4 Truly Disturbing Facts About Low-Wage Retail Workers

4 Truly Disturbing Facts About Low-Wage Retail Workers
Shopper Jose Alvarez, right, carries out a newly-purchased television past protestors outside a Walmart store Friday Nov. 23, 2012, in Paramount, Calif. Wal-Mart employees and union supporters are taking part in today's nationwide demonstration for better pay and benefits A union-backed group called OUR Walmart, which includes former and current workers, staged the demonstrations and walkouts at hundreds of stores on Black Friday, the day when retailers traditionally turn a profit for the year. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Shopper Jose Alvarez, right, carries out a newly-purchased television past protestors outside a Walmart store Friday Nov. 23, 2012, in Paramount, Calif. Wal-Mart employees and union supporters are taking part in today's nationwide demonstration for better pay and benefits A union-backed group called OUR Walmart, which includes former and current workers, staged the demonstrations and walkouts at hundreds of stores on Black Friday, the day when retailers traditionally turn a profit for the year. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

This Black Friday the lives of low-wage retail workers were thrust into the spot light as employees of a variety of stores weent to work on Thanksgiving Day and strikers descended on Walmart stores in 100 cities.

In a recent study by non-partisan public policy center, Dēmos, Catherine Ruetschlin explores the demographics of low-wage retail workers.

Some important and troubling statistics:

  • 63 percent of female retail workers qualify as low-wage.

  • 26 percent of low-wage retail workers are in total or near poverty.
  • 89 percent of people in poverty with low-wage retail jobs contribute at least 50 percent of their family's income.
  • The average full-time retail worker makes 14.42 an hour, while the average full-time low-wage retail worker makes9.61 an hour.
  • The study found that if retailers raised low-wage workers' pay to just $25,000 it would create more than 100,000 jobs.

    lowwage worker stats

    Before You Go

    First-Ever Walmart Strike, Oct. 2012, LA

    Popular in the Community

    Close

    What's Hot