November 11, 2009
By: Tom Abate
"Good job" pays 60 percent of the median household income, plus health care and retirement benefits.
EPI defines a good job as one that pays at least 60 percent of the median household income and also provides health care and retirement benefits. It says the wage threshold for a "good job" in 2008 was $14.51 per hour, or $30,180 a year. EPI analyst Algernon Austin writes:
By that measure, American men are losing ground . . . the share of male workers employed in good jobs dropped from 46.5 percent in 1979 to 31.3 percent in 2008 . . . Hispanic men experienced the largest percentage-point decline . . . In 1979, 30.8 percent of Hispanic men were employed in a good job. By 2008, only 15.3 percent were in good jobs . . . Without a national agenda to create good jobs, more fulltime workers will struggle to pay for basic necessities.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
By: Tom Abate
"Good job" pays 60 percent of the median household income, plus health care and retirement benefits.
Good jobs with benefits and an hourly wage capable of supporting a family have been a casualty of this recession, according to an analysis by the liberal Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
EPI defines a good job as one that pays at least 60 percent of the median household income and also provides health care and retirement benefits. It says the wage threshold for a "good job" in 2008 was $14.51 per hour, or $30,180 a year. EPI analyst Algernon Austin writes:
By that measure, American men are losing ground . . . the share of male workers employed in good jobs dropped from 46.5 percent in 1979 to 31.3 percent in 2008 . . . Hispanic men experienced the largest percentage-point decline . . . In 1979, 30.8 percent of Hispanic men were employed in a good job. By 2008, only 15.3 percent were in good jobs . . . Without a national agenda to create good jobs, more fulltime workers will struggle to pay for basic necessities.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
