SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Responding to the CareerBuilder report on Twitter, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, argued the results show the urgent need for "strong unions" and "an economy that works for us," not merely the wealthiest. (Photo: Steve Rhodes/Flickr/cc)
'Time to Redistribute Wealth': 1% Thriving While 78% Living Paycheck to Paycheck
As President Trump flaunts booming stock market, most U.S. workers as vulnerable as ever
Aug 25, 2017
Top CEOs may be thriving, but most American workers are drowning in debt, saving little, and living paycheck to paycheck.
That's according to a new report by CareerBuilder, which found that:
- 78 percent of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 75 percent last year;
- 71 percent of workers are in debt, up from 68 percent last year;
- 56 percent believe their debt is unmanageable;
- 54 percent of minimum-wage workers say they have to work more than one job to make ends meet.
The report's findings--based on a survey of more than 3,400 full-time workers across various industries and income levels--suggest that the stock market boom President Donald Trump has so frequently flaunted has done little to help the workers he claims to support.
As Michelle Smith pointed out in an analysis for the People Policy Project, "the stock market tells us about the prospects of capital owners, but it certainly doesn't tell us much about the average worker."
David Hildebrand, a democratic socialist challenging Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for her Senate seat in 2018, observed that the numbers found in the CareerBuilder survey are "nothing new," and that they show "it's time to redistribute wealth."
As Common Dreams reported last month, wages for most workers have remained flat for decades. Meanwhile, CEO compensation continues to soar: a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that the pay of top CEOs rose by an "outrageous" 937 percent between 1978 and 2016.
Judging by his tax proposals--and by his claim during his presidential campaign that wages are "too high"--Trump appears unlikely to reverse these decades-long trends.
Responding to the CareerBuilder report on Twitter, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, argued the results show the urgent need for "strong unions" and "an economy that works for us," not merely the wealthiest.
Others echoed Weingarten's outrage and conclusion:
\u201cWhy decade of "emergency" central bank intervention helped banks,not people.Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck https://t.co/k7XeEmogb4\u201d— Nomi Prins (@Nomi Prins) 1503671391
\u201cBiggest destabilizing force in America is oligarchic capitalism\u2014most workers deep in debt, live paycheck-to-paycheck https://t.co/K0t0kbAsBW\u201d— Mark Ames (@Mark Ames) 1503596370
\u201cMillions more Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and living in debt than just one year ago \nhttps://t.co/ofuWSFHCwY\u201d— Jeff Stein (@Jeff Stein) 1503670354
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Top CEOs may be thriving, but most American workers are drowning in debt, saving little, and living paycheck to paycheck.
That's according to a new report by CareerBuilder, which found that:
- 78 percent of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 75 percent last year;
- 71 percent of workers are in debt, up from 68 percent last year;
- 56 percent believe their debt is unmanageable;
- 54 percent of minimum-wage workers say they have to work more than one job to make ends meet.
The report's findings--based on a survey of more than 3,400 full-time workers across various industries and income levels--suggest that the stock market boom President Donald Trump has so frequently flaunted has done little to help the workers he claims to support.
As Michelle Smith pointed out in an analysis for the People Policy Project, "the stock market tells us about the prospects of capital owners, but it certainly doesn't tell us much about the average worker."
David Hildebrand, a democratic socialist challenging Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for her Senate seat in 2018, observed that the numbers found in the CareerBuilder survey are "nothing new," and that they show "it's time to redistribute wealth."
As Common Dreams reported last month, wages for most workers have remained flat for decades. Meanwhile, CEO compensation continues to soar: a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that the pay of top CEOs rose by an "outrageous" 937 percent between 1978 and 2016.
Judging by his tax proposals--and by his claim during his presidential campaign that wages are "too high"--Trump appears unlikely to reverse these decades-long trends.
Responding to the CareerBuilder report on Twitter, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, argued the results show the urgent need for "strong unions" and "an economy that works for us," not merely the wealthiest.
Others echoed Weingarten's outrage and conclusion:
\u201cWhy decade of "emergency" central bank intervention helped banks,not people.Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck https://t.co/k7XeEmogb4\u201d— Nomi Prins (@Nomi Prins) 1503671391
\u201cBiggest destabilizing force in America is oligarchic capitalism\u2014most workers deep in debt, live paycheck-to-paycheck https://t.co/K0t0kbAsBW\u201d— Mark Ames (@Mark Ames) 1503596370
\u201cMillions more Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and living in debt than just one year ago \nhttps://t.co/ofuWSFHCwY\u201d— Jeff Stein (@Jeff Stein) 1503670354
Top CEOs may be thriving, but most American workers are drowning in debt, saving little, and living paycheck to paycheck.
That's according to a new report by CareerBuilder, which found that:
- 78 percent of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 75 percent last year;
- 71 percent of workers are in debt, up from 68 percent last year;
- 56 percent believe their debt is unmanageable;
- 54 percent of minimum-wage workers say they have to work more than one job to make ends meet.
The report's findings--based on a survey of more than 3,400 full-time workers across various industries and income levels--suggest that the stock market boom President Donald Trump has so frequently flaunted has done little to help the workers he claims to support.
As Michelle Smith pointed out in an analysis for the People Policy Project, "the stock market tells us about the prospects of capital owners, but it certainly doesn't tell us much about the average worker."
David Hildebrand, a democratic socialist challenging Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for her Senate seat in 2018, observed that the numbers found in the CareerBuilder survey are "nothing new," and that they show "it's time to redistribute wealth."
As Common Dreams reported last month, wages for most workers have remained flat for decades. Meanwhile, CEO compensation continues to soar: a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that the pay of top CEOs rose by an "outrageous" 937 percent between 1978 and 2016.
Judging by his tax proposals--and by his claim during his presidential campaign that wages are "too high"--Trump appears unlikely to reverse these decades-long trends.
Responding to the CareerBuilder report on Twitter, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, argued the results show the urgent need for "strong unions" and "an economy that works for us," not merely the wealthiest.
Others echoed Weingarten's outrage and conclusion:
\u201cWhy decade of "emergency" central bank intervention helped banks,not people.Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck https://t.co/k7XeEmogb4\u201d— Nomi Prins (@Nomi Prins) 1503671391
\u201cBiggest destabilizing force in America is oligarchic capitalism\u2014most workers deep in debt, live paycheck-to-paycheck https://t.co/K0t0kbAsBW\u201d— Mark Ames (@Mark Ames) 1503596370
\u201cMillions more Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and living in debt than just one year ago \nhttps://t.co/ofuWSFHCwY\u201d— Jeff Stein (@Jeff Stein) 1503670354
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.