Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The working poor

Nearly a third of the nation’s working families earn salaries so low that they struggle to pay for their necessities, according to a new report.    The ranks of the so-called working poor have grown even as the nation has created new jobs for 27 consecutive months and is showing other signs of shaking off the worst effects of the recession.    “Although many people are returning to work, they are often taking jobs with lower wages and less job security, compared with the middle class jobs they held before the downturn,” said a report released  by the Working Poor Families Project. 70 percent of low-income families and half of all poor families were working by 2011, the report said. The problem is they did not earn enough to cover their basic living expenses. 37 percent of the nation’s children — 23.5 million — were part of working poor families in 2011.

Many of the occupations experiencing the fastest job growth during the recovery also pay poorly. Among them are retail jobs, food preparation, clerical work and customer assistance. In 2011, the top fifth of working families had incomes that were 10.1 times greater than those in the bottom fifth of income earners. The best means for climbing the income ladder — improved education — is growing more uncertain and more expensive, the report said.

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