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Workers all across the country have started to speak out against their low-wages. Last year, during Black Friday, hundreds of Wal-Mart workers around the country walked out in protest over their poor working conditions and wages. This courageous act sparked several walk outs at various fast food chains in New York City. In Chicago there is a new “fight for 15” campaign which is demanding that the minimum wage be raised to 15 dollars an hour. It is extremely encouraging to see this new revival in class consciousness and worker awareness. The worker organized walkouts are taking place in the sectors of the labor force which have been said to be the hardest to actually organize. Workers at McDonalds, Wendy’s, Wal-Mart among other retail and fast food businesses are pushing for better benefits, better wages and the ability to unionize.

These mass worker protests come following a bold declaration by the President during the State of the Union to make the federal minimum wage 9 dollars an hour. However, as ambitious as this sounds, 9 dollars an hour still wouldn’t be enough to help families survive. Corporations despise the minimum wage because it cuts back on their already outrageous profits. As of 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.6 million hourly workers earned exactly 7.25—the current federal minimum wage. This averages out to about 15,000 dollars a year, well under the current poverty level. If the minimum wage were raised to 9 dollars an hour it would equate to about 18,000 dollars a year. President Obama wanted the minimum wage to be 9 dollars by 2015. However, if we view the projected poverty line for 2015 it will be 24,635. Ultimately, a 9 dollar minimum wage sounds ambitious, but still falls shorts of the basic needs for families of “low-wage” workers.

The minimum wage has been one of the toughest battles across the country for some time now. If minimum wage kept up with inflation over the past 40 years it would currently be at 10.69. Moreover, if the minimum wage kept up with worker productivity it would’ve reached 21.72 according to John Schmitt of the Center for Economic & Policy Research.

The main argument held by those on the Right is that raising the minimum wage will discourage job growth and lead to businesses firing workers. This is merely a fear tactic. Also, another common line is that low wage workers are largely employed by small businesses, which in affect would hamper their growth or even worse force them to close down shop. According to the National Employment Law Project, the majority of low-wage workers are not employed by small business, but rather large corporations with over 100 employees. Furthermore, 92 percent of these employers were profitable last year; 78 percent have been profitable the last 3 years and 75 percent have higher revenues than before the recession.

Corporations aren’t in to make the lives of their workers better. Their main goal is to record a profit. Corporations have down played their earnings in order to maintain the same narrative, “raise the minimum wage and we will have to lay off workers.” This is becoming an out dated fear tactic which only seems to affect those on the Right. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that over the next decade 7 out of the top 10 growth jobs will be low-wage. This makes the struggle for just wages ever more important. Families won’t be able to survive as prices continue to increase and wages remain stagnant. If the Republicans get their way, the minimum wage will become even lower. Corporations always come out against a raise in the minimum wage under the disguise of what is best for their workers. However, workers across the country understand this rhetoric is simply a farce. Corporate profits are higher than they have ever been, it is time workers be justly compensated as well. http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/10/chicago-takes-center-stage-in-
fight-against-wage-slavery-and-corporate-greed/#ixzz2VpriOwdp]

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In America tonight, tens of millions of men and women will struggle to get to sleep because they are stressed out about not making enough money even though they are working as hard as they possibly can. They are called "the working poor", and their numbers are absolutely exploding.

Most American workers are still able to find jobs, but an increasing proportion of them are not able to make ends meet at the end of the month. Our economy continues to bleed good paying middle class jobs, and to a large degree those jobs are being replaced by low income jobs. Approximately one-fourth of all American workers make 10 dollars an hour or less at this point, and we see them all around us every day. They flip our burgers, they cut our hair and they take our money at the supermarket. In many homes, both parents are working multiple jobs, and yet when a child gets sick or a car breaks down they find that they don't have enough money to pay the bill. Many of these families have gone into tremendous amounts of debt in order to try to stay afloat, but once you get caught in a cycle of debt it can be incredibly difficult to break out of that.

Sadly, the percentage of low paying jobs in our economy continues to increase with each passing year, so this is a problem that is only going to get worse. So don't look down on the working poor. The good paying job that you have right now could disappear at any time and you could end up joining their ranks very soon.

The following are some statistics about the working poor in America that will blow your mind...

#1 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americans are either "poor" or "low income".

#2 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 57 percent of all American children live in a home that is either "poor" or "low income".

#3 Back in 2007, about 28 percent of all working families were considered to be among "the working poor". Today, that number is up to 32 percent.

#4 Back in 2007, 21 million U.S. children lived in "working poor" homes. Today, that number is up to 23.5 million.

#5 In Arkansas, Mississippi and New Mexico, more than 40 percent all of working families are considered to be "low income".

#6 Families that have a head of household under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

#7 Half of all American workers earn $505 or less per week.

#8 At this point, one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.

#9 Today, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does.

#10 Median household income in the United States has fallen for four consecutive years.

#11 Median household income for families with children dropped by a whopping $6,300 between 2001 and 2011.

#12 The U.S. economy continues to trade good paying jobs for low paying jobs. 60 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were mid-wage jobs, but 58 percent of the jobs created since then have been low wage jobs.

#13 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#14 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.

#15 There are now 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.

#16 Low income families spend about 8.6 percent of their incomes on gasoline. Other families spend about 2.1 percent.

#17 In 1999, 64.1 percent of all Americans were covered by employment-based health insurance. Today, only 55.1 percent are covered by employment-based health insurance.

#18 According to one survey, 77 percent of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time.

#19 Millions of working poor families in America end up taking on debt in a desperate attempt to stay afloat, but before too long they find themselves in a debt trap that they can never escape. According to a recent article in the New York Times, the average debt burden for U.S. households that earn $20,000 a year or less "more than doubled to $26,000 between 2001 and 2010".

#20 In 1989, the debt to income ratio of the average American family was about 58 percent. Today it is up to 154 percent.

#21 According to the Economic Policy Institute, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans households on average have 288 times the amount of wealth that the average middle class American family does.

#22 In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.

#23 According to Forbes, the 400 wealthiest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans combined.

#24 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.

#25 Sadly, the bottom 60 percent of all Americans own just 2.3 percent of all the financial wealth in the United States.

#26 The average CEO now makes approximately 350 times as much as the average American worker makes.

#27 Corporate profits as a percentage of GDP are at an all-time high. Meanwhile, wages as a percentage of GDP are near an all-time low.

#28 Today, 40 percent of all Americans have $500 or less in savings.

#29 The number of families in the United States living on 2 dollars a day or less more than doubled between 1996 and 2011.

#30 The number of Americans on food stamps has grown from 17 million in the year 2000 to more than 47 million today.

#31 Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps. Today, about one out of every 6.5 Americans is on food stamps.

#32 More than one out of every four children in the United States is enrolled in the food stamp program.

#33 Incredibly, a higher percentage of children is living in poverty in America today than was the case back in 1975. http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/35-statistics-about-the-wo
rking-poor-in-america-that-will-blow-your-mind

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