California's 4.8 million low-wage workers now earn less than in 1979

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-04/uoc--c4m043015.php

Public Release: 30-Apr-2015
University of California - Berkeley

Over the past 35 years, California's high-wage workers have seen steady increases in their paychecks. But low-wage workers, 4.8 million strong and about one-third of the state's workforce, earned less in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2014 than they did in 1979, according to an analysis from the University of California, Berkeley.

UC Berkeley researchers analyzing U.S. Census Bureau data at the campus's Center for Labor Research and Education found that low-wage workers, defined as those earning hourly wages of $13.63 or less, have seen steady declines in their inflation-adjusted buying power. This low-wage workforce, nearly three-quarters nonwhite and concentrated in two industries -- retail trade, and restaurants and other food services -- has also become older and more highly educated.

Teens made up 5 percent of low-wage workers in 2014, down from 16 percent in 1979, and 48 percent of low-wage earners in 2014 had attended some college, compared to 39 percent in 1979. The analysis also showed that 40 percent of the state's low-wage workers in 2014 were foreign-born.

"We found that low-wage workers in California are older and more educated than they were 30 years ago, and yet they've seen stagnant and even declining wages," said Annette Bernhardt, a visiting UC Berkeley professor of sociology and a senior researcher at the center. "The story of growing inequality is not just about the top 1 percent, it is also about the millions of low-wage workers and their families who struggle with economic insecurity every day."

Bernhardt and the study's other authors, Ian Perry and Lindsay Cattell, found that the top occupations of California's low-wage workers are retail sales workers; cooks and food preparation workers; material-moving workers; and personal care and childcare workers. About half are in Southern California.

•••••