Tying Wages to Workers’ Ability to Support Children. Disconnect in Growth Jobs with Most Employees

• In Event: 539 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Firm Strategies and Worker Outcomes, In the United States

Abstract

If all the workers at jobs that do not support a family quit tomorrow the country would shut down. We would have no nursing homes, childcare centers, offices or stores. This poster session highlighting the connection between wages and the ability to support a family will be developed jointly with Greg Neil, Area Organizer for the Wisconsin AFL-CIO.

The presentation ties wages of the jobs employing the most people to the numbers of people who can be supported at the median wage for each job at a poverty level and at the self-sufficiency standard.

Charts will tie wages to numbers of people who can be supported by various wages. They will also show the need for food stamps based on size of family at these wages.

Videos of interviews with low-wage workers will be presented along with an analysis of the possibilities of achieving change at the local level.

Authors

• Peggy Wireman, Wireman and Associates

• Greg Neil, Wisconsin AFL-CIO