In 2017, about 153.34 million citizens were employed in the United States. Most of these individuals aged from 16 and over were employed in the private sector with Wal-Mart being the largest private employer in the country. Millennials make up the largest number of individuals in the workforce surpassing Generation X to become the largest generational group in the United States. American females earn 82 cents less than male workers but due to the equality campaigns, the gap is significantly narrow among young workers. There are gaps in earnings among certain ethnic and racial groups in the United States; Asian men earn $24 while white men earn $21, Hispanic and black men earn significantly less that these two groups. Minimum wage is the lowest payment that employers can legally pay their workers and the minimum price which workers can sell their labor. In the United States, the minimum wage is mandated by United States Labor laws other state and federal laws. The minimum wage in the United States stands at $7.25 an hour; however, the amount might differ from state to state. The states with the highest minimum wage is Washington D.C at $12.50 an hour, Washington $ 11.50 an hour, California with $11.00 an hour and Massachusetts at $ 11.00. The minimum wage in Ontario, Canada is set to rise to $15 per hour in January 2019 and the lowest wage in the province of Saskatchewen at $10.96 (Weinfield 2014). Canada revises their minimum wage each year but Congress has not revised the United States current minimum wage in years. The standards of living have changed in the United States but the minimum wage has remained constant hence the struggles workers face. The average blue-collar worker does not make enough money to provide the family with basic needs alone and without government supplements.
Most workers cannot afford suitable housing due to the low wages hence most of them end up being homeless or living in their cars. Most of the full-time minimum wage employees cannot afford basic housing: only 0.1% of these workers can comfortably afford a one-bedroom apartment. These hardworking American often working in industries such as healthcare and food service are doing their best but cannot afford clean and safe housing for their families. The National Low Income Housing Coalition notes that workers would need to earn at least $21.21 per hour to live in a two-bedroom apartment. Most minimum-wage workers work several jobs to afford shelter. A minimum wage worker earning $7.25 per hour needs to work at least 117 hours per week to live in a two-bedroom house and 94.5 hours per week to live in a one-bedroom house. About 2.6 million workers get paid minimum wage or below and even gets worse if someone is from a racial and ethnic minority. Affordability differs from states for instance, in Georgia workers who earn an hourly rate of $11.46 can live in a two-bedroom house comfortably but in other states a worker has to make three times more to rent a similar sized home (Weinfield et al. 2014). The worst part of this crisis is that things are not expected to get better anytime soon. The rent has been on the rise for years but incomes have been constant which result in most workers not affording to pay their rent. The Trump administration 2018 budget proposed a $6.2 billion in slashed funds to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. For housing to be affordable more of them need to be built but with the considerable slash in the budget the prospects seem bleak. The Harvard University 2017 State of the Nation’s Housing Report indicates that most of the housing units being built are too expensive. Housing units renting for under $800 between 2005 and 2015 and those renting for $2,000 increased by 1.5 million (Weinfield et al. 2014). Walt Disney chief executive officer made $44.9 million in 2015 and $3 billion profits in the fiscal quarter of 2016 reported in January 2016; it is expected that with the great returns will compensate the workers who make this possible appropriately. This is however not the case as most workers are forced to live in motel rooms since they cannot afford to live in a decent house. Disney countered this accusation by saying that they are the biggest employers in the area; but is it not enough that they employ thousands of residents in the Anaheim area; they need to compensate them well (Gass 2016).
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Most American workers cannot afford basic foodstuff and are forced to rely on food stamps and food banks. Hunger in America a 160-page report released in 2014 provides shocking details about hunger in the United States. The stagnant wages in the country are forcing one in eight workers to skip meals to make ends meet. Additionally many workers cannot even afford heat during the cold seasons since they want to save on energy bills. These families are forced to sleep hungry and cold due to the low wages they receive. After paying rent, electricity, and cell phone bills most Americans cannot afford food. More than 12 million families are forced to eat unhealthy since the price of produce is too high. Another 66 percent of these families are forced to choose between food and healthcare and more than 60 percent of families have to wholly depend on food charities. Sandi Zahar a 69-year old Texas resident earns $3100 per month from her part-time job and social security but still relies on food charity (Weinfield 2014). The diabetes patient and cancer survivor admits that most of her income goes to healthcare and her income is too high to qualify for food stamps and medical aid. The part-time job is taking a toll on her body and she might not be able to work for much longer. Most of the minimum wage workers earn too much money to qualify for federal assistance but struggle to afford three meals a day.
According to Feeding America more than 41 million Americans are food insecure meaning that constant supply of food is unavailable. One in four of these workers do not qualify for federal assistance. These workers end up sleeping hungry, or relying on food banks. Jill Taormina a 34-year-old single mother of two mostly serves her family unhealthy meals since her monthly income of $1,700 a month is not enough for her family. She would like to serve her family a roast with potatoes in the crock-pot but on most nights they end up eating pizza rolls with a side of canned pears but the price of meat and produce is too high (Weinfield et al. 2014). The mother of two can only afford about $100 a month on groceries but even after using coupons, she still cannot afford healthy meals. Amazon the nation’s largest e-commerce retailer is among the companies whose employers cannot afford meals. The American taxpayers have funded the company’s pursuit of monopoly through the government tax breaks and subsidies but still they treat their workers poorly (Brown 2018). Amazon is set to start delivering groceries for citizens under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); the program will earn considerable profits once the program launches. In the state of Arizona one in three Amazon employees depend on the SNAP program to provide food for their families (Brown 2018). In the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio one in ten Amazon employees depend on the program.
Most of the American owe student debts in excess of $30, 000 dollars, after paying of this debt they end up not affording basic necessities. Student debts are an unfortunate reality for most young workers in the United States. An estimated 70 percent of graduates leave college with huge amounts of student debt totaling to over $1.4 trillion (DiGingi 2017). The students are expected to pay off these debts in ten years but most of them end up paying the debs in their 40s. This means that most of their life in the workforce is spent paying off student loans of $300-400 a month. The increased number of American workers with student debt has resulted to reduced home ownership and increased levels of poverty. Most of these workers still paying off their student debts have had to move back home with their parents since the student debts monthly payment equivalents rent payment. Most of these workers struggle with the stress and stigma associated with living at home in addition the lack of enough money for necessities such as health insurance and car payments. Most of these young workers might never be able to buy cars or homes in their adult lives as almost half of their paychecks going to students’ loans (DiGingi 2017). The student debts affect the lives of young workers from where they shop, where they live and careers they choose. Most mortgage companies determine eligibility for mortgages by analyzing credit scores and debt-to-income ratio. Failure to pay student loans in time affects credit scores and potentially home ownership. Most of these student workers depend on food charities, live in motels or live off their cars. The government should make higher education cheaper or free to avoid burdening the workers. The federal government should create more funding for grants thus lessening the student debt burden. Additionally the federal government should encourage guardians to save early for college education (DiGingi 2017).
The government is partly responsible for the struggles of the American worker due to the high taxes for low-income workers. A minimum wage workers working an average of 50 hours in a week and makes $17, 500 per year will have to pay 12 percent of total income. However, the amount varies depending on marital status and number of dependents. State income taxes vary across the board for workers in different states. An American worker earning an average of $ 20, 000 per annum pays much more taxes than an heir of a fortune does (Strangler 2015). Slashing taxes would create more relief for the American workers than creating more jobs. Tax hikes for low-income workers affect the economy; consequently having negative impacts on most American workers (Strangler 2015). The government should aim to reduce the tax burden for minimum wage workers. Reducing the tax rates will ensure that these workers have more money in their pockets. Therefore, they can afford necessities such as food, housing and medical care.
Most American workers struggle with huge credit card debts that they fail to pay off hence affecting their credit score. An average American worker has a minimum of two credit cards each carrying a total balance of $5,551 with interest of 15-20%. The low wage necessitates the use of credit cards. For instance, the family car breaks down or the roof leaks and you do not have money, the worker decides to charge it on the credit card and fails to pay it. The high interest credit cards put these workers in more debts than they can ever pay off. Credit card debt affects credit scores and consequently home ownership potential. Most Americans pay one credit card with the other just to stay afloat. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, credit card debt is the highest kind of debt in most accounts (El Issa 2017). Increase in credit card debt is mostly caused by high cost of living. With the stagnating income in America, most workers cannot deal with the cost of living and have to rely on credit cards to survive. One of the solutions to credit card debt is raising workers’ wages (El Issa 2017). Rising minimum wages for workers will ensure that they can cope with the cost of living therefore reducing reliance on credit cards. Lowering the interest rates on the credit cards might be a short-term solution to workers’ struggles. The federal government can aim to create debt relief strategies such as National Debt Relief to help workers settle their debts with credit card companies.
The essay has successfully determined that the average blue-collar worker makes too little; some of their struggles include food, rent, student loans, Credit card debts and high taxes. Most of American workers in the minimum wage bracket do not make money to pay rent. Most workers do not even afford to live in a one-bedroom house. Most workers in companies like Disney make very little money yet the company records profits in excess of $3 billion dollars and their CEO making more than $40 million. The federal government should ensure that companies such as Disney and Amazon are taxed effectively and the money put back in government programs such as housing. The United States government should make it a priority to revise the minimum wage regularly according to the state of economy. When the cost of living rises, the minimum wage should also be revised upward. Student loan debts make up one of American workers’ struggles. The average worker pays an approximate of $300-400 per month an equivalent of monthly rent. Most of these workers end up homeless living of their cars or with parents since they cannot afford decent housing. The government should reduce the cost of higher education to reduce student debt burdens. Additionally, parents and guardians should be encouraged to save for higher education early to save their children from lifelong credit debts. Minimum wage workers should be taxed less that the high-income earners. Additionally corporates getting tax exemptions or reductions should be mandated to increase their employees’ income and consequently improve their lives through better housing, food and healthcare.
References
Brown, C. (2018, April 19). Amazon Gets Tax Breaks While Its Employees Rely On Food Stamps, New Data Shows. Retrieved from https://theintercept.com/2018/04/19/amazon-snap-subsidies-warehousing-wages/
DiGangi, C. (2017, April 28). The Average Student Loan Debt in Every State. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2017/04/28/average-student-loan-debt-every-state/100893668/
El Issa, E. (2017). 2017 American Household Credit Card Debt Study Retrieved from https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/average-credit-card-debt-household/
Gass, N. (2016, May 24). Sanders ding Disney near Disneyland. Retrieved from https://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/05/bernie-sanders-disneyland-223527
Strangler, C. (2015 April 22). Tax Cuts for the Poor and Middle-class Not the Rich-Create Jobs, Research Show. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/tax-cuts-poor-middle-class-not-rich-create-jobs-research-shows-1892251
Weinfield, N. S., Mills, G., Borger, C., Gearing, M., Macaluso, T., Montaquila, J., & Zedlewski, S. (2014). Hunger in America 2014: national report prepared for Feeding America. Retrieved February , 21 , 2015.
