Follow
Many middle-income jobs are being generated showing that wage gains are being covered more equally
Unfortunately, for millions of Americans, their wage is a constant reminder of the economic collapse of the 2007-09 recession. Painfully slow wage increase has curbed economic improvement, with many employers receiving few if any raises. However, many signs show that this is starting to change.
The unemployment rates have pointed to more competition for workers, encouraging substantial additions in average hourly wages in recent months. Those pressures, augmented by the laws that provide minimum-wage increases in New York, California, and elsewhere, also are causing changes for the workers who require raises the most.
Some of the biggest companies like Starbucks, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and JPMorgan Chase began raising what they pay their lowest-level workers.
Business managers believe that a pay raise is a right thing to do. The additions would grow the hourly pay of customer service representatives, bank tellers, and other similar employees to at least $12 an hour in next three years, from the present $10.15.
At a gathering in Virginia last month, Donald Trump stated that household earnings are more than $4,000 under their levels in the year 2000.
One of the factors that caused the decrease in the minimum wage is the lack of bargaining power generated by a decline in the share of private-sector unionized employees. Another reason could be the drop in higher-paying construction jobs. Organizations relocated more factories abroad due to the economic situation. The 2008 financial disaster and the worst economic decline since the Great Depression augmented those changes, further suffocating overall wage growth.
However, annual wage earnings have been consistently in that range since last autumn — they touched a 7-year high of 2.7 percent year-over-year in July — an addition from the moderate 2 percent during the first six years after the financial collapse.
The purchasing power of employees is encouraged by the annual inflation operating below 1 percent which accelerates wage growth.
Moreover, many middle-income jobs are being generated showing that wage gains are being covered more equally among the workforce. From 2013 to 2015, the U.S. supplemented about 2.3 million middle-income careers in fields such as construction, transportation, and education. During the same season, the economy generated about 1.5 million high-paying positions and about 1.6 million low-paying careers.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, mentioned that growing the minimum wage wouldn’t just put extra money in the pockets of low-income households, it also implies they will pay more at the businesses in their communities.
Image source: Flickr
