Low wage living has become a common problem in the United States. This class of workers earns wages that cannot meet their daily basic needs. As workers, they face a lot of problems. Some people argue that low wage workers are unskilled employees. However, this is not true. The workers use a lot of energy and mental conentartion in the performance of duties. These employees also work in risky conditions and can be easily injured in the environment they work in. The other employees also mistreat them by giving them additional tasks. These people are very important in organizations. As a result, they deserve a higher wage payment to enable them continue performing their duties (Ehrenreich, 78).
The low wage earners consist of a specific group of people in the United States. Specifically, these employees consist of employees who are mainly women or youths who have no experience. The people in this group are the minority members in the society. The low wages is explained by the fact that the salaries make the individuals in this group live below the poverty level set by the federal government. With an aim of eliminating low wages, the government has set the minimum wages for the employees. This wage has however not been adhered to.
There are many arguments for and against minimum wages. Some people argue that the minimum wages help to reduce the poverty levels in the economy. It is also argued that minimum wages makes businesses to be more effective. Minimum wages are also thought to increase productivity of the employees. Those who argue against minimum wages say that they increase the costs of the businesses hence reducing the profits. They also argue that minimum wages reduce the productivity in the business. When minimum wages are imposed, some organizations are forced to reduce the number of employees they have. Therefore, there is an argument that minimum wages cannot solve the poverty problem. Whichever the case, minimum wages are important in ensuring that the employees in an organization live better lives. It helps to eliminate the tendency to discriminate some employees in the working environment. Better wages are a source of motivation to the employees.
The minimum wages that are established by the government are not adhered to by some organizations. It will be noted that companies usually aim at minimizing costs to maximize profits. Some organizations have therefore failed to pay the minimum wages to some of their employees. However, these employees have no other option. They choose to work regardless of the low wages because they have dependants who need their assistance.
For low wage earners, they are completely excluded from the health benefits provided to other workers. This means that whenever they are sick, they face difficult situations in that their employers are not willing to pay such bills. Furthermore, they have no health insurance plans. Considering the salary of these employees, they are not in a position to save anything to meet their expenses. The results are that these employees receive poor health services. It should be noted that employees work under dangerous conditions that expose them to risks of suffering from diseases and injuries.
The low wage workers consume poor diets. Their pay makes it difficult for them to buy the cooking materials. They therefore depend on fast foods that are sold in the streets. These foods are dangerous to these workers and they can cause diseases such as heart problems. These foods are too expenses to purchase also. These employees spend a great proportion of their income on food. The food they eat is not healthy in that fast foods are not balanced diets. These employees are not able to choose what they are to eat because they cannot cook for themselves. With the little monies that they earn, it becomes impossible to purchase balanced diets.
The minimum wages in the United States has been maintained at 7.25 dollars per hour. This rate has remained for a long time. This is regardless of the fact that the costs of living has increased in the recent years. When an individual is paid at this rate, it will be observed that her yearly pay is below the poverty line drawn by the federal government. This shows the importance of increasing the wages of the low earners in the economy to ensure that they do not live below poverty level.
Hosing is a problem to the low wage employees. These employees usually live far from town where the rent costs are very low. The disadvantage of living in these areas is that the transport costs to the work place become very high. Others prefer living close to the work place where they can walk to the work place. In this case, they end up using the greatest part of their salary as rent. They are then left with less to spend on other basic needs. Low wage earners face problems in terms of housing because they cannot afford to construct their own houses. The results are that they spend most of their monies on rent or transport (Ehrenreich, 124).
The low wage workers tend to be exploited by their employees in many ways. They are sometimes required to work for overtime without pay. This is not fair because other workers usually receive compensation whenever they work for extra hours. For the low wage earners, they are willing to accept even the lowest overtime payment to support their lives. This makes employees to take advantage of the situation and exploit them (John, 1).
The low wage employees work on a non standardized schedule. This makes it difficult to seek some other employment opportunities when free. In most of the cases, their working schedule is not fixed. Some may be required to work for some hours during a certain day and the rest of the time, they are free. They may be required to work during the holidays, weekends and during the nights. Their schedules keep on changing since there is more than one such worker for the same job. This uncertainty in the time schedule is disadvantageous in that it makes it difficult to plan for other activities that are beneficial for these people’s life (Susan , 1).
Many employees do not take care of the welfare of the employees who earn low wages. They do not understand that these employees have children to take care of and take them to school. The members of family of these employees face a lot of difficulties since the amounts paid to the employees cannot meet their needs. They live with a lot of uncertainties because some of the problems that they face are difficult to solve. The employers do not offer any assistance regarding medical bill payment for the children of these employees. They do not also meet school fees for the children of these employees. The employees have difficulties seeking financial assistance from other sources to provide social amenities that the members of their family need (Jim, 2).
The low income earners have no job security. The level of poverty in many countries has attracted many employees in this sector. This has made employees in this category fail to fight for their rights because they are aware that their employers are not willing to listen to them. Whenever any complains is raised, the organizations threaten to replace these employees with readily available laborers. This has created a lot of fear among these workers because the security of their jobs is not guaranteed.
The low wage employees face great challenges in the current world. They live in fear in that it is expected in future that all the low income earners will be employed on the basis of having certain skills. These employees have the challenge of acquiring these skills through pursuing education. Some are finding it difficult to balance the learning activities and employment responsibilities (Susan, 4)
The low wage earners are not usually given leaves. They work from one year to another without rest. This is very unfair considering the fact that the other employees receive many types of leaves. These employees are therefore overworked. They have no time to look at their family issues back at home. They therefore find management of family and employment responsibilities very difficult.
Many of the low wage employees have no pension benefits. After they retire, they expect no support from their employees. This is because the employer has no arrangements to help them subscribe in the retirement benefit schemes. Left on their own, these employees are not able to subscribe to these schemes considering the fact that they earn very low salaries. This group of employee’s lives in fear of facing financial problems once they retire from their jobs. There are chances that these employees will not be able to support their families after their retirement.
As opposed to other workers, low income earners have no hopes of being promoted in their working environment. They expect to remain in the poor working conditions for ever. Some of these employees put their efforts only to find that their employers do not appreciate them in any way. This is very demoralizing to these workers (Devoh, 2).
The employees are not able to access funding in terms of loans to facilitate their economic development. This is because of the low salaries that they earn. Their savings are also low. This makes it hard for these employees to have access to enough capital that they can use to start a business that can improve their standards of living. This shows that low wages to employees put a limit on their development process.
Works cited.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting by in America. New York: Henry Holt & Co, 2008. Print.
Devoh, Pager. Discrimination in a low-wage labor market. Retrieved from; http://asr.sagepub.com/content/74/5/777
Cindy, Krischer. Balancing Act: Low-wage workers struggle to care for families, keep jobs. Retrieved from; http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/10/29/172997/balancing-act-low-wage-workers.html#storylink=cpy. 2012
John Coté. Wage theft a scourge for low-income workers 2011. Retrieved from; http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Wage-theft-a-scourge-for-low-income-workers-2354262.php
Susan J. Lambert. Lower-Wage Workers and the New Realities of Work and Family 2011. Retrieved from; http://ann.sagepub.com/content/562/1/174
Jim Kavanagh. Storm grants focus on low-wage workers. 2012. Retrieved from; http://www.local10.com/thats-life/Storm-grants-focus-on-low-wage-workers/-/1716786/17336706/-/exgh2p/-/index.html
