Are you making At Least $20 An Hour?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/8374

By Doug Cunningham

The percentage of hourly workers earning at least $20 an hour in the U.S. is down to just 16 percent. In 1979 it was 23 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That middle-class blue collar wage is essential to sustaining America’s middle class. The hourly wage decline is the worst in manufacturing, which is seeing a 60 percent drop in the number of workers earning at least $20 an hour.

[onehandle]

1. "The United States will be the Mexico of the 21st century."

A high school friend of mine who is a college professor now told me that in 1996. We were in the middle of the Clinton boom and I was well employed. I laughed.

Not laughing anymore.

[Juche]

2. wow

Median hourly wages are about $15/hr, and only 16% make more than $20/hr. That is not sustainable in the age where healthcare & education double in cost every decade. If things don't start turning around within 10 years it will get ugly. People aren't all going to passively sit by and allow themselves to be distracted by flag pins while the US becomes Chile or Argentina with a superclass and a broad underclass. Not forever.

[Beregond2]

3. Yes.

But ask me how many hours I work!

[Omaha Steve]

4. Less than 40 a week?

Just a guess.