We are coming out of the pandemic with great strides, here in Washington and everywhere else in the United States, oblivious to the increasing number of cases of the BA.2 variant. There is, of course, this war 8000 kilometers from here, but the American economy is not doing any the worse for it, on the contrary!
The employment figures for March in the United States will be released next Friday and we are already told that they are flamboyant. February marked the blow with a drop in the unemployment rate to 3.8%, with some states doing even better: 3% in Alabama, 2.5% in Kansas and barely 2.1% in Utah.
Economic dynamism is, however, subject to its own ” Ice bucket challenge in the form of a sharp rise in inflation. At 7.9% in February, calculated on an annual basis, this inflation rate gives the president of the American central bank nightmares who signals four, five, six interest rate hikes by the end of 2022 .
What is not keeping pace with job creation, let alone rising inflation rates, are wages across the country. The 7.9% inflation in February was only accompanied by a 5.1% increase in wages in the private sector: almost three points lower! In other words, salaries pay more, but you have less left in your hands. Search me!
LIVE AT THE MINIMUM
Quebec announced at the start of the year that the minimum wage would increase to $14.25 an hour as of May 1. In the American capital, elected officials are currently debating a bill that would raise the minimum wage at the federal level from $7.25 to $15 an hour. The chances of success in Congress, a deeply divided parliament these days, are slim.
All the more deplorable that living at the current minimum wage, without even considering inflation, is practically starving to death. And even though a majority of the fifty states offer a higher minimum wage, eighteen of them stick to $7.25 an hour, or $14,500 a year… when you are lucky enough to work forty hours a week!
But back to the mirage of fifteen dollars an hour: it would still be a springboard for demanding more, even if the annual $31,200, before taxes, is not worth it because of galloping inflation. Oxfam America nevertheless demonstrated this week that tens of millions of people would benefit.
MANY, THESE WINNERS-SMALL
One in three workers in the United States – 31.9% to be precise – earn less than fifteen dollars an hour (nearly 52 million people). OXFAM sees this as a civil rights crisis. Because if 25% of men are among the number, it is 40% of women who receive less than fifteen dollars an hour and 47% of black workers.
Figures that make you think, just like those collected on the side of Wall Street this week. On average, the bonuses given to financiers in 2021 reached $257,500, the equivalent of the annual salary of eight workers earning less than fifteen dollars an hour.
The cover – it seems – has, as always, its same favorites.
LIVE UNDER $15 AN HOUR IN THE USA
◆ 25% of men, but 40% of women, of which…
- 51,9 % women in south carolina
- 53,6 % in New Mexico
- 55,2 % in Mississippi
◆ 26% of whites, but 46% of Latino workers and 47% of blacks, including…
- 61,2 % blacks in iowa
- 62,2 % in kentucky
- 61,1 % of Latinos in Alabama
- 63 % en Arkansas
In 25 states, at least 60% of “women of color” earn less than $15 an hour.
◆ 57% of parents raising their children alone, of whom…
- 63,9 % in Florida
- 66 % in michigan
- 66,3 % in Texas
* A reality of young workers? No ! 89% are 20 years and older.
(Source : Oxfam America, 21 mars 2022)
