Low-Wage Jobs Won't Cure Our Economy

This chart from the Huffington Post is from a study by the Alliance for a Just Society. It shows a significant problem with the falling unemployment in the United States. While the unemployment rate has dropped a couple of points during the term of President Obama, the median income is still falling and the middle class is still shrinking. That's because too many of those new jobs are low-wage, no-benefit jobs -- jobs that will not help a worker rise to or stay in the middle class. That needs to change, and a good way to start that change would be to raise the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour (and then tie it to the rate of inflation). This would put upward pressure on all wages, and would create demand for goods/services as that new money was spent -- increasing business profits and creating more jobs (hopefully good jobs).