Restaurant diners across the nation have a new guide to chew on when deciding where to eat out. However the ratings have nothing to do with food and focus more on the labor practices of some of the nation’s 150 top earning eateries. The Takeaway speaks with Saru Jayaraman,  co-founder and director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centre United, a non-profit that helps restaurant workers organize for better working conditions within the industry and Dave Rutigliano owner of the Southport Brewing Company.

The Takeaway has been talking about child labor in America this week, from paper routes to custodial work. Now, a look at the farm. Should children be restricted from doing certain kinds of agricultural work? The Department of Labor thinks so. In a new proposal, they are hoping to bar most farm hands younger than 16 years old from jobs such as driving tractors, rounding up cattle on horseback, and working on ladders over six feet high. Is the proposal in the best interest of the children, or going too far?

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says we need a radical proposal to "change America's culture of poverty," and put children to work. He advocates allowing kids as young as nine to replace school janitors. Gingrich thinks this approach would not only teach good work ethic to children in poor communities, but also help them earn a wage for their families.

Next week voters in Ohio, Mississippi and Maine will face a number of controversial ballot measures — from collective bargaining to health care to voting and abortion. In Ohio, a law limiting the collective bargaining of public employees is up for repeal. In Mississippi, they are fiercely debating whether a fertilized egg should be declared a person. Anna Sale, reporter for WNYC's political website It's a Free Country, joins previews these issues and talks about the potential impact on the 2012 election.

The NBA remains stuck in a lockout this morning as negotiations between players and owners have failed to produce a new collective bargaining agreement. Tomorrow is scheduled be the first day of the 66th season, but instead the stadiums will remain closed and fans will stay at home. It’s a big disappointment for fans, but for many people, their livelihoods are on the line too.

In recent months there has been a resurgence of labor protests across the United States. From Ohio to Wisconsin, union members are taking to the streets once more. Yet despite this apparent resurgence, the power of American unions has declined significantly in recent decades. Today The Takeaway traces it all back to August 1981, when nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers went on strike creating a standoff with Ronald Reagan that ended when he fired the majority of them and de-certified their union, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. 

Two unions that represent workers for Verizon announced an immediate strike on Sunday, demanding better treatment after a lack of progress in negotiating contracts. The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the unions representing Verizon, last went on strike in 2000. Verizon union membership has shrunk by nearly in half since then, and is much weaker than before. Can union members still exert their influence in a strike?

The federal government plans to release new unemployment figures on Friday. Will July's numbers be as dismal as June's? All week, The Takeaway is speaking with experts, employers, and out-of-work Americans about unemployment-related issues. Today, we're discussing foreign workers. With unemployment hovering around 9.2 percent, why do so many seasonal employers choose to hire workers from outside the U.S.?

Serving in overseas wars, the men and women of today’s armed forces could easily miss the familiar tastes and luxuries of home. Fortunately for them, the US military has made it a point to make Pizza Huts, Taco Bells, Cinnabons and even beauty parlors common fixtures of their major bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

However, in order to provide those familiar amenities, the military must staff tens of thousands of international civilian employees. With few oversights, and little accountability, those workers — dubbed “Third Country Nationals” in military parlance — are often subject to terrible living and working conditions. 

One hundred years ago this month, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire killed 146 people - mostly immigrant women and girls - and ushered in a new era of worker rights. A new film about the fire called “Triangle: Remembering the Fire,” debuts Monday on HBO. We talk with the film's director, Daphne Pinkerson.

The U.S. economy added a net 192,000 jobs in February, according to the latest Labor Department figures out Friday. The unemployment rate is now at 8.9 percent — the first time that figure has dropped below nine percent in nearly two years. Takeaway and WNYC economics editor, Charlie Herman and The Wall Street Journal's Kelly Evans look at the numbers.

Senate Democrats are still hiding out in Illinois in an effort to stall a vote on a budget proposal that would restrict collective bargaining among public workers in Wisconsin. Police officers were sent to the homes of the absent Senators to make the point that it’s time to come home. And as the standoff continues between the two sides, the issue seems to be becoming more and more politically divisive within the state.

Employers added only 39,000 jobs last month — a big decline from October's 172,000. Private companies created the fewest number since January. The anemic month for the labor sector pushes the national unemployment rate from 9.6 to 9.8 percent. That's 19 months of a rate over 9 percent, the longest stretch on record. What do the new numbers mean for the economy? 

Today the Labor Department will release job numbers for November. Unemployment is expected to stay even at 9.6 percent, making this the longest continuous stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression. 

Today the Labor Department reported 151,000 new jobs added to the economy — the most in five months. Some are saying this could be a sign that the country's financial situation is improving, and that the private sector could finally be gaining traction again. We're joined now by Wall Street Journal reporter Kelly Evans, who says it might help the labor market finally lift off. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release a new jobs report this morning. Since the start of the economic downturn, the dire unemployment situation has been described in grim and abstract numbers: unemployment is at 9.5 percent; one in six Americans are receiving government assistance; and an estimated 8.5 million factory jobs have been lost since November 2007.

But behind the numbers are the human costs of unemployment. In a new book, “Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory,” photographer Bill Bamberger and author Cathy N. Davidson capture the faces and stories behind the workers in Mebane, North Carolina, who lost their jobs when White Furniture Company closed its doors in 1993. The book and its gripping photos show tell the stories of personal loss and struggle for workers whose entire lives were turned upside down.

A new report by the Government Accountability Office says many employers and workers aren't reporting injuries that happen on the job. The report calls into question data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is responsible for compiling numbers on workplace injuries. New York Times labor and workplace reporter Steven Greenhouse tells us why these injures are going unreported. Greenhouse is also the author of "The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, we're soon likely to see a major shift in the gender balance of the working world. As early as this November, it's projected that for the first time in U.S. history, more women will be working than men. Add to this fact that 78 percent of the people laid off in the recent recession were men, and one sees a whole new picture of America's workforce.

We speak with Beth Kobliner, author of "Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties." She says the forces changing the demographics of the working world influence both men and women. Also, Sharon Meers, a former Goldman Sachs executive and co-author of "Getting to 50/50: How Working Couples Can Have It All by Sharing It All," explains what the shifts might mean for the managers and workers of small and large companies across the country.

President Obama is traveling across the nation to rally people behind health care reform. One of this biggest stops happened yesterday, with a speech in Pittsburgh before hundreds of members of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor union. The labor movement was one of now-President Obama's biggest supporters during his campaign. How does the group feel about the president, and his policies, eight months in? We talk with Cecil Roberts, the president of the United Mine Workers of America, and labor journalist Philip Dine about the current relationship between the president and workers.

If you missed the president's speech at the AFL-CIO convention, here it is:

With Labor Day right around the corner, we speak with Annette Bernhardt, one of the authors of a report showing a surge in wage and workplace violations: Confronting the Gloves-Off Economy: America's Broken Labor Standards and How to Fix Them. The report compiled interviews with more than 4000 low-wage workers in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. What they described was an astounding number of violations — from unpaid overtime to employers not paying minimum wage — and an overall lack of enforcement.

Bernhardt is the policy co-director for the advocacy group National Employment Law Project. We also hear from Amy Carroll, an attorney at a community center in Brooklyn, New York: Make the Road New York.  The group represents thousands of workers who have seen workplace violations firsthand.