Why Don't We Pay People Enough? 8 Facts About America's Struggling Working People

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/story/153856/why_don%27t_we_pay_people_enough_8_facts_about_america%27s_struggling_working_people/

_310x220

“Our nation, so richly endowed with natural resources and with a capable and industrious population, should be able to devise ways and means of insuring to all our able-bodied men and women, a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1937

Millions of people in the US work and are still poor. Here are eight points that show why the US needs to dedicate itself to making work pay.

One. How many people work and are still poor?

In 2011, the US Department of Labor reported at least 10 million people worked and were still below the unrealistic official US poverty line, an increase of 1.5 million more than the last time they checked. The US poverty line is $18,530 for a mom and two kids. Since 2007 the numbers of working poor have been increasing. About 7 percent of all workers and 4 percent of all full-time workers earn wages that leave them below the poverty line.

Two. What kinds of jobs do the working poor have?

One third of the working poor, over 3 million people, work in the service industry. Workers in other occupations are also poor: 16 percent of those in farming; 11 percent in construction; and 11 percent in sales.

[LiberalEsto]

1. Corporations think we're overpaid

Look at the DU post about Atlantic City casino owners who want to force casino employees to re-apply for their jobs periodically.

Look at all the union busting efforts in places like Wisconsin and Arizona, to name just two states.

I'm sure they'd love it if we all worked for pennies and starved to death on our own time.

[nxylas]

5. They want to return to the values on which America was founded

A few plantation owners getting rich while the bulk of the population works for nothing.

[raccoon]

2. But if workers were paid a living wage, would CEO's be able to get pd umpteem times what the workers

are paid, as well as get obscene bonuses?

[Igel]

3. "Living wage" is a content-free term most of the time.

It seems to mean "enough to live on". But is it enough for a mother of two to enable herself and her two to live on? A single 18-year-old male? A family of four?

Usually it's just a restatement of "the payscale needs to be higher." The minimum set seems to be enough to suffice for a single person--perhaps the woman with two kids, if there's no day care expense and lots of government aid. But it's only a "living wage" in precisely the right context.

I worked for an NGO that had four different pay scales for roughly equivalent work.

A woman, years of seniority, got a paycheck that ranked 3 out of 4 (1 being highest).

A man, with several years less seniority, got the top paycheck, almost twice the first woman's.

A man, the newest hire, got the #2 pay check.

A young woman, there only a year or two, got the #4 paycheck.

Sounds openly sexist and illegal. Yet it was based on the notion of "living wage". The man with the largest paycheck had a family of 4 to support. The woman with the most seniority lived with her father, the boss. The young woman was engaged to be married and would be leaving soon; she wasnt' building anything and survived just fine until she got married. The young man was presumably saving up and would establish his own family.

Different needs, different pay scales. I think of "living wage" is better defined as "flexible, even if illegal." Most wouldn't.

[SemperEadem]

6. the job should pay according to the merits and skills needed to perform said job

not on what someone is or isn't going to do with their personal life.

Who supports whom, who's marrying whom has nothing to do with the value of the job performed.

[Sherman A1]

4. The idea is to oppress the working class and keep them fighting amongst themselves

for the scraps in order to continue to filter the money to the top.

[tclambert]

7. High unemployment means workers compete for jobs. We need businesses to compete for workers.

That happens at about 5% unemployment. Right now, we have multiple applicants for every job opening. Employers are duty bound to pick the applicant who will work for the least compensation. When unemployment falls below a certain threshold, each available worker has multiple job offers to choose from. THAT'S when workers get the upper hand, and can force a bidding war amongst prospective employers. If they want the job opening filled, they have to sweeten the offer with higher wages and better benefits.

Capitalism works better when businesses have to compete with each other, both for customers and for workers.

[kemah]

8. Wal Mart Employees are subsidized by tax payers

Most of these part-time minimum wage jobs are subsidized by food stamps and medicaid. Just do the math. 30 hours times $7.25 equal a wage that qualifies you. Yet they want Romney, who makes $52,000 an hour get a tax cut. GOP agenda. Keep the people poor and give tax cuts to their rich buddies.

[thecrow]

11. ......and.....

....complain about "the foodstamp president" and slash or remove medicaid.

[fasttense]

9. An employer who pays minimum wage is telling you

he would pay you less if he could get away with it.

[Johnny Noshoes]

10. I have been looking for 5 months.

Two things have stood out. You'll see a job posting where the person will be expected to do many different kinds of tasks and have quite a few responsibilities and they will be paid very little money. Then there are the jobs that from the description in the listing don't sound all that complex or challenging yet they want someone with a four year degree when any reasonably intelligent high school graduate could do the job. So you have people being asked to work like a dog for very little money or people with a degree ending up looking at a job that is no challenge but they are in a position where having the job is better than being unemployed. The postings with really bad grammar or nonsensical "corporate speak" are fun too. The bad grammar ones should hire people who can actually compose a readable job posting. The "corporate speak" ones just drive me crazy because I wish they would get to the point and have a clear concise description of what they are looking for and what in a nutshell the actual position requires. I worked for 32 years and haven't had to look for a job since before I was 25 and still lived at home. It took me some time before my resume was written well enough to be taken seriously. It has taken me a few tries to get a cover letter down to where I think/hope it'll work. It has been a frustrating experience but I know there are people in a worse place than me. I try to remember the expression "I complained because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet."