Wyatt earp
Diamond Member
- Apr 21, 2012
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We told you and told you...
It's just trickle up poor instead of 3% of workers making minimum wage, 50% of American workers would make minimum wage if we raised the national MW to $15 an hour.
It doesn't raise all boats..
Minimum wages are rising. Pay for experienced retail workers is not. | Business | stltoday.com
James Collins has been working at Walmart for six years. His pay: $11 an hour, the same as what a new hire would make on their first day of work.
Collins, a 65-year-old maintenance worker at a Dallas store, joined the company when the starting hourly wage was $8. Over the years, Walmart has steadily raised that rate, in part to attract workers in a tightening labor market. But data shows that pay for longer-term workers like Collins has remained stubbornly stagnant.
“There’s no appreciation for experience anymore,” Collins said. “Someone could walk off the street today and get paid the same as me.”
Retailers have made headlines for raising their minimum hourly wages in quick succession — CVS to $11, Costco to $13, Target to $15 by 2020 — while 29 states and the District of Columbia now require that employers pay more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. But economists say those gains have not translated to higher wages among midlevel workers.
The average hourly wage paid to retail workers dropped to $18.58 in June, from $18.65 a month earlier, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Year over year, the average hourly retail wage has risen 2 percent, from $18.15.)
“Poor wage growth has persisted even as we’ve hit 4 percent unemployment, and that’s particularly true for workers in the middle,” said Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
Almost Half of All American Workers Make Less Than $15 an Hour
It's just trickle up poor instead of 3% of workers making minimum wage, 50% of American workers would make minimum wage if we raised the national MW to $15 an hour.
It doesn't raise all boats..
Minimum wages are rising. Pay for experienced retail workers is not. | Business | stltoday.com
James Collins has been working at Walmart for six years. His pay: $11 an hour, the same as what a new hire would make on their first day of work.
Collins, a 65-year-old maintenance worker at a Dallas store, joined the company when the starting hourly wage was $8. Over the years, Walmart has steadily raised that rate, in part to attract workers in a tightening labor market. But data shows that pay for longer-term workers like Collins has remained stubbornly stagnant.
“There’s no appreciation for experience anymore,” Collins said. “Someone could walk off the street today and get paid the same as me.”
Retailers have made headlines for raising their minimum hourly wages in quick succession — CVS to $11, Costco to $13, Target to $15 by 2020 — while 29 states and the District of Columbia now require that employers pay more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. But economists say those gains have not translated to higher wages among midlevel workers.
The average hourly wage paid to retail workers dropped to $18.58 in June, from $18.65 a month earlier, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Year over year, the average hourly retail wage has risen 2 percent, from $18.15.)
“Poor wage growth has persisted even as we’ve hit 4 percent unemployment, and that’s particularly true for workers in the middle,” said Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.
Almost Half of All American Workers Make Less Than $15 an Hour
