u.s. capitalism, the butt of jokes...
an international failure:
".... In Europe, many people scoff at the US as a country of low-wage McJobs with paltry benefits – often no
paid sick days, no paid vacation and no health insurance. In Denmark, a McDonald’s hamburger flipper
averages $22 an hour (with six weeks’ paid vacation), while in the US, fast-food jobs pay half that on
average.You might wonder: how can the United States, the world’s wealthiest nation, be a low-wage
economy? Of the 37 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the unofficial
club of rich and near-rich nations, the US has the third-highest percentage of low-wage workers, with nearly
one in four workers defined as low-wage. Only Latvia and Romania are worse. (That study defines low-wage
as earning less than two-thirds of a nation’s median wage.) In another study, Brookings found that 53 million
Americans hold low-wage jobs, with a median pay of $10.22 an hour and median annual earnings of $17,950.
The US also has the lowest minimum wage among the G7 industrial nations in terms of purchasing power.
America’s $7.25-an-hour federal minimum is 38% lower than Germany’s and 30% lower than Britain’s,
Canada’s and France’s. This helps explain why the US has among the worst income inequality of the 37
OECD nations – only Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica and Bulgaria have greater inequality. And the US has the third
highest poverty rate; only Hungary and Costa Rica are worse..."
theguardian.com |
