For generations, most Americans believed that if they worked hard they could support their families, own a home, and, one day, have a pension to retire on —- The American Dream. Now, millions of Americans, many in Pennsylvania, have had that dream shattered. For the last thirty plus years the wage growth of low- and moderate-income Americans has slowed, and in some cases, declined.
Only the top 1% of wage earners have done well economically in the last few decades. Despite a growing national economy and falling unemployment, low and moderate-income Pennsylvania workers are falling further behind. Most families rely on their paychecks to make ends meet. When wages are stagnant the standard of living for poor and moderate Pennsylvania families goes down. A Noviembre Pew Research Center report said that net worth for upper income household increased nearly 10 percent between 2007 and 2016. In that same period lower income households saw their net worth drop 42 percent and middle-income households by one-third.
But, there are policies that Pennsylvania lawmakers can adopt to help working families.
STOP WAGE THEFT.
It is estimated that low-wage workers lose more than $50 billion annually to wage theft through failure to pay promised wages, failure to pay overtime, and other practices.
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HELP FAMILIES CLAIM ALL STATE AND FEDERAL BENEFITS THEY QUALIFY FOR.
An estimated 44,000 Philadelphians DID NOT apply for $110 million in Earned Income Tax Credits. In 2014, the IRS reported $760 million in unclaimed tax refunds.
INCREASE THE MINIMUM WAGE TO $15 PER HOUR.
Lawmakers in the six neighboring states of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Maryland, and West Virginia have raised the minimum wage to between $8.15 (Ohio) and $13.00 (New York City) per hour. A similar increase for Pennsylvania’s lowest wage workers would have added $1,435 in annual income per person.
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went to Memphis, Tenn. in the spring of 1968 to stand with sanitation workers fighting against racism and fighting for better wages, benefits, and union recognition. It was part of a bigger campaign for economic opportunity for all Americans.
When will we achieve the dream of Dr. King?
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By Jon O’Connell | Enero 7, 2018
A year ago, “The State of Working Pennsylvania 2016” presented data showing little wage growth, and in some cases wage declines, for virtually every group of Pennsylvania workers over the preceding 15 or 35 years, regardless of race, gender, and education level. We argued that when our political leaders fail to offer workers hurt by a restructuring economy a realistic promise of better days, anger and despair can spread, fueling divisiveness and fraying our social fabric. The events of the last year in America have borne out this warning. They have underscored the urgent need for political leaders to unify all Americans and Pennsylvanians behind real solutions to the economic struggles faced by working families, so that our country and state might honor again the widely shared beliefs that all work has value and that all Pennsylvanians deserve a fair shot at the American Dream of upward mobility.