Report finds 44 Million Jobs (1 in 3) Pay Low Wages

[Liz Chimienti <chimienti@xxxxxxxx>]

REPORT FINDS 44 MILLION JOBS (1 IN 3) PAY LOW WAGES

Washington, DC: A new report from The Mobility Agenda finds that over 40
million jobs in the United States ? about 1 in 3  ? pay low wages
($11.11 per hour or less) and often do not offer employment benefits like
health insurance, retirement savings accounts, paid sick days, or family
leave. Moreover, these jobs tend to have inflexible or unpredictable
scheduling requirements and provide little opportunity for career
advancement.

The Mobility Agenda is a special initiative of Inclusion, a virtual think
tank affiliated with the Center for Economic and Policy
Research.

Read the report at:

http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1080&Itemid=8

"All too often these low-wage jobs are replacing jobs that have
supported a broad middle class," said Margy Waller, director of The
Mobility Agenda and one of the paper's co-authors. "The economy and
our democratic society are strongest when no one is falling too far
behind the rest. Unfortunately, we find that, in 2006, 44 million workers
were employed in low-wage jobs paying much less than the rest of us get
paid."

The report, Understanding Low-Wage Work in the United States, uses a
social inclusion approach that provides a definition of low-wage work
that allows for comparison among jobs in the United States. The authors
define a low-wage job as one paying substantially less than the job held
by a typical male worker. The trend since 2001 has been a sharp decline
in wages for these jobs. Worse, reviewing the evidence on economic
mobility, the authors conclude, "In the U.S. labor market, it is not
possible for everyone to be middle class, no matter how hard they work.
Moreover, it has been getting harder to do over time."

This report is the first in a series for The Mobility Agenda, where
advisors are developing a menu of new ideas and strategies for improving
low-wage work and economic mobility ? a set of options that goes beyond
minimum wage to strengthen the labor market and build an economy that
works for everyone.

"We're focused on improving wages, benefits, and other work
conditions. We encourage further public debate about the significance of
low-wage work and a more direct focus on the labor market and economic
policy for a strong nation," said Shawn Fremstad, another co-author
and advisor to The Mobility Agenda.

Inclusion was co-founded by report co-authors: Shawn Fremstad, Margy
Waller and Rachel Gragg. The fourth co-author, Heather Boushey, is a
senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. For more
information about this initiative, see The Mobility Agenda. 

###

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Phone: (202) 293-5380, Fax: (202) 588-1356, Home:
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Liz Chimienti
Domestic Outreach Associate
Center for Economic and Policy Research
1611 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 293-5380 x110
Fax: (202) 588-1356