44% Of American Workers Make An Average Of Only $18,000 A Year

[jamesbond]

America's unemployment rate is at a half-century low, but it also has a job-quality problem that affects nearly half the population, with a study finding 44% of U.S. workers are employed in low-wage jobs that pay median annual wages of $18,000.

Contrary to popular opinion, these workers aren't teenagers or young adults just starting their careers, write Martha Ross and Nicole Bateman of the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, which conducted the analysis.

Most of the 53 million Americans working in low-wage jobs are adults in their prime working years, or between about 25 to 54, they noted. Their median hourly wage is $10.22 per hour — that's above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour but well below what's considered the living wage for many regions.

Even though the economy is adding more jobs, there's increasing evidence that many of those new positions don't offer the kind of wages and benefits required to get ahead. A new measure called the Job Quality Index recently found there is now a growing number of low-paying jobs relative to employment with above-average pay.

For the U.S. overall, median household income is $66,465, according to Sentier Research, with roughly half of families earning less than that amount.

Workers aren't shy about expressing their frustrations, with about 6 of 10 workers saying their jobs are mediocre to downright bad, according to a recent Gallup job-quality survey. For instance, 1 in 5 workers told Gallup their benefits are worse now than five years ago.

Low-wage jobs represent between one-third to two-thirds of all jobs in the country's almost 400 metropolitan areas. Recent research suggests "there simply are not enough jobs paying decent wages for people without college degrees (who make up the majority of the labor force) to escape low-wage work," they wrote.

In other words, even if low-wage workers undergo job training and learn new skills, they're not guaranteed to find good-paying jobs anywhere near where they currently live.

So what makes a good job? Simply put, middle-class wages and benefits like health insurance, according to previous research from Brookings. But only about 30 million Americans have good jobs by that definition — and most of those are held by workers with college degrees, it found.

The reality is that Americans are working but aren't earning enough to gain stable economic footings. As Ross and Bateman noted, "Nearly half of all workers earn wages that are not enough, on their own, to promote economic security."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minimum-wa ... wage-jobs/

[Shemp]

$66,465 is overall median household income, so $33,233 each if couple earning equal salaries, or a little less than twice $18,000 number. Sounds about right. Problem is not these wages, which are high by world standards. Problem is excessively high costs for housing, transportation and medical care. Stupid voters vote for higher wages, which is unrealistic, when they should be voting to reorganize things to cut costs, which is very feasible (tax the piss out of land so that owners are incentivized to build up instead of out, bicycle lanes everywhere so that people don't have to own so many cars, total revamp of medical system to bring down costs, etc).

[Cornfed]

$66,465 is overall median household income, so $33,233 each if couple earning equal salaries, or a little less than twice $18,000 number. Sounds about right. Problem is not these wages, which are high by world standards. Problem is excessively high costs for housing, transportation and medical care. Stupid voters vote for higher wages, which is unrealistic, when they should be voting to reorganize things to cut costs, which is very feasible (tax the piss out of land so that owners are incentivized to build up instead of out, bicycle lanes everywhere so that people don't have to own so many cars, total revamp of medical system to bring down costs, etc).

That's all unrealistic too under the current system.

[flowerthief00]

As low as $18,000 is for America, it is twice what the worldwide average income is.
And if you make $34,000 or more you are in the top 1% in the world, which is crazy! I never thought of myself as being in the top 1%. I don't think I earned that. How lucky one is to be born in America.

[Moretorque]

People have no idea what they did in 1965, they started deporting our good jobs and did the 1965 immigration act to replace regular Americans with foreigners that will work much cheaper. It was done on purpose.

The real unemployment if you use the old system for determining this is around 22 %, the GOV lies about everything and I mean everything. The economy is actually much worse than the great depression but all the social welfare and massive imports we get for free has how bad things are hidden.

The Communal dictatorship...!

[Moretorque]

As low as $18,000 is for America, it is twice what the worldwide average income is.
And if you make $34,000 or more you are in the top 1% in the world, which is crazy! I never thought of myself as being in the top 1%. I don't think I earned that. How lucky one is to be born in America.

This has all been made possible by the fraud of the US $ reserve statis, America is really a 3rd world country now immitating a first world country through financial deceit set up by the CITI after Ww 2. ......

The Communal dictatorship....

[Contrarian Expatriate]

$66,465 is overall median household income, so $33,233 each if couple earning equal salaries, or a little less than twice $18,000 number. Sounds about right. Problem is not these wages, which are high by world standards. Problem is excessively high costs for housing, transportation and medical care. Stupid voters vote for higher wages, which is unrealistic, when they should be voting to reorganize things to cut costs, which is very feasible (tax the piss out of land so that owners are incentivized to build up instead of out, bicycle lanes everywhere so that people don't have to own so many cars, total revamp of medical system to bring down costs, etc).

Americans are so clueless. The entire system is predicated on keeping people trapped in the consumer debt cycle. The smart ones save, invest and get the hell out of America as soon as possible. There is a new movement call F.I.R.E. (Financially Independent, Early Retired). The smart ones fall or will fall into that category.

[jamesbond]

People have no idea what they did in 1965, they started deporting our good jobs and did the 1965 immigration act to replace regular Americans with foreigners that will work much cheaper. It was done on purpose.

The real unemployment if you use the old system for determining this is around 22 %, the GOV lies about everything and I mean everything. The economy is actually much worse than the great depression but all the social welfare and massive imports we get for free has how bad things are hidden.

Your right, the real unemployment rate is much higher than the 3.5% that the government is telling us. Also, the 266,000 jobs that were created in November are mostly seasonal jobs that will disappear after the first of the year.

[MrMan]

$66,465 is overall median household income, so $33,233 each if couple earning equal salaries, or a little less than twice $18,000 number. Sounds about right. Problem is not these wages, which are high by world standards. Problem is excessively high costs for housing, transportation and medical care. Stupid voters vote for higher wages, which is unrealistic, when they should be voting to reorganize things to cut costs, which is very feasible (tax the piss out of land so that owners are incentivized to build up instead of out, bicycle lanes everywhere so that people don't have to own so many cars, total revamp of medical system to bring down costs, etc).

I don't know why Obama thought it was a good idea for the government to absorbed our messed up health care system.

The federal government could import a lot of doctors from developed countries and pressure states to ignore state medical associations and create an easy path to getting licensed. Doctors could be given great tax breaks, up to tax free status, for working overtime and extra hours, especially specialists who only need to work a few days a year. They could give out presidential awards for medical specialists who work hard. Honor them like first responders in speeches. Decrease the financial rewards and replace it with social recognition.

Increasing supply of doctor man-hours should put downward pressure on prices and on the wages of nurses and others in the health care field.

Governments could fund and incentivize opening 24-health-care clinics in places like Walmart. If we had several cost-cutter Walmart type companies in the health care sector who position themselves for offering everyday low prices, who can actually pull it off, that would be good for the consumer. The government could even start a few of them as government-funded companies, bring in Walmart and Southwest managers to start it up, then turn them into a private companies.

They could require price transparency in hospitals so patients or those who bring them in can know the costs before receiving care. Limits could be put on health-related law suits. The system for creating new medications could be shifted out of the hands of pharma companies and into universities. The government could require pharma companies to give away any expired IP-protected research, or incentivize them to do so with tax breaks or other incentives.

[Taco]

Americans working harder than ever for low wages... The wages haven't improved in 50 years.

"This Is The End Of The World For The Average Person..."
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-fina ... age-person

[jamesbond]

I have read articles that stated wages in the US have been stagnant since 1973 (when adjusted for inflation). Also, a recent survey showed that 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

[Yohan]

I have read articles that stated wages in the US have been stagnant since 1973 (when adjusted for inflation)...

This is true and you find better evidence even if you compare exchange rates of many countries vs. the US-dollar.

Japan has little inflation, when I arrived in Japan USD 1,- was about YEN 365,- - now more than 30 years later, the exchange rate is USD 1,- = YEN 109,-

Same even is true against a weak EURO - when the EURO was created the value of EURO 1,- was far below of USD 1,-. Today EURO 1,-, despite all political troubles in Europe, has a higher value than 1 USD...

You get less for USD 1,- almost everywhere in this world, if you compare exchange rate now and then...
and there are almost no interests anymore for your savings.

USD 18.000,- income per year is USD 1.500,- per month for a regular job, not a very impressive amount for a highly developed country.