The Economic Policy Institute's biennial check of the country's economic pulse, finds American workers where they always are: toiling to enrich the pockets of big business tycoons. But it's like we're mice on a treadmill; despite how hard we're working, we keep falling behind.

The erosion of our living standards isn't news to any of us. But seeing that erosion tabulated in black-and-white, added all up and set in the cold stone of graphs and charts can be a little unsettling.

The study finds that the living standards of most working families still have not recovered from the recession of the early 1990s. What little relief we've felt comes from low inflation, not any true upswing in real wages. Instead, wage stagnation remains a reality as productivity gains are hoarded by employers, not shared with workers. Or, more disturbing, income growth comes from working longer hours--an additional six weeks annually in a typical family since 1989.

The new economy is ushering in a new type of job: one with less security and lower wages and benefits. Only 35.4 percent of workers reported in 1996 keeping the same job for at least 10 years, down from 41 percent in 1979. Those who find new work after losing a job experience, on average, a 13 percent drop in pay; one in every four no longer have health insurance.

Meanwhile, the rich keep fattening their bank accounts. The typical middle-class family had nearly 3 percent less wealth in 1997 than 1989 because the richest 10 percent of U.S. households reaped 85.8 percent of the stock market's growth since 1989. That helped the share of national wealth held by the top 1 percent of the population to rise from 34.7 percent in 1989 to 39.1 percent in 1997. At the same time, the wealthiest 1 percent saw their tax bills drop by $36,710 since 1977.

Younger families and entry-level workers have been hard hit by wage declines. Young workers start off with low wages and don't have the opportunity their parents did to pull themselves up the ladder.

Maintenance of way workers know what it's like to play catch up; with deregulation and downsizing, we've been going through this entire cycle for the last two decades. Only in the last contract did we begin to see some relief -- and even then it is only comparative to how far we had fallen behind.

We all want the U.S. economy to keep growing. We also want to see our employers stay profitable. The question is how those profits and that growth is shared. The one lesson we have learned is that those who have the wealth aren't going to spontaneously give some of it up.

Unions and collective bargaining contracts are a key part of the equation. The decline in union density is a primary reason for dropping wages. Including benefits, the "union premium" was 36 percent above the combined values of wages and benefits for non-union workers. If unions were stronger -- i.e., had more members and mobilized more members -- that number would be even higher.

As union members and workers, it is our responsibility to understand how the economic system works and how we can change it to make it work better for us. A strong economy and fair treatment for workers are not mutually exclusive. We must learn that fact and become more vocal in stopping that downward spiral, even if it happens in so-called "good times." After all, we can't tap our heels three times and go home to Kansas. We're stuck in this economy and have to give it a heart and make it work for us, not just our bosses.