Pay Gap Reports Much Worse Than The Report Indicates. Global Wage Parity In The Future.
I worked at DOL for 24 years and knew the wage gap was coming since Reagan's first term. He said we would have a "service economy" and now we have it and worse. What he did not say was that his revolution would mean low pay, no job security, no benefits and little chance of retirement in old age. It may have taken over 30 years to produce a major and economically deadly structural change in the economy and labor market.
GOPPER politicians and their business allies believe $10 to $12 and hour is an adequate income. Yet they complain that even the minimum wage is too high and they cannot afford it. The market should dictate pay. What they do not say is that they are after "wage parity" with a global wage market. Look at what other 3rd world nations pay and that is their goal. We now have experience inflation coupled with wage deflation in the US economy.
The drop in higher wage jobs from $61K to $47K represents only about 10% to 20% of the jobs that are available. 80% of the jobs created or exist pay less than $25K per year. As outrageous as that sounds I believe that the 80% is closer to reality than what many people think.
The major structural change that Reagan, the GOP and their business allies have made in the job market is turning millions of jobs in to part time, temporary, contract and contingency jobs. That is why so many workers are working 2, 3 or 4 of these low wage jobs.
People can blame Obama all they want, but it was the GOP and its business allies who have created this economy over 30 years. It happened slowly and deliberately. While voters stayed anti union and essentially anti labor looking at cultural garbage the ground world was being laid all along.
By owning the message and the media the GOP has been able to fool just about everyone including workers who vote GOP every time. The Dems have been weakened because anyone running as pro worker and pro union loses most of the time. And they have been force to move to the center which is really right wing when it comes to labor issues.
The wage gap report hides the reality of a job market that has been essentially demolished with full time jobs on the endangered list because globalization means working for wages equal to 3rd world wages over time. So the 23% reduction in over all wages is just a continuing trend for the next generation.
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