Nearly half of Americans work on low wages: Study

The state of the US jobs has been studied by the Brookings Institution in a new way. The study found that half of the Americans were working on low-wage jobs. The low-wage was described as earning $10/hour or $18000/year. The study revealed that 44% of the working Americans between the age of 18 and 64 qualified for the ‘low-wage’.

This 44 % do not only include part-time workers. The sole breadwinner for their families was also present in this 44 % of Americans. Martha Ross, a member of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, said, “Most of the jobs that we lost in the recessions were for people with a high school diploma or less.”

The study also revealed that only 30% of US adults have a degree. Ross said, “Most of the jobs we gained back went to people with at least some post-secondary education.” The labor markets of the current age reward the employees with having a bachelor’s degree or more. Those employees have already made more money. There are a lot of things that are needed to be done for creating more jobs.

Ross said, “On the one side, there is a lot that can be done to help workers improve their skills”. There is a need for training adults with the necessary skills. The adults need to get a degree or a certificate for getting a better job with better wages. Ross said that we could do that a lot better.

The study recommended that the businesses needed to change their hiring practices. The pay practices are needed to be changed by the businesses for providing better wages to the employees. The adults are advised to get a degree or skills certificate for acquiring a good job. It is a shocking thing that half of the Americans are working on low-wage jobs. A lot of improvements are needed to be done on the national level for moving the wages up for the employees.