http://www.quintcareers.com/surviving_low-wage_jobs.html
I have chosen this first website because it has a consise overview of the problems facing low-wage workers today, or the "working poor". It also contained many of the things Barbara touched on in her book. The article mentions Wal-Mart but states that the problem goes beyond Wal-Mart with industries in retail, hospitality, agriculture, and education. The part I liked best about this article was that instead of just defining the problem it explained a few solutions. These solutions were aimed to help the job seeker help themselves as well and it also gave political solutions. http://www.nathanielturner.com/mythsoflowwageworkers.htm
This is also about low wage workers but addresses the truths and myths associated with them. This is a current website urging people to vote in the upcoming elections because "more and more middle-class jobs are taking on many of these same characteristics, losing the security and benefits once taken for granted." The author talks about low wage work and how it relates the American dream. I had never thought about that before, that some poeple percieve low wage jobs as stepping stones to higher positions when this, in fact, is not the reality for most. Therefore, "if you fail to move up, you must be lazy or incompetent." The author also makes a very strong point when she says that the richest country in the world should not allow such treatment of one fourth of its workers.
I wish an answer to this growing problem were simple. I wish people everywhere could be paid fairly-- enough to feed their families, enough to maintain their health, and enough to enjoy life outside the workplace.
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3 comments:
I liked the first article that Kate found as it had a lot of research behind its views and was very informative. However I didn’t agree with some statements such as “Low-wage workers tend to be white, female” where in the book Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich noted that most of work force in the hotel cleaning industry and other low wage jobs tended to be ethnic minorities, such as Hispanic, African Americans or Eastern Europeans etc.
I agree with Kate that the issues mentioned are a bit of a repeat to what Ehrenreich raised in her book, but it is encouraging to see that it is not only her who is aware of the problems of the low wage workers within America. The solutions were a bit vague such as “finding the right employer”, Ehrenreich described in her book the problems with why the poor are still stuck in their dead end jobs, that they don’t have the skills or time to research different employers who may pay more than their current job. So this website is a bit of a disappointment in offering advice.
The second website I found very interesting in how it raised the issue of how many workers have been fired due to trying to organise a union to create equal rights within the low wage working environment.
“In the 1950s, the number of American workers who were fired, harassed or threatened for trying to organize a union was in the hundreds a year. According to Human Rights Watch, by 1990 that number exceeded 20,000.”
I really don’t understand why employers have such a problem with unions, the fact that they fire people for joining one or being involved in one shows how guilty employers are because if they knew they had a fair policy to the way they treat their workers then they wouldn’t have anything to be afraid of. As far as they would be concerned a union would have no issues to discuss. However, I think it is an injustice and a crime against human rights to punish such workers for being involved in one and to discourage them from joining one at all!
It is news like this that adds negative images and thoughts to America and its people. I feel that America is a divided nation between the extreme poor and ridiculously wealthy.
I was amazed by what I read in these two websites. Firstly the first website, I agree with Christine, I was surprised where it says that most low wage workers are white and female, where barbara's book clearly contradicts this. I think this website is quite hard hitting, it has all its facts with its numbers (30 million in low wage jobs) I think that by having the statistics there it makes it seem more real. However I think that this website has tried to do something about this problem, the solutions it has at bit the bottom may not change the world however I think it shows that they writers have thought a lot about this problem and are trying to think of active ways to solve the problem. The second website I thought was very clever, I think it draws on emotions to get the audience thinking. It definatly hit home when it was talking bout how most of these low wage jobs are acturally jobs which if no-one did them our society wouldn't funtion. Having worked for a short time as a part time cleaner and then worked for a year being a sales adviser I know what it is like to have people turn there nose up at you, as if your worthless. If we think about it these people should b honoured and commended for what they do. I couldn't stick at it and it gives me so much great respect for these people. We need these people we should be encouraging them no paying them a basic or low wage, i believe that is completely dehumanising, no-one has the right to do that.
This first article is very informative, and backed up with the facts and statistics. Again some points seem contradictory to Barbara's book, especially the part which describes most of these workers as white female. I do agree with the majority of this article, in that it is terrible that people are having to live on these wages, especially in a country where anything is meant to be possible, and yet for these people it seems impossible. However a part of me does feel that having a job is better then no job, and these people are still able to afford a place to live, food etc which is more that a lot of people around the world. If places such as Wall-Mart start to raise the wages of employees then they will inevitably have to raise prices. This in turn will defeat the object of a place like Wall-Mart and millions of people who have been depending on companies like this to survive, will go hungry.
The second article again was interesting. I liked hoe it was set out in myths and truth. The myths seem to be spot on, in the sense that, that is what the majority of people seem to believe, but in actual fact is far from the truth.
"the value of the current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour is still 21 percent less than it was in 1979"
I find this shocking as America seems to have progressed so much since the 70's and yet the value of minimum wage has gone down.
If it was'nt for these jobs that are essential, the country would fail to run. It isnt the big businessmen that keep the country running (although they do have their part), it is in fact the cleaners, cooks, dustmen etc
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