Wages in Oregon (1999)
The median hourly wage for whites: $11.66
Median hourly wage for people of color: $10.61
Median hourly wage for Latinos $8.46
Low Wage jobs (under $25,000/year) have grown from 30% of the total in
1978 to 35% in 1998.
In Lane County, the top ten growth occupations are retail sales, temps,
general managers, office clerks, wait persons, accounting clerks, janitors,
sales supervisors, cashiers, and assemblers. Eight out of ten of
these jobs don't pay a living wage.
In 1999, average annual wages in Lane County were only 87% of the state's
average wage, and only 81% of the national average wage.
Almost 37% of these job openings will pay less than $9 per hour.
Almost 23% will pay minimum wage.
In order to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Eugene-Springfield, an
individual wage earner needs to make at least $8 per hour. A family
requiring a three-bedroom home needs to earn a household income over $16
an hour to meet basic necessities. |
What is a Living Wage?
Living wage laws require private businesses that benefit from public money
to pay a living wage. Usually they cover employers who have large
service contracts with the city or county, and those who receive tax breaks
or other financial assistance from the government.
Living wage ordinances are meant to prevent taxpayer dollars from supporting
companies who pay poverty-level wages.
Living wage ordinances can ensure that if the city subcontracts to private
companies, the pay for those contract workers doesn't fall behind the pay
of city workers.
Living wage laws have passed in 60 cities and counties. As many as
75 campaigns are currently under way.
Many ordinances include right ot organize protections and sanctions for
businesses that do not meet the required standards.
The wage levels set by these ordinances range from $6.25 to $12 per hour,
and most are indexed to increase over time with the cost of living.
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Wealth in the U.S. (2000)
Nationally, 18.5% of all families have no wealth or are in debt.
The richest 20% of families in the U.S. own 84% of all the net private
wealth in the US.
82% of all stock gains in the 1990s went to the richest 10%.
The top 1% has more wealth than the bottom 90% combined.
For the bottom 90%, the principle wealth owned is their home, representing
almost 70% of total net worth.
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Income In Oregon (1999)
The average yearly income of the top 20% is $144,300
The average yearly income of the bottom 20% dropped from $14,800 to $12,900
(hourly that's from $8.45/hr to $7.70/hr.)
The top 20% have increased their share of income from 38% of total in late
70s to almost half of all income earned in Oregon in the late 90s (not
including capital gains).
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Suffering, but not "officially poor"
In the nation, one in three families with young children cannot afford
to meet their basic needs. This is more than double the number of
families that are "officially" living in poverty.
Oregon has the eighth highest percentage of families whose wages did
not meet the cost for basic needs.
Nearly 30% of families with incomes between the official poverty level
and twice the poverty level could not meet at least one of their basic
needs during the previous year, such as; missing meals, being evicted from
their housing, having their utilities disconnected, or not having access
to medical care. |
Definitions
Net Wealth: the value of everything you own, minus your debts.
Income: earnings through jobs and investments of everyone in
the household combined.
Wage: the amount paid for a job.
Median Wage: if you lined up people's wages in order, the number
in the middle is the median - half of all people make more, half make less.
Multiplier effect: when money gets spent within a community,
bouncing around from consumers to businesses to employees, creating increased
sales and jobs.
Contour effect: raising the wages for one group of people can
cause other employers to raise wages to compete for workers. |
