Wage inequality, plus spiraling health care costs, are hurting our work force.

On Tuesday morning, while most people are dragging their feet in to work after the Labor Day holiday, 34,051 people in Maine will stay home, because they simply don’t have jobs to return to.

And that’s not even the worst news: even Mainers who have jobs are struggling to make ends meet.

The percentage of people in Maine living in poverty is 10.2 percent. Housing is growing more expensive, gas prices have skyrocketed, and health care costs are through the roof. The cost of living itself is getting out of control. Even a simple trip down to the grocery store is enough to have people scratching their heads and wondering, “When did it get so hard to get by?”

It’s a question we should all take the time to ask this Labor Day. After all, it wasn’t always this way. The American economy used to work for all of us. When the middle class was built in the years after World War II, real family incomes doubled – the most rapid improvement in living standards in history. Incomes became more equally distributed. Unions also grew during this period and the power of workers united in unions created a more economically just society.

Thing started to turn around in the 1980s, when the growth of family incomes began to slow. At the same time, the incomes of the richest 20 percent of families shot up. The incomes of families earning $1.7 million or more per year increased 181 percent between 1979 and 2001. The gap between the very rich and everyone else widened.

Now, hardworking Americans are being left behind. Forty-five million people nationwide are without health insurance, 122,000 of them in Maine. Dwindling retirement benefits are forcing grandparents to move in with their adult children. Students and their families are staggering under the weight of college tuition and loans.

Meanwhile, chief executive officers and other corporate insiders turn a blind eye. Whereas CEOs used to be paid 42 times more than the average worker, today they make 411 times as much. The average CEO earns more on the first day of the year than the average worker earns all year long.

This can’t be right. American workers are the most productive in the world and work longer hours than workers in most other developed countries. We deserve an economy that meets our needs and allows us to participate in the prosperity our work helps create.

Labor Day 2007 is the unofficial start of the 2008 election cycle, and working families want to see that political candidates are serving our interests. We want to hear candidates speaking out about the issues that concern us – stagnant earnings, growing income inequality and insecurity, and health care costs.

We also want more laws to make sure corporations act responsibly and honor workers’ freedom to improve our lives through unions. After all, unions are the best middle-class booster program in our nation. Union members earn 25 percent more than workers without a union, and are much more likely to have health benefits and pensions.

It’s time our nation’s laws and economy worked for everyone. Working families are watching our elected leaders closely, and we will keep their actions in mind the next time we head to the ballot box. This Labor Day, working people are ready to be heard loud and clear, and we’re ready for an America that works for all.

Don R. Berry , of Sumner, is president of the Western Maine Central Labor Council.