Building a new social contract in the United States: the task at hand

Abstract

This paper argues for a new social contract in the United States which will establish the mutual expectations and obligations that workers, employers and their communities have regarding work and employment relationships. It reports suggestions by participants in a recent online MITx course on ‘Shaping the Future of Work’. The participants in the course assigned high priority to business leaders working collaboratively with employees to improve organizational performance and provide workers with a significant voice in corporate governance. They urged unions to be effective in representing workers’ interests, not in an adversarial but in a partnership manner. They advocated that government should balance power in society and reform labor laws to provide workers with a wider range of voice and representation. The paper suggests steps which the new Administration should take to achieve these goals, in order to establish a new social contract and heal deep divisions in American society.