New jobs don't pay workers a living wage.
A new study describes North Carolina's economic recovery as slow and uneven. The progressive group North Carolina Justice Center just released the State of Working North Carolina 2014 report. It says between 2009-2013, 80 percent of the jobs created pay low-wages. Tazra Mitchell is a public policy analyst with the NC Budget and Tax Center. She says while more adults are working full-time positions, most can't afford to help grow the state's economy because they don't have disposable income. "One in five of our workers are earning poverty wages that puts them below $24,000 a year," explains Mitchell. "It's hard for them to avoid raising their children in poverty, put food on the table, to put gas in their car so they can continue getting to work in order to pay their bills.”
According to Mitchell, more than 580,000 people are working these jobs in a wide range of industries including retail, hospitality, the restaurant industry and care-givers for non-school age children and senior citizens. She also says a disproportionate number of these workers are women, single mothers and people of color. The report also looked at the rising unemployment among 16-24 year-olds and the fact that men earn almost $3 dollar more than their female counterparts.
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