Study & Standards:Workers Need Both to Succeed in Tomorrow’s Economy

By Nancy Mills, Executive Director, AFL-CIO Working for America Institute

Last fall, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released an analysis of the occupations projected to add jobs to the U.S. economy in the decade between 2000 and 2010. Of those new jobs, the Bureau categorizes 33 percent as being in occupations that require more than a high school diploma—a 2-percentage-point increase.

There is another feature of the projections: average wages will decrease for occupations that require a high school diploma or less. In 2000, 69 percent of jobs in occupations that require a high school diploma or less paid either low or very low wages (in 2000 wage levels, $25,760 or less); by 2010, 71 percent of those jobs will be in the low or very low wage categories.

Many have used these statistics to exhort students to stay in school and to encourage workers to go back to the classroom. Putting aside the very real obstacles that many families face in pursuing higher education, more individuals will need and want the preparation to access better-paying jobs. Employers operating in the United States—especially those pursuing a high road strategy rather than competing by lowering wages—need the added value and productivity that a better trained and educated workforce provides. However, another sobering statistic reveals the insufficiency of the “go to school” drumbeat.

In the year 2000, 48 percent of all workers in the United States who were 25 years of age or older had no more than a high school diploma— down from 55 percent in 1990. If this trend continues, 41 percent of the population will be without post-secondary education by 2010. Unless we simultaneously do something about the nature of U.S. jobs, there will be two likely outcomes:

• over 53 million workers will be limited to jobs that predominantly pay low or very low wages; and
• many waitresses and cashiers will be college educated but earning low pay.

Some argue that the service sector jobs that make up the bulk of the projected new, low-wage job growth necessarily pay less than those in production and technology. But this is not necessarily so. For example, hotel workers in Las Vegas earn average wages of $29,137 a year, while hotel workers in Reno, also a casino city, earn 23 percent less ($22,362). Las Vegas is one of the most unionized cities in the nation.

But unionization is not the only answer. Higher minimum wages, living wage ordinances and efforts to help employers achieve economies that permit higher wages are all part of the solution to diminishing U.S. job quality. Workers and policy advocates must combine efforts to expand education and training opportunities with efforts to raise the quality of America’s jobs if we are to reverse the decline of living standards for a substantial number of working families.

 Back to Connections