for Working Families has been partnering with unions, union members, community based organizations and other activists to promote better work and family policies and programs, including paid family leave, child care, elder care and flexible work schedules. Their efforst include: educating unions about work/family initiatives; advocating public policies for working families; and promoting innovation and partnership between unions and communities.

An excellent four-page primer on the Swedish model of social protections, prepared by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. There have been changes to the Swedish welfare state over the past two decades and, in some areas, inequality has increased. However, other social policy areas have expanded and other forms of inequality continue to steadily decline. Like the other Nordic lands, Sweden has been considerably more resistant to the ‘imperatives’ of global integration, and the article considers what we could all learn from their experiences.

How financial strain and loss of personal control lead to depression, impaired functioning, and poor health. The first author, Rick Price, is featured in Not Just a Paycheck.

Based out of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, the MPRC is dedicated to a program of prevention research on the problems of employment, economic stress, and well-being throughout the life course. MPRC seeks to extend scientific understanding of the links between conditions of employment and mental and physical health, while at the same time, expanding the policy and practice options available to both the public and private sector.

An online, grassroots movement working for mandatory paid maternity and paternity leave, open flexible work, healthcare for all kids, excellent childcare, realistic and fair wages, and healthy afterschool options for all children.

Paid sick leave gives workers an opportunity to regain their health, return to full productivity at work, and avoid spreading disease to their co-workers, all of which reduces employers’ overall absence expense. When used to care for sick children or dependent relatives, it helps recovery times and reduces job turnover of working parents.  However, new analysis of data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals the inadequacy of paid sick leave coverage: more than 59 million workers have no such leave. Even more—nearly 86 million—do not have paid sick leave to care for sick children.

This report reviews the most recently available data from a range of national and international sources on statutory requirements for paid leave and paid public holidays in 21 rich countries (16 European countries, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States). In addition to our finding that the United States is the only country in the group that does not require employers to provide paid leave, we also note that almost every other rich country has also established legal rights to paid public holidays over and above paid leave.

When Electrolux shut down the largest refrigerator factory in the country and moved it to Juarez, Mexico in search of cheaper labor, it turned the lives of many of the 3,000 employees who had worked there upside down. Cases of depression, alcoholism, and domestic abuse nearly tripled at the local hospital, and heart disease and mortality are predicted to rise. But when Electrolux shut down one of its Swedish plants it caused hardly a ripple. What kinds of policies can mitigate the negative health effects of job loss?

When Electrolux shut down the largest refrigerator factory in the country and moved it to Juarez, Mexico in search of cheaper labor, it turned the lives of many of the 3,000 employees who had worked there upside down. Cases of depression, alcoholism, and domestic abuse nearly tripled at the local hospital, and heart disease and mortality are predicted to rise. But when Electrolux shut down one of its Swedish plants it caused hardly a ripple. What kinds of policies can mitigate the negative health effects of job loss?

De Graaf comments on the findings of a recent ILO report that U.S. workers produce per capita wealth than any other country and are second most productive per hour in the world, yet more people are working longer hours just to make ends meet. After presenting statistics on how badly we compare to European countries on quality of life indicators, he makes the case for a federal mandate of three weeks paid vacation per year.

PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity by "Lifting Up What Works." By developing and implementing multifaceted strategies, PolicyLink seeks to ensure that everyone—including low-income communities of color—can contribute to and benefit from local and regional growth and development.