
American life is improving for the lowest paid - esilver
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2019/05/18/american-life-is-improving-for-the-lowest-paid
======
peisistratos
The article text does not really support the headline

> By last year, the poorest 10% were still earning only a miserly 4.1% more
> per hour than they did (in real wages) 40 years ago. Median hourly pay for
> America’s workers was up a little more, by 14%.

With exactly 40 years ago being in the midst of a wage downturn. Go back a
little more and real hourly wages have fallen for both groups, despite GDP
etc. booming for decades in relation (and out of relation as well) to
population growth.

The wealth created by those who work and create wealth goes to the heirs and
rentiers in America. The "job creators" who do not work and who parasitically
expropriate surplus labor time and the fruits of that time from those if us
who do work.

~~~
bjourne
How come so few Americans realize how insanely unfair that is? The USSR
collapsed 30 years ago, so there is no Communism to scare people with anymore.

~~~
scarface74
So how do you propose to make things more fair? Why do I have the feeling that
knowing the population of HN, who are heavily employed in the tech industry,
don’t consider themselves the privileged beneficiaries of capitalism?

~~~
thelasthuman
The privileged beneficiaries of capitalism are the people that hire the
population of HN to make them money.

As for how to make things more fair, a good start would be to allow bad actors
(the well connected good ole boys) in the economy to die off instead of
bailing them out. Perhaps a better use of that money would be to invest in
community owned assets (like low income housing) and businesses (corporations
structured similarly to Mondragon)?

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation)

~~~
scarface74
How many people on HN are volunteering to pay more in taxes and give up their
income that is probably more than twice the median amount in the US?

~~~
JetSpiegel
All that live in some European countries?

~~~
scarface74
Well seeing that the article we are discussing is “ _American_ life is
improving for the lowest paid”, I fail to see how what Europeans are willing
to do is relevant....

~~~
geezerjay
You personally chose to use "people on HN" as your barometer. So, if you
failed to see the point you tried to make then you're the only one to blame
here.

~~~
scarface74
Are you as an individual _volunteering_ to give more money in taxes???

------
otaviokz
"What’s really rare, he adds, is his annual week of paid holiday"

I may be getting it wrong as I don't live in US, but does it mean he only gets
one week of holidays per year? Is there any other form of paid off time?

~~~
esotericn
I have never worked an hourly paid job in the UK that has paid holiday.

I'm not sure they exist, it's sort of what hourly pay is - you get it when you
work and not when you don't.

Personally I'm not sure it's something that makes sense, it should just be
factored in to the wage. Most hourly paid jobs I know of don't have regular
hours, even - how much do you pay for a week's holiday when some weeks the
employee works 8 hours and some 24 hours? An average? Of what, if they've only
been there a few months, say?

Now, time off, e.g. whether someone practically actually can take time off
during the year without being sacked, is a different matter entirely.

Historically (before my career as a software developer) whenever I've felt
like I need a bit of time out I've either had to negotiate it or just leave.
It's usually far easier to quit a job than to convince your manager to let you
go away for a few weeks. Sometimes the bureaucracy doesn't even, well,
understand it.

I am personally completely convinced that the only answer to these sorts of
issues is just to pay people properly. If they choose to chuck the money away
regardless, it's on them.

Building some savings early in my adult life and maintaining them has been the
best thing I've ever done. It turns the matter of "does this job offer
holiday" "can I get the weekend off" stuff into an academic concern because
you are in control.

~~~
DanBC
Hang on - paid holiday is a legal requirement.

[https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights](https://www.gov.uk/holiday-
entitlement-rights)

This applies to people on zero-hour contracts as well.

~~~
theoh
What does paid holiday mean, exactly, in a zero-hour contract? If there's no
guaranteed minimum rate at which one is paid during any given period, it seems
like there can be no way to assert that one is on "paid leave".

I tried googling it and found this, which seems inconclusive:
[https://www.breathehr.com/blog/zero-hours-contracts-
holiday-...](https://www.breathehr.com/blog/zero-hours-contracts-holiday-pay-
and-entitlement)

~~~
DanBC
> Irregular hours

> People working irregular hours (like shift workers or term-time workers) are
> entitled to paid time off for every hour they work. They need to calculate
> their leave entitlement for irregular hours.

That takes you to this calculator: [https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-
entitlement](https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement)

~~~
theoh
Do you see the point I'm making, though?

Edit: I'm not asking about the rate at which paid leave builds up, I'm asking
about how the employee can ever be said to have used it up. Given that zero-
hours contracts are a Bad Thing, I don't expect this to make any sense.

If I have accrued 24 hours of paid leave, and potentially work 6hrs a day,
typically one day a week, do I need to pre-emptively use all of those 24 hours
just to take leave for a block of 4 weekdays? It seems like I might have to,
in the face of an unscrupulous employer.

------
rmason
If you want to read the entire article:

[https://outline.com/TegA4h](https://outline.com/TegA4h)

~~~
JumpCrisscross
Why this over the Internet Archive [1]? Outline is a private site run by
unknown people with unknown intentions. Its privacy policy [2] (a) names no
actual person or responsible entity, (b) permits business transfers and (c)
permits changes at Outline's sole discretion.

The Internet Archive, on the other hand, is a nonprofit run by known,
reputable people.

(Setting aside the ethics of reading journalists' work without compensating
them.)

[1] [https://archive.org](https://archive.org)

[2] [https://outline.com/privacy.html](https://outline.com/privacy.html)

~~~
willio58
Outline has a better interface.

------
craftinator
Must say that I disagree with this article. I've been low income for years,
and have had hundreds of low income coworkers, and I've seen rent, gas, food
all become more expensive while their pay remains constant, or is cut. Most
have at least 2 jobs, and any kind of expensive life event ($1000 or more)
will put them out on the streets. Things weren't this bad for us 15 years
ago...

------
ethbro
Headline: "American life is improving for the lowest paid; Come back
capitalism, all is forgiven"

Article: Low unemployment means anyone can find a job.

"By last year, the poorest 10% were still earning only a miserly 4.1% more per
hour than they did (in real wages) 40 years ago. Median hourly pay for
America’s workers was up a little more, by 14%."

"Low- and middle-income households remain anxious about volatile earnings.
Most have almost no savings. Many would struggle with a financial shock of
just a few hundred dollars."

"Lots of jobs that are being created are in or near flourishing cities like
Madison, where low-paid workers are squeezed by high housing costs. Pew has
estimated that 38% of all tenant households spend at least 30% of their income
on rent."

"Katherine Cramer, who studies the long-standing causes of simmering anger
among poorer, rural Americans, says “resentment is worse than before”, despite
the recent better wages. Rural folk complain that “it’s been like this for
decades”, she says. A year or two catching up has not yet been enough to
change their minds."

~~~
FabHK
Yeah, quite remarkable. Celebrating a 0.1% annual wage increase over the last
4 decades, one week (!) of paid vacation, and "help" with health insurance as
progress. In 2019.

It reminds me of the Onion article rejoicing that "Chinese Employers To Grant
15-Minute Maternity Break".

[https://www.theonion.com/chinese-employers-to-
grant-15-minut...](https://www.theonion.com/chinese-employers-to-
grant-15-minute-maternity-break-1819568485)

"Of course, this measure wouldn't need to be taken at all if pregnant workers
could schedule their due dates for the annual holiday of May 1," Huang added.

~~~
will4274
When you consider that it's 0.9% in the past year, and 3.2% total in the 39
years prior to that, it seems more like something to celebrate.

[https://www.bls.gov/news.release/realer.nr0.htm](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/realer.nr0.htm)

~~~
FabHK
Agreed, though the number you cited is increase of _average_ real weekly
earnings over that year, seasonally adjusted, while the much worse numbers
quoted from the article are not even _median,_ but _10th percentile_ of real
wages, IIRC.

------
Cannibusted
The Android and iPhone made a few lives happier.

Back in my day, not everyone had a powerful pocket computer that could do
Facetime!

~~~
NE2z2T9qi
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not. But in all seriousness, the
richness that has been added to my life by walking around with a Library of
Alexandria in my pocket is immeasurable. People may jokes about the value of
having 24/7 access to cat videos or whatever, but the reality is that over 3/4
of Americans have access to knowledge that people in any other century would
have sold their souls for.

~~~
luckylion
> but the reality is that over 3/4 of Americans have access to knowledge that
> people in any other century would have sold their souls for

 _Some_ people. Your average medieval serf didn't care for all that in his
pocket: he couldn't read and he'd get the whip if he stood around doing
nothing, so he would very much not have sold his soul for something that had
no value for him.

It's similar today. For you, it's a great asset, but most (and, I assume,
everybody some of the time) don't use it that way. For most people, it is
indeed 24/7 cat videos. Also, I have my doubts about the importance of
carrying it around with you. It's the knowledge and the access that counts (if
you're into knowledge), not the "and I can do it while standing outside
anywhere in the city". The access would be virtually the same if you had to go
to a public library instead of getting your phone out of your pocket.

~~~
NE2z2T9qi
> Also, I have my doubts about the importance of carrying it around with you.
> It's the knowledge and the access that counts (if you're into knowledge),
> not the "and I can do it while standing outside anywhere in the city".

I would have to disagree strongly with that. There's a fundamental difference
between the knowledge being extraordinarily democratized vs. available only
through gatekeepers. Imagine having to go to a library to get directions for a
short daytrip or book an Uber a day in advance. The frustration that would
cause and time it would waste is enormous.

And importantly, you can't separate the "productive" and "non productive"
aspects. The fact that you can FaceTime your friends or waste time on the
devices is what makes them universally available. How many people in a poor
neighborhood would shell out for a knowledge-only device or spend hours after
a hard day shlepping down to a library? The fact that you can do fun stuff and
mindless stuff with a phone is why the phone is in your pocket when you
suddenly want to learn to do something difficult or find out the solution to
an obscure problem.

~~~
luckylion
You're certainly right that few people would pay as much for the device if
"all" it could to is serve as a gateway to human knowledge. I don't believe
that the knowledge part is an active ingredient in the equation, but I don't
disagree that it's a nice bonus.

> Imagine having to go to a library to get directions for a short daytrip or
> book an Uber a day in advance. The frustration that would cause and time it
> would waste is enormous.

I grew up in a time when that was quite normal (well ... day trips to
somewhere unknown? that's rare!), and it wasn't so bad, and certainly didn't
feel frustrating. It's hard to believe, but we managed to traverse the city
(and even the country) without navigation assistants too ;)

> How many people in a poor neighborhood would shell out for a knowledge-only
> device or spend hours after a hard day shlepping down to a library?

Workers in Germany used to organize voluntarily in educational organizations
some 150 years ago to advance their knowledge and social situation. Since it
was forbidden to do so before the revolution of 1848 by the ruling elite, they
got together under the guise of singing or sports to share knowledge (and
socialism). They'd happily spend hours at the library had they been allowed
to.

I'm not arguing against your point, but I do believe that it's class-
dependent. If you're educated, you're likely to use your phone for information
_and_ entertainment. The lower the class, the larger the entertainment part
grows. The idea of social liberation through knowledge is a noble one, but I
wouldn't hold my breath. I don't believe that the availability alone will help
for large parts of the population, and we shouldn't rely on that to advance
their circumstances.

------
CryptoPunk
The gig economy is probably helping, by multiplying the sources of demand for
low-skilled labor.

------
adamnemecek
As always, it's probably improving in some ways, getting worse in others.

I didn't have access to the whole article but the first three paragraphs that
I read didn't really inspire confidence.

Also the claim isn't that it's not getting better but that it's not getting
better as fast as it is for the rest of the economy.

