Low-Wage America. Protracted Main Street Depression. Economic Recovery is an Illusion
US workers have little to celebrate this Labor Day weekend or any
other one. America is being systematically thirdworldized – represented
by weak unions complicit with management or none at all, unable to
bargain effectively for higher wages.
Economic recovery is an illusion. A protracted Main Street Depression
persists. Poverty is a growth industry. Around 23% of Americans wanting
work can’t find it.
Most available jobs are rotten ones – temp or part-time low pay/poor
or no benefit service ones with no futures. Conditions are getting
worse, not better.
Millions of good jobs were offshored to low-wage countries. Millions
more may follow. Many displaced workers remain unemployed longterm.
Others finding work take huge wage cuts.
Labor force participation is the lowest in 40 years. A newNational Employment Law Project (NELP) report is titled “Low-Wage Occupations See Steepest Drop in Real Wages.”
“Stagnant wages have become a fact of life for nearly all of
America’s workers, but workers in lower-paying occupations are finding
it especially tough to keep up with the rising cost of living,” NELP
executive director Christine Owens explained.
“Not only are their paychecks not growing, but their purchasing power
has shrunk considerably, and to a far greater extent than that of
higher-wage earners.”
NELP examined median hourly wage changes from 2009 – 2014 for 785
occupations – categorized into five groups with equal weighting.
It found 4% wage declines on average – low and “mid-wage” occupations
hardest hit, up to 5.7%. Declines were greatest in restaurant sector
jobs. Food preparation workers saw 7.7% lower incomes. For cooks, it was
8.9%.
Unemployment in America
