imes are tough and getting tougher, particularly for middle- and lower-income Americans. A gallon of gas and a gallon of milk both cost more than $4 these days. The price of everything, from apples to automobiles, is going up because of the cost associated with transporting product to the marketplace. And yet, although we are still not equitably compensated compared with salaries paid to other police officers across the nation, things are better for us who enjoy the protection and benefits of a union than they are for many private-sector workers. That’s one premise of New York Times labor reporter Steve Greenhouse’s new book, “The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.”

Greenhouse writes:

“A profound shift has left a broad swath of the American workforce on a lower plane than in decades past, with health coverage, pension benefits, job security, workloads, stress levels and often wages growing worse for millions of workers. That American workers face this squeeze in the early years of this century is particularly troubling because the squeeze has occurred while the economy, corporate profits and worker productivity have all been growing robustly.”

During the economic boom years, when money seemed to be piling up for everyone from Wall Streeters to auto salesmen, union workers felt left out. In the 1990’s “dot-com” era, the only ones who didn’t share in the wealth were police officers and union workers. But today there has been a shift in the private sector, where reduced wages, loss of benefits and pensions and – even worse – loss of employment have marred the economic landscape.

Computer-tech jobs that were so hot 20 years ago are now being “offshored” to India and other far-flung places where a highly educated work force performs for a fraction of the cost. Globalization is sending manufacturing jobs to Mexico and China, and the opportunity for a young person to join the middle class through a good solid manufacturing job has been all but lost in 21st-Century America.

Startling statistics fill Greenhouse’s book, numbers that make me very glad to be a police officer and a member of the PBA. Greenhouse writes that in 1980, 84% of workers in companies with more than 100 employees had traditional, defined-benefit pensions like ours. Today that number is 33 percent. Private industry is pushing employees into 401K programs, a poor substitute for the defined-pension benefit.

Thirty years ago, private industry provided health insurance to 70% of their work force while today it provides it for only 55%. Greenhouse also points out that in 2005, median income for nonelderly households failed to increase for the fifth consecutive year after factoring in inflation, an unprecedented occurrence during a period of economic growth.

There is much more evidence demonstrating the problems the middle class faces in America – including the shift of wealth from the lower and middle class to the upper, where CEOs are now earning 369 times the average employee’s salary, up from 131 times in 1993 and 36 times in 1976. The rich get richer.

If you want to feel better about your decision to become a police officer and about belonging to a union that will continue to fight to improve your wages and benefits, read Steve Greenhouse’s book “The Big Squeeze.” The simple fact is, they can’t offshore our jobs to India.