Unemployment is near a five-decade low, workforce participation is at the highest level in six years and Federal Reserve Chairman recently called the labor market “strong.”
The Brookings Institute showed that “demographics of low-wage workers span race, gender and geography”. They add that “for 53 million Americans stuck in low-wage jobs, the road out is hard”
The median wage for those workers is $10.22 an hour and their annual pay is $17,950.
In addition, the site moveforhunger.org reports that homelessness adds to the drag on the economy: “A family with a full-time worker making minimum wage could not afford rent for a two bedroom apartment anywhere in the U.S. Poverty is the other major factor that contributes to the homelessness epidemic.
A lack of employment opportunities, combined with a decline in public assistance leaves low-income families just an illness or accident away from being put out on the streets.
Remember, more jobs were created in the last 32 months of the Obama Administration than the first 32 months of the Trump Administration. But, not all new jobs are good, high-paying positions.
Analysis conducted by Bloomberg News at the end of Trump’s second year in office found that his economy ranked sixth among the last seven presidents, based on fourteen metrics of economic activity and financial performance.
A better rate is called the “real” unemployment rate, and it uses a broader definition of unemployment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics includes these three categories:
- People who haven’t looked for work in the past four weeks, but have looked within the past year. This category also includes:
- Discouraged workers are those who have given up looking for work.
- Part-time workers who would like a full-time job.
In October 2019, the real unemployment rate was 7.0%, almost double the widely reported unemployment rate of 3.6%.
Women and minority groups are more likely to earn low wages. Black workers are 32% more likely to earn low wages than whites, and Latinos are 41% more likely.
What do the main candidates for president say about work and jobs?
Biden supports a $15 federal minimum wage,
Booker would mandate that companies buying their own shares must also pay out to their own employees a sum equal to the lesser of either the total value of the buyback or 50 percent of all profits beyond $250 million.
Buttigieg wants to make sure domestic workers and farmworkers are covered by US labor laws. He promises paid parental leave, a $15 minimum hourly wage (indexed to wage growth).
Sanders aim to strengthen union membership, punish employers who engage in union-busting practices, and raise wages and benefits.
More policies on these candidates and more are at our site: nabwmt.org/voter-guide
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Credits: LA Times, Brookings Institute, moveforhunger.org, Bloomberg News
