David Madland is a senior fellow and the senior adviser to the American Worker Project at American Progress. He has been called “one of the nation’s wisest” labor scholars by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. The president of the Service Employees International Union, Mary Kay Henry, says Madland’s work “is creating a North Star for how we increase workers’ power in the economy and democracy.”
Madland is the author of Re-Union: How Bold Labor Reforms Can Repair, Revitalize, and Reunite the United States (Cornell University Press, 2021), which helped put sectoral bargaining on the political agenda, and Hollowed Out: Why the Economy Doesn’t Work Without a Strong Middle Class (University of California Press, 2015), a pioneering critique of trickle-down economics that has helped policymakers understand that the economy grows from the middle out and bottom up—not the top down.
He appears frequently on television programs, including on PBS, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, and he is a regular guest on radio talk shows across the United States. His work has been cited in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker. He has testified before Congress as well as several state legislatures.
Madland received his doctorate in government from Georgetown University and his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley. His research about the decline of the U.S. pension system received the “Best Dissertation Award” from the Labor and Employment Relations Association. Madland previously worked on economic policy for Rep. George Miller (D-CA).
To view the work of the American Worker Project, click here.
David Madland explains why Congress should develop a new prevailing wage policy for electric vehicle jobs.
By instituting prevailing wage policies, policymakers can ensure that the jobs they subsidize in one of America's newest industries offer fair wages and benefits.
David Madland outlines several lessons learned from the historic nationwide contracts that Amazon workers in Italy signed in 2021 and suggests a path forward for unionized workers at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse, who must now try to sign a collective bargaining agreement.
Facilitated by worker activism, supportive policy, and a sectoral bargaining system, unions in Italy signed a collective bargaining agreement with Amazon, offering optimism for U.S. workers seeking to negotiate with the company.
David Madland writes about why Congress must prohibit firms from deducting the costs of their anti-union activities from their corporate taxes.
David Madland explains how California's Fast Recovery Act can provide fast-food workers in the state with a platform to discuss wages and possibly improve working conditions.
Worker boards have achieved real momentum in the United States, with four states and three local governments enacting laws since 2018 that bring workers and employers together to recommend standards.
Maine policymakers can improve the state’s economy and democracy by enacting these 10 recommendations to build worker power.
Prevailing wage laws for government service contracts can uplift wages and benefits; reduce racial pay gaps; and could have a range of positive effects on worker turnover, service quality, local budgets, and collective bargaining.
New CAP Action analysis finds that union members voted for the Democratic Party presidential candidate in much greater proportions than did nonunion members in 2020, cementing President Biden’s electoral victory and offering a path forward for the party to maintain and grow support.
David Madland praises a new Detroit city ordinance that would create a process for bringing together representatives of workers, employers, and the public to make recommendations around minimum compensation and standards for certain industries.
Sectoral bargaining allows workers to negotiate wages and job standards across an industry, improving working conditions and boosting productivity.
