
Nearly half of American workers have low-wage jobs - howard941
https://www.knoe.com/content/news/Report-Nearly-half-of-American-workers-have-low-wage-jobs-565741211.html
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mnm1
Not only have our minimum wage laws not been updated to realistic levels,
neither has the poverty level. Half of Americans are indeed too poor to
support themselves. They are not even making what the minimum wage should be
and should get government assistance. Hard to keep calling America a developed
country when easily half of its population cannot support itself and most of
that half is not supported by the government. Definitely can't call that
democratic either.

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elicash
From the union discussion the other day, one thing that always struck me was
how weird it was that more conservatives don't encourage labor unions in the
private sector.

I'd have thought, since fundamentally union membership is about private
contracts between employers and a group of workers, that conservatives would
see it as an alternative to government stepping in and setting up minimum
wages.

If we had friendlier labor laws and we allowed more groups of workers to
organize, the need for the federal government to step in with wage floors
would decrease and, importantly, there would be more flexibility for employers
AND employees -- like instead of paying above a certain minimum wage both
sides could agree to more generous healthcare and/or retirement packages.

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Miner49er
Modern conservationism in the United States is, by definition, anti-union. [1]
This sort of political view aligns more with libertarian socialism,
specifically in ideas like syndicalism.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_Sta...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_States)

~~~
elicash
Your comment is an interesting one, so not trying to disagree, but...

Modern conservatism is not so well-defined. I'd say "conservatism" is best
defined by the values of people who call themselves conservative, not by
political theorists. And that therefore that it's more partisan and tribal
than ideological.

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pysxul
there is a big lack of information in theses poor written 20 lines, and
probably misleading on purpose.

\- Are theses low-wage jobs only considering full time jobs? \- What about
student jobs? \- If some people have multiple part-time jobs but all of them
individually fall under the median annual wages of $18,000, then they are
increasing the statistics

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elicash
Students and part time workers are in fact people and should be counted as
such for their work.

If you were just asking for additional context in the article, that's one
thing, but this is certainly not "misleading."

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dxemy
What is arguably more appalling, is the fact that half of American workers,
earn less than the average,

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Miner49er
Only 30% of people make more than the average.

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ChrisLomont
For perspective, 18k a year in the US puts a person in the top 5% of income
worldwide.

[http://www.globalrichlist.com/](http://www.globalrichlist.com/)

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defertoreptar
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/business/global...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/business/global-
income-calculator/)

This is saying it puts you in the 67th percentile when adjusting for
purchasing power, which is still saying a lot.

~~~
ChrisLomont
It says that for a 3 person household. For a single income, it puts you above
90%, eerily similar to the data I presented :)

