"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?
If you want to read the entire article:
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...
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."
The Android and iPhone made a few lives happier.
Back in my day, not everyone had a powerful pocket computer that could do Facetime!
The gig economy is probably helping, by multiplying the sources of demand for low-skilled labor.
Now we can all pay taxes instead of sucking on them! Yay!
But...but... TRUMP!
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.
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.