As globalization and automation reshape the labor market, workers today must navigate a changing economic landscape...Low-wage workers risk becoming collateral damage, struggling to find their footing in the labor market and an educational system riddled with inequities.

The largest metropolitan areas have the highest numbers of low-wage workers: 3.5 million in the New York City area, 2.7 million in the Los Angeles region, 1.6 million in Chicago, and about 1.2 million each in Dallas, Miami, and Houston. In less populous areas, low-wage workers make up a larger percentage of the workforce, particularly in the southern and western US. Areas with some of the highest concentrations of low-wage workers are located near the US southern borders and coastlines.

Fifty-seven percent of low-wage workers work full time, year-round. Fourteen percent have a bachelor’s degree, while 49 percent have a high school diploma or less. The remaining 37 percent have attained up to an associate degree or some college education with no degree or are not in school with no degree. About half are estimated to be the primary income earner and 40 percent are raising children.

30 percent of the low-wage workers live below 150 percent of the federal poverty line, or $36,000 per year for a family of four. Twenty-six percent receive safety net assistance such as food stamps, welfare benefits, federal housing assistance, and other programs, which have been cut back throughout the years by successive Democratic and Republican administrations.

A large number, 47 percent of the total, fall into 10 occupation groups: retail sales workers, cooks and food preparation workers, building cleaning workers, food and beverage serving workers, and personal care and service workers (such as child care workers and healthcare assistants).

The United States has the highest level of income inequality of any advanced country in the world. With inflation taken into account, real wages for the working class in the US remain below pre-recession levels. Furthermore, while worker productivity sharply increased, total income for working class families has been falling since 1979 as corporate profits have inversely shot up.

The richest one percent of men live 14 years longer than the poorest one percent, and the richest one percent of women 10 years longer than the poorest.

• https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/29/loww-n29.html