What does featherbedding mean?
Featherbedding is a term from labor relations describing the practice of keeping more workers on a payroll than the work genuinely requires, or paying employees for work that is unnecessary or no longer performed. The phrase arose in American industrial disputes, most famously on the railroads, where unions insisted that jobs such as locomotive firemen be preserved even after technological change made them redundant. Employers denounce such arrangements as featherbedding because they inflate labor costs without adding productivity; unions counter that they protect workers from the harsh effects of automation. The word is nearly always pejorative and is chiefly used in the United States, where certain featherbedding practices became subject to legal challenge in the mid-twentieth century. More broadly, it can describe any cushy, overprotected arrangement. Its vivid image — a bed softened with feathers — makes it a memorable way to describe work made artificially easy.
nounThe practice, especially by a labor union, of requiring an employer to pay more workers or pay higher wages than the work actually requires; the practice of limiting output or maintaining unnecessary jobs to protect employment.
- The practice of requiring an employer to employ more workers than are needed, or paying workers for work not performed, typically as a result of union rules.
- More generally, any arrangement providing someone with an excessively easy or profitable situation at others' expense.
"The airline accused the union of featherbedding after it insisted on hiring a third pilot whose duties had long been automated."
"Railroad unions were charged with featherbedding for insisting that firemen remain on diesel locomotives that no longer needed them."
"Critics called the contract pure featherbedding: two workers were paid full wages for a job one could finish by lunchtime."
Rarely pluralized; the word is normally treated as an uncountable mass noun referring to a practice.
"The report catalogued various featherbeddings across the industry's contracts."
The word comes from the idea of making a job so soft and easy it's like sleeping on a mattress stuffed with feathers — and in mid-century America, railroads claimed 'featherbed' crews were being paid to do nothing at all.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of featherbedding
The term derives from 'featherbed', a mattress stuffed with feathers that was historically a mark of comfort and luxury, with the verb 'to featherbed' meaning to pamper or make something excessively comfortable. In early twentieth-century America this figurative sense was applied to labor practices: workers on an artificially protected 'soft' job were said to be resting on a featherbed. The noun 'featherbedding' became widespread during American railroad labor disputes of the mid-twentieth century and entered formal US labor-law discourse.
Related word forms
How featherbedding is actually used
Featherbedding is almost always used pejoratively and is largely an American term, rooted in twentieth-century labor disputes; it carries legal weight in US labor law, where it can describe practices employers may challenge under the Taft–Hartley Act.
Easily confused with featherbedding
A feather bed is literally a mattress filled with feathers, while featherbedding refers to the labor practice of maintaining superfluous workers or restricting output.