Abstract
In order to focus on core competencies, companies have been shedding “ancillary” jobs for decades while increasingly relying on contractors to do the same work — think payroll, publications, accounting, and human resources. This has created what David Weil, President Obama’s head of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, calls a “fissured workplace,” and it’s led to formidable cracks on which today’s economy rests — and on the lives of workers who find themselves without fair pay or a career ladder. While we can’t roll back economic history, executives and policymakers can work together to make work better for employees while keeping companies competitive.