5 ms·
Nearly half of American workers have low-wage jobs
- dxemy 7y agoWhat is arguably more appalling, is the fact that half of American workers, earn less than the average,
- Miner49er 7y agoOnly 30% of people make more than the average.
- kauffj 7y agoAnyone earning $10/hr in America today has a quality of life available to them better than 95+% (99+?%) of people to ever live.
- ceejayoz 7y agoBeing pissed on is better than being pooped on, but that doesn't mean people have to be grateful for being pissed on.
- Haul4ss 7y agoI'm sure someone trying to survive on $10/hr in America today would be heartened to learn it's better than living in the Middle Ages.
- ritchiea 7y agoHow much of that is because they are accruing credit card debt while simultaneously living without health insurance knowing a severe illness will leave them in even more crushing debt. While also feeling that they don't have real access to a greater life and the wealth they see around them in their own countries while being barraged with advertisements tempting them to spend money on goods to temporarily ease the built up day-today frustrations they experience. And the physical toll that their labor intensive jobs take on their body?
- kauffj 7y ago- There's no need to take on credit card debt while making $10/hr - Proper diet and exercise is far more important to your health than health insurance. Health care has little influence on health outcomes (see the Oregon Medicaid Experiment and the RAND Health Insurance Experiment). - A substantial minority of jobs in the US that pay <= $10/hr require strenuous physical labor.
- ceejayoz 7y agoYou're mixing up fitness with healthcare here. Diet and exercise are great, but they're not going to fix a severed finger or a broken femur.
- ritchiea 7y agoCredit card and predatory loan companies target low wage workers before they are even old enough to vote. They aim to get you in a cycle of debt and many of the targets for this type of lending do not have family support to help them avoid falling into the trap. In fact their family are likely to be other impoverished people who have fallen into the same trap.
- isakkeyten 7y ago10 x 8 x 22 = 1760$ monthly salary where I come from, minimum salary is 250$ sure COL is cheaper but not 7 fold also a phone, a car, and everything else is the same price for both US citizens and me actually some are even cheaper for you, because you manufacture them but yeah, i agree with the comment bellow just because there is worse, doesn't mean it's good
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ChrisLomont 7y agoFor perspective, 18k a year in the US puts a person in the top 5% of income worldwide. http://www.globalrichlist.com/ http://www.globalrichlist.com/
- Miner49er 7y agoDoes this do cost of living adjustments?
- ChrisLomont 7y agoThey claim to. Supporting these numbers is the Washington Post link someone else presented with similar results, PPP adjusted.
- ceejayoz 7y agoRaw income and purchasing power are substantially different things.
- ChrisLomont 7y agoThat site adjusts for PPP, which is why they ask for location.
- ceejayoz 7y agoIf it does, it's not doing it very well. Entering $1,000 annual income for the USA is shown as being in the top 58% worldwide. The site implies that $0.52/hour leaves you better off than "the average labourer in Ghana [making] just $0.08 in the same time".
- ChrisLomont 7y agoI've shown three decent sources that give similar numbers. Feel free to post something credible that lets us compute otherwise. Also, why do you assume a 2000 hour work year is common worldwide? It's not.
- elicash 7y agoFrom the union discussion the other day, one thing that always struck me was how weird it was that more conservatives don't encourage labor unions in the private sector. I'd have thought, since fundamentally union membership is about private contracts between employers and a group of workers, that conservatives would see it as an alternative to government stepping in and setting up minimum wages. If we had friendlier labor laws and we allowed more groups of workers to organize, the need for the federal government to step in with wage floors would decrease and, importantly, there would be more flexibility for employers AND employees -- like instead of paying above a certain minimum wage both sides could agree to more generous healthcare and/or retirement packages.
- Miner49er 7y agoModern conservationism in the United States is, by definition, anti-union. [1] This sort of political view aligns more with libertarian socialism, specifically in ideas like syndicalism. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_Sta...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- elicash 7y agoYour comment is an interesting one, so not trying to disagree, but... Modern conservatism is not so well-defined. I'd say "conservatism" is best defined by the values of people who call themselves conservative, not by political theorists. And that therefore that it's more partisan and tribal than ideological.
- CharlesColeman 7y ago> From the union discussion the other day, one thing that always struck me was how weird it was that more conservatives don't encourage labor unions in the private sector. At least in the US, I attribute this to "big business" interests being a major faction in the Republican coalition, more due to contributions of money than votes. Their ideology is ultimately self-interest, they benefit from weak unions/worker disorganization, and have the resources to promote their self-interested view as that of the party/ideology. They've been successful, because most people have more of a political tribal identity which dictates their positions than a well-thought-out ideology.
- pysxul 7y agothere is a big lack of information in theses poor written 20 lines, and probably misleading on purpose. - Are theses low-wage jobs only considering full time jobs? - What about student jobs? - If some people have multiple part-time jobs but all of them individually fall under the median annual wages of $18,000, then they are increasing the statistics
- elicash 7y agoStudents and part time workers are in fact people and should be counted as such for their work. If you were just asking for additional context in the article, that's one thing, but this is certainly not "misleading."
- mnm1 7y agoNot only have our minimum wage laws not been updated to realistic levels, neither has the poverty level. Half of Americans are indeed too poor to support themselves. They are not even making what the minimum wage should be and should get government assistance. Hard to keep calling America a developed country when easily half of its population cannot support itself and most of that half is not supported by the government. Definitely can't call that democratic either.