Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here's why

[douglas9]

The official rate of unemployment in America has plunged to a remarkably low 3.8%. The Federal Reserve forecasts that the unemployment rate will reach 3.5% by the end of the year.

But the official rate hides more troubling realities: legions of college grads overqualified for their jobs, a growing number of contract workers with no job security, and an army of part-time workers desperate for full-time jobs. Almost 80% of Americans say they live from paycheck to paycheck, many not knowing how big their next one will be.

Blanketing all of this are stagnant wages and vanishing job benefits. The typical American worker now earns around $44,500 a year, not much more than what the typical worker earned in 40 years ago, adjusted for inflation. Although the US economy continues to grow, most of the gains have been going to a relatively few top executives of large companies, financiers, and inventors and owners of digital devices.

America doesn’t have a jobs crisis. It has a good jobs crisis.

When Republicans delivered their $1.5tn tax cut last December they predicted a big wage boost for American workers. Forget it. Wages actually dropped in the second quarter of this year.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/29/us-economy-workers-paycheck-robert-reich

[democratisphere]

1. Everything from this administration and the redumbliCON congress

is and has been a LIE. Checkout the ACTUAL unemployment rate vs. the "OFFICIAL" unemployment rate. Quite a different ACTUAL story.

https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-real-unemployment-rate-3306198

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Pushing Back On That 3rd Paragraph

By my number, after adjusting for average inflation (3.7%, smoothed) would have taken MHI from 16,200 in 1978 to around 69k today
Labor and Treasury show MHI at 59,500
That makes the "typical" household nearly 10 thousand behind, adjusted for inflation, not "a little more" as stated.
Workers are 14% behind the inflation curve and that paragraph makes it sound like things are essentially even
On top of that, there were FAR fewer 2 income households in 1978, so it's even worse!

[Sherman A1]

9. Well Said

This has been in the works for a very long time by the 1% and as you observed in 1978 the household income was greater not only in dollars but in the amount of effort (one person as opposed to two people) to make those numbers. The working class has used up any means of keeping up from two family incomes, refinancing homes to maxing out credit cards. There isn't really much of any options left for them to utilize.

[robbob]

12. But they said the typical American worker...

Not the typical American household. Doesn’t that mean a two income family could be pulling in closer to 80k a year? At any rate, I found that paragraph troubling, too. It seems like keeping up with wages of 40 years ago (adjusted for inflation) would be a GOOD thing. That doesn’t ring true...

[JayhawkSD]

13. Yes, this "household income" is a fairly new reporting gimmick

When I was first engaging in paying attention to such things, the report was given is "individual income." It stayed that way for a long tome until offshoring in the late 70's started driving wages down and the family with both parents working became the norm. In order to "make America great again" they began reporting household income instead to disguise the fact that the working class was now being paid shit.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. I Recall MHI in 80's

It was used then
But, without whitewashing anything, most at the median were assumed to be single income
Still want to know where the author got "a little more"
It took me 45 seconds to look up historical MHI and year over year inflation numbers

[bucolic_frolic]

3. We are increasingly exploited

You have to give people in the upper income scale credit: they do know how to use the system, laws, marketing, and control to make it pay for them. They have pricing power, workers have no negotiating power. When you get your car repaired, do they haggle? Not much. The system is setup to sell you the expertise you need, the parts your car requires, at a standard per job time and rate, and pay their costs. Gotcha. That formula is repeated anytime you need something done.

Work for yourself, and try to get some of your own pricing power. Produce for yourself so you don't need higher-ups at all or to a lesser extent. Developing all those skills takes time and money.

So, yes, we are cogs in a wheel with few options other than to continue feeding the system. Rats on a treadmill. We pay to be on the treadmill, and the owners of the treadmill siphon off the energy we create and sell it back to us!

[rurallib]

4. An extremely important story that nearly no one covers

Thus uninformed workers vote for Repugs thinking somehow magically wealth will transfer to them.

[democratisphere]

6. So true. Shows how stupid they really are; wealth by voting association.

[Racerdog1]

5. How many of these voted for the orange asshole?

I see everyday some of the most junky cars and houses with either tRump stickers or yard signs. Amazing these morons keep voting against their own best interests.

[progressoid]

7. It's cause they are buying too many iPhones and lattes.

[Racerdog1]

8. Not hard to explain.

The decrease in union jobs directly correlates with decline in the standard of living and wage stagnation. Low wages, shit working conditions, and no pension or insurance. Yeah, I love my union job and the wages and benefits that come with it. Wake up!

[DFW]

10. I would venture the theory of one more major effect of union decline

A union ideally keeps its membership informed. Informed about their rights, their relative situation, the progress of any negotiations, occupational hazards, etc. The absence of a union deprives the average worker of easy access to all this information, and management is not in a position where it is to their advantage to provide it voluntarily.

Not all management is so mean or insensitive, obviously, but without a union, employees have little chance of even finding out. That makes them sitting ducks for exploitation.

[Racerdog1]

11. Well said!

Appreciate the outstanding reply.

[DFW]

17. My brother in law is a proud union man

Originally from Wisconsin, now working in New York City. I get a lot of information from him.

[JayhawkSD]

14. Yes, we have to quit blaming taxes for economic inequality

Yes, income tax needs to be more progressive, but "taxing the rich" is not going to do much for the working class. Inequality was caused by the destruction of the balance of power between labor and business, a balance created by collective bargaining and labor unions. We sit on our asses asking Congress to restore the labor unions, but it was Congress who destroyed them in the first place. Unions were created by workers taking power, and if unions are to regain their place in the economic process than workers must take that power back. People who hold power do not give it away, it must be taken from them.

[Javaman]

15. even easier answer...

the willful and wanton brainwashing of the American worker to work hard against their own best interest.