labor reform
Changing employment rules
Labor reform refers to changes in laws, policies, or practices governing work and workers' rights.
Reform efforts typically address wages, working hours, safety conditions, collective bargaining, or employment protections: The strike led to meaningful labor reform.
The term is neutral—it can describe pro-worker legislation or deregulation, depending on who's using it.
- minimum wageLowest lawful hourly rate
- overtime payCompensation for excess hours
- eight hour dayCommon labor schedule length
- paid leaveAbsence with continued wages
- worker cooperativesCollectively owned democratic businesses
picket line · sweatshop · disability accommodations · job security · anti-discrimination laws · union contracts · unemployment benefits · equal pay · strike actions · New Deal · solidarity · workplace democracy · union · pay scales · whistleblower protections · workplace inspections · hazard prevention · hours
- reformreformist, democratic reforms, structural change, overhaul, revision
- laborwork, laborers, workers, hard work, employment
- economic policymonetary policy, tax policy, fiscal discipline, fiscal stimulus, fiscal restraint
- labor historyAFL-CIO, workers, CIO, laborers, unionization
- reform movementsabolitionism, muckraking, social welfare, anti-slavery, feminist literature
- reformsderegulation, privatising, liberalization
labor reformstatus quo
Existing condition of affairs
no change · standing pat · business as usual · tradition · entrenchment
labor reformunion busting
Disrupting worker organizing efforts
right-to-work laws · austerity measures · deregulation · worker exploitation · wage suppression
labor reformdeunionization
Removal of union representation
labor, reform, reformer, reformation, labor union, labor movement, labor law