Unemployed? You Can Have a Job, But Not a Living Wage

A friend of mine from Boston called me the other day, just after she'd finished a job interview. She's been out of work for about a year, struggling to make ends meet as a single mom.

The job was at a high-end baby boutique in the city. The posting stated that you had to be a mom to apply, be available to work 40 hours a week and have reliable transportation. The pay? $10 an hour.

We both laughed. How could a store that sells baby equipment not understand that if you want a mom to work there, she's not going to be able to afford childcare on $10 an hour? She may not even be able to afford a place to live, as a living wage in the city is about $12 an hour for a single person and $21 for a parent and child.

But a job is a job. How do you turn down work, even poorly paid work, when you've got nothing?

My friend is not alone in this dilemma. The New York Times reported last week that many who were laid off during the recession are finding work, but that work doesn't pay enough to make ends meet.

A study by the National Employment Law Project shows that of jobs that have been added to the economy since the recession, a disproportionate amount are low wage (pdf), paying less than $15 an hour.

And while any work is something, that kind of low-wage job growth poses serious problems for not only those families, but for the rest of the economy. Think about it — if a family doesn't have enough to keep the lights on and food on the table, they certainly don't have enough to splurge on matinee tickets to the movies or Halloween pumpkins.

"If this kind of bottom-heavy job creation continues, it could pose a real challenge to restoring consumer demand and making sure working families have a way to support themselves," said Annette Bernhardt, policy director for NELP.

Meanwhile, families are getting squeezed. Chelsea Nelson, a waitress in Arkansas making about $7 to $8 an hour, says she and her husband have been looking for work for a couple of years. The two of them and their two-year-old son have traveled to California and back looking for decent jobs, but ended up back in Arkansas, living with her mother.

"I don't know, with the jobs we have, if we're ever going to be able to make it on our own," Nelson said.

Conservatives are often crying about how taxes redistribute wealth in this country, and how that's stealing from those who work hard for a living to give to lazy do-nothings. But what about those who also work hard for a living and still can't make it? If the redistribution of wealth means paying people a decent wage for a honest day's work, then call me a Communist. I'd rather be a dirty red and know that there will be food on the table for hungry children and their parents after a long day's work.

Photo credit: GirlReporter