Jobs that pay less than $15 an hour are replacing higher wage work

[Redfairen]

Source: Think Progress

A growing share of the country’s jobs pay less than $15 an hour, replacing higher wage jobs, according to a new report from the Alliance for a Just Society.

The number of jobs in occupations that pay a median wage below $15 an hour grew by 3.6 million between 2009 and 2012, increasing by about 3 percent. During the same time period, the number of jobs that pay above that level fell by 4 million. There were more than 51 million jobs paying less than $15 an hour last year. Someone making $15 an hour working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year will make $31,200, while experts say a two-income family with two kids needs $72,000 a year to be economically secure.

The report also notes that there is a huge number of people vying for the jobs that pay better. It calculates that there were seven job seekers for every projected job opening that paid above $15 an hour in 2012 and 17.9 million more job hunters than higher wage jobs.

The report is the latest to find that low-wage work has grown in the post-recovery economy at the expense of better paid jobs. Since the end of the recession, most of the jobs added have paid less than $13.83 an hour, while middle class jobs have dropped off. One in four American workers is expected to be in low-wage work over the next decade.


Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/12/12/3053511/wage-jobs-recession/

[LakeVermilion]

1. No wonder fast food workers are demanding higher wages.

Probably many of them are over qualified for their jobs. They probably have college degrees with no place to use them. Its a utopia for a market-based economy. Lots of workers competing for just a few jobs. Add in technology which replaces workers and eventually you will have a revolt.

Does it make sense to deprive our children of a childhood, when they will eventually not find a job with their degrees? Only the 1% could smile at this scenario.

[radhika]

2. Workers have inhaled the poison fumes of the Right for decades...

Starting in the 80's. Many skilled workers (below management grade, obviously) ended up on the defensive when WE got a good-paying job with an advancement path. In the Friedman years, WE had made America uncompetitive - especially where unions, health benefits and pensions were on the table. The labor side of enterprise was branded as parasitic and incompetent.

At the same time, the rhetoric elevated the genius of top management, dubbing them visionaries etc - and pushed to 'unleash' them to do wonderful things. Like cut wages, move offshore when testy workers just wouldn't go LOW enough, and reap billions from Wall Street dismantling the productive economy here. The capital side of enterprise was branded as totally deserving of every penny they could wrest from communities, tax base and paychecks.

America would do well to rethink the assumptions it has been making since the Reagan years. Didn't work out so well for us, did it?

[diabeticman]

3. This needs to be the top story on every news show but it won't be instead we have to devote

time to obama taking pictures with other heads of state.