Low Wage In America Essay

1364 Words3 Pages

The Negative Effects of Low-Wage Work in America Poverty in America is an immense issue, having the highest poverty rate out of all 26 developed nations. The United States is considered the richest country in the world, however, in 2022 it still had 37.9 million of its residents in poverty. Low-wage jobs contribute greatly to this issue, keeping Americans stuck in the cycle of low-wage life, constantly struggling to make ends meet. Exiting poverty on a low-wage salary in America is close to impossible because of things like generational wealth and poverty, the struggle to keep a low-wage job, and income inequality. Generational wealth and poverty affect America as a whole extremely. The graph below shows the growth of gross domestic product, or GDP, per generation in their first fifteen years of work, starting at …show more content…

The couple doesn’t even need to work in high-paying jobs, they just need the support of their parents to be successful. The lower class does not have this option, they have to work hard to get what they need. Without this generational wealth, getting to the top and exiting poverty is hard to accomplish. Not only is acquiring these opportunities hard, but keeping them is even harder. The struggle to get and keep a good job with a low wage is a difficult task. Low-wage jobs don’t have the stability of higher-paying jobs, with the guarantee of a certain amount of money each year and the guarantee of the same job or possibly a higher position the next year. The novel Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich shows this difficulty. Through this social experiment, the author tries to survive off a low-wage salary in America. She finds that keeping a job is extremely hard and ends up having to switch jobs multiple times throughout the experiment. Finding jobs was also hard, having to move to different areas of the country to find more opportunities. Many jobs also required qualifications that Eirenrich didn't

Open Document