survey: low-wage workers gloomy about future

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LOW_WAGE_WORKERS_SURVEY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-03-20-03-14-34



WASHINGTON (AP) -- America's lower-income workers have posted the biggest job gains since the deep 2007-09 recession - but few are bragging.

As a workforce sector, those earning $35,000 or less annually are generally pessimistic about their finances and career prospects. Many see themselves as worse off now than during the recession, a two-part Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of workers and employers shows.

The survey revealed that many people at the lowest rung in the workplace view their jobs as a dead end. Half were "not too" or "not at all" confident that their jobs would help them achieve long-term career goals. And only 41 percent of workers at the same place for more than a decade reported ever receiving a promotion.

Yet 44 percent of employers surveyed said it's hard to recruit people with appropriate skills or experiences to do lower-wage jobs, particularly in manufacturing (54 percent). While 88 percent of employers said they were investing in training and education for employee advancement, awareness and use of such programs among the lower-wage workers was only modest.

[jsr]

1. Race to the Top

= Race to the Bottom.

[House of Roberts]

2. My future-ex wife clued me in on something regarding low-wage workers.

She is a retail store manager, and has hired and fired, etc. Most entry-level retail workers, paid near minimum wage, are on one form of public assistance or more. When they get a raise, they generally proportionally lose an equivalent amount of assistance, making the incentive to improve their financial situation like a carrot dangling from a stick in front of a horse. For many, it's impossible to earn enough to exceed the amount needed to surpass the threshold that eliminates their need for assistance, and be able to better their overall economic condition with further increases. A higher minimum wage would go a long way to ending this bad incentive, and maybe move more workers out of public assisitance.

[HughBeaumont]

3. Go ahead, "Defenders of the Faith-Based" . . .

. . . I believe you were saying something funny that this economy's not "zero-sum".