Productivity has surged, but income and wages have stagnated for most Americans. If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000.
Mother Jones recently published the article, “Overworked America: 12 Charts That Will Make your Blood Boil,” and it was quite efficient at doing just that. It continues to be very hard for me to believe that we live in a country that doesn’t offer certain benefits to its workers. I know that people like to make the argument that it is our American work ethic that has made us such a strong and powerful country, but these charts show that while the average worker is working harder and harder, it is not the individual worker that is profiting but the corporation. Productivity soars, but wages stay stagnant.
THE WAGE FREEZE
| Increase in real value of the minimum wage since 1990: | 21% |
| Increase in cost of living since 1990: | 67% |
| One year’s earnings at the minimum wage: | $15,080 |
| Income required for a single worker to have real economic security: | $30,000 |
And…If you are a working woman that chooses to start a family, we are only one of FOUR countries in the WORLD that does not require maternity leave. Yep – it is the United States, Swaziland, Lesotho, and Papua New Guinea. (See last map below…)
We should be embarrassed by this! Not only are we underpaying our workers, but we aren’t allowing them time to start and be with their families (let alone have some down time). C’mon ‘Merica!
DIGITAL OVERTIME
A survey of employed email users finds:
| 22% are expected to respond to work email when they’re not at work. |
| 50% check work email on the weekends. |
| 46% check work email on sick days. |
| 34% check work email while on vacation. |
All of this just makes me want to continue to help people turn the page and follow their Chapter Be. We do need to work to change the system, but we can start by taking ownership over our own lives , find ways to make sure that we own our own time and aren’t giving over our entire lives to a system that is only set up to benefit the very large corporations and not the small businesses within our communities. How can you find time to take back your life from your job? How can we support one another in ensuring that we are communities that think about the individual and not just a big company’s bottom dollar?
All graphs from Mother Jones and sources available within article
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