Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Low Pay Capitalism

Workers in seven of the 10 largest occupations typically earn less than $30,000 a year, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a far cry from the nation's average annual pay of $45,790.

Food preparation workers are the third most-common job in the U.S., but have the lowest pay, at a mere $18,720 a year for 2012. Cashiers and waiters are also popular professions, but the average pay at these jobs tallies up to less than $21,000 annually. There are 4.3 million retail sales workers out there, making them the most common job, but the position pays only $25,310 for the year.

Among the 10 most popular professions, only the nation's 2.6 million registered nurses earn a good living, bringing home nearly $68,000 a year on average. Another two of the most common jobs -- secretaries and customer service representatives -- have an average annual wage of about $33,000.

America’s median household income dropped by more than $4,000 since 2000. 58% of the jobs created during the recovery have been low-wage positions, according to a 2012 report by the National Employment Law Project. These low-wage jobs had a median hourly wage of $13.83 or less.

Two-thirds of low-wage workers -- those that are paid less than $10 an hour -- are employed by large corporations with at least 100 employees reports NELP. All of the largest companies in low-wage industries, including McDonald’s and Wal-Mart Stores employ tens of thousands of cashiers and cooks, or large national retailers, employing tens of thousands of cashiers and salespeople. Few lack profitable.
How different it can be

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