Big businesses, such as Wal-Mart and McDonalds, get a bad wrap for providing low-wage jobs. But, Americans may be surprised to know that they're funding a low-wage labor pool larger than both of these companies combined do, a new report by Demos, a public policy organization, shows.
The report, titled "Underwriting Bad Jobs: How Our Tax Dollars Are Fueling Low Wage Work and Fueling Inequality," finds that nearly 2 million private sector employees are working on America's behalf but earning $12 per hour or less. The report's authors, Amy Traub and Robert Hiltonsmith, deem these wages "too low to raise a family."
Every day, Americans see their tax dollars at work but many of the people doing the work are not only poorly paid, but they also have little or no benefits. Worse, many have limited opportunity to even make their way into the middle class, claim the researchers, and many of the workers that keep this nation running barely earn enough to afford essentials like food, health care, utilities and rent.
Read the report: Underwriting Bad Jobs: How Our Tax Dollars Are Fueling Low Wage Work and Fueling Inequality
