Low-wage workers are gloomy about future, survey shows

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

March 20, 2013 at 4:50 PM

WASHINGTON -- While lower-wage American workers have accounted for the lion's share of the jobs created since the 2007-2009 Great Recession, a new survey shows that they are also among the most pessimistic about their future career prospects, their job security and their finances.

The two-part Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of both employers and employees found high levels of anxiety among those earning $35,000 annually or less. Many of these workers say they're worse off now than they were before or during the recession.

And there's no question that workers see the world differently than do their bosses.

Seventy-two percent of employers at big companies and 58 percent at smaller ones say there is a "great deal" or "some" opportunity for worker advancement. But, asked the same question, 67 percent of all low-wage workers said they saw "a little" or "no opportunity" at their jobs for advancement.

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2013/03/low-wage_workers_are_gloomy_ab.html#incart_river_default

[TrollBuster9090]

1. Does anybody have a link to that poll that shows

that the people who are most vehemently opposed to raising the Minimum Wage are those people who make just slightly MORE than the Minimum Wage? I thought that one was very telling, and explains a lot of the hatred of the very poor by the working poor, and why so many low wage workers back Republicans who are opposed to their own interests. A raise in Minimum Wage would mean those people working slightly above minimum wage are now working AT minimum wage. As the ultimate example of schadenfreude, they want to keep some people very poor, so that they won't have to think of themselves as occupying the lowest rung on the ladder.

[pennylane100]

6. I am so very surprised to hear that.

I do not know what the upper limits of the more than Minimum wage group is but I do not know anyone in that category that would be against an increase in the minimum. What it means for them is that their employer was willing to pay over that wage to get the right kind of person for the job.

If the minimum wage goes up to $10 per hour, they will also need to increase their wages if they want to attract the kind of employees they are looking for. I think it has always worked that way but I am no expert. I do know that there is a big difference between going to McDonald's where so many franchises do pay minimum wage and going to In & Out where the starting wage is $10. It is not a big difference but it is enough to make people a little happier while they work, that and the fact that they also offer other benefits.

I think there is no better example than Costco to tell an employer that it is more economical to get a well paid worker. The pay almost double that of Sam's and they make a bigger profit.

[TrollBuster9090]

9. I agree with what you said, but sadly it's a fact. Here's Chris Hayes discussing it on UP

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46979738/ns/msnbc-up_with_chris_hayes/vp/50831176#50831176



Here's the graph. Note the dip in support for a minimum wage increase by people earning just over minimum wage. (There is support for it at all income levels, but surprisingly you see the least support for it coming from people who earn just over minimum wage.)

[liberal N proud]

2. They had to do a survey to determine this?

[jtuck004]

3. "Work and pray, live on hay, You'll get pie in the sky when you die."

[Populist_Prole]

4. Which is exactly what the PTB want

They can't have cheeky peasants devoting their actions to anymore than of mere survival, lest they mount a challenge to the PTB.

[WinkyDink]

5. NS, S.

[Brigid]

7. I'm shocked. Just shocked, I tell you.

[slackmaster]

8. Being a low-wage worker has sucked since the day money was invented

[emmadoggy]

10. In other news,

the sky is blue and water is wet.

[Selatius]

11. I like how nobody in power says most of the jobs created pay shit for wages.

If it is taking the economy so long to recover, it may eventually occur to the people up top that the reason is because those jobs don't offer a lot of money to spend, and spending is what keeps an economy afloat.

[olddots]

12. The greedy create the needy .

The scale has just gotten larger .

[Safetykitten]

13. Oh this is just wrong. The economy is BOOMING! Things are great.