Author of Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead

[Omaha Steve]

Tamara Draut

Today, a new generation of young people is finding the path to the middle class blocked by the decline of high-paying manufacturing jobs, the decline of strong unions and the rising cost of a college education.

In a Point of View column at www.aflcio.org, Tamara Draut, author of Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead (available from The Union Shop Online™), says the loss of manufacturing jobs and the switch to lower-paying service jobs has made it harder for young workers to get ahead. Draut writes:

…young adults of all educational levels are earning less today than they would have 20 or even 30 years ago. Back in 1974, the typical 25- to 34-year-old male high school graduate earned $42,697, in inflation-adjusted 2004 dollars. Three decades later, median earnings for young adult male high school graduates was $30,400. That’s a 29 percent loss in income compared to young workers a generation ago.

Low wages also contribute to the high rate of uninsured 18-to-34 year olds, Draut says. Eighteen million in that age bracket don’t have health insurance. The majority of young adult workers who are uninsured earn less than $10 an hour.

Draut, who grew up in a union household and was the first in her family to go to college, says the declining economic mobility and security confronting young workers today is due in part to the inability of workers to freely choose a union. For generations, American parents have joined unions and worked hard so their children would have a better life. Because of the union movement, workers with a high school education or less have been able to earn enough to buy homes and pay for college educations for their sons and daughters.

A generation ago, young workers entered the labor market on an escalator: As productivity went up, so did wages, producing a steady and swift progression in earnings. Today, young people are entering the labor market on one of those automated airport walkways: Wages remain flat despite productivity gains and longer hours on the job.

In 2005, only 10.7 percent of workers aged 25 to 34 were union members, compared with 16.5 percent of workers aged 45 to 54 and 55 to 64.

Draut, who directs the economic opportunity program for Demos, a nonpartisan public policy research and advocacy organization, says one of the best ways to revive economic opportunity, mobility and security for young workers is to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

Young people, the majority of whom don’t have a bachelor’s degree, have been hit hardest by the decline in manufacturing jobs and the vacuum left by the weakening and hobbling of organized labor over the past three decades, she says. Young people need the union movement, and the future of the movement depends on organizing more young workers, she adds.

She also suggests that young workers need:

* Increased funding of higher education at the state level so all young people who want to go to college have access to that dream. At the federal level, we need more generous grant aid for college.

* Creation of more “earn-and-learn programs,” particularly investments in career ladders for the health and teaching professions.


Order the book here: http://unionshop.aflcio.org/shop/product1.cfm?SID=1&Product_ID=613

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/03/14/young-workers-need-unions-to-build-a-better-life/

From the article: Young Workers Need Unions to Build a Better Life

by James Parks, Mar 14, 2007

[semillama]

1. High school grads made $42K a year in 1974?

Crap, I have a MS and help run a division in my company and I make that now!

Yikes.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. That's inflation adjusted - probably more like $18,000 in '74 dollars. nt

ON EDIT - Oh. I get it. That means in '74 dollars you with the Masters are making $18,000. Yikes is right.

[raccoon]

9. I doubt if many 20-30 somethings in my neck of the woods made

$18,000 in 1974.

I started out at $8900 in 1975 with an MS. It was a salary you could live on at that time and place (SC).

[leftofthedial]

5. you are grossly underpaid.

[semillama]

10. yeah, I was aware of that before.

But there's trade offs that have kept me here since I recently learned how much I am underpaid.

For one thing, to be making what someone in my position is making elsewhere, I'd end up making more than the owner fo the company (an architect) pays herself. Another thing is job security - I have it, and finding another job at this level is pretty iffy for me. This job allowed me to build up experience and has been pretty forgiving of mistakes I've made while learning to do this job. I also got where I am because my predecessor was really lousy and they needed someone ASAP to fill the gap when he finally "resigned" his position.

So, in some ways, this job ain't half bad, but I also won't hesitate to leave once my fiance finishes her PhD and can find a job somewhere else.

[leftofthedial]

11. I shouldn't criticize

I haven't had a job at any pay for two years now.

[semillama]

12. wow, that's not good.

Hope you're getting along ok.

[leftofthedial]

13. well, I make a few bucks here

and a few bucks there,

but it hasn't been near enough.

Savings died a couple fo months ago. Now I'm a philosopher . . .

[BluePatriot]

3. This is very true

Hubby and I got our jobs (not remotely in our chosen/wished fields) on blatant connections. Many, ok, most of his friends don't work, still live at home while eking out those CC classes, and they are pushing 25. If we did not know people who worked in "offices" we'd be working service...and I have a bachelor's, and he has an associates. We feel lucky to have insurance at all and to have tentatively escaped the service economy. Finishing college is a major hurdle esp. if no one in your family has decent credit (oops, no co-signer for the loans, then you are really, REALLY screwed if you have no cred. history and your parents make a "middle class" income) But of lot of people don't see the point in higher education if you will still be stuck in the same service job anyway...There's no such thing as unions here in Texas, really, and it shows.

[slampoet]

16. It's the same in Rhode Island too.

The job climate here is so stacked against workers that i have heard parents make their kids promise to live out of state as a condition for those parents paying for college.

[info being]

4. It doesn't help that most of my peers have no clue how to save money

Most of us may not be getting ahead, but we sure aren't going without. I've chosen a different path and am now far ahead at age 32: no debt, buying only what I need, saving, investing.

[Virginia Dare]

7. Most 20 somethings and even 30 somethings...

only know a life of cheap and easy credit. Those days are rapidly coming to a close, so there is going to have to be a sharp learning curve.

[leftofthedial]

6. The American middle class is being destroyed by plutocrats

and their corporate henchmen.

[Virginia Dare]

8. Aternatively, I call them kleptocrats...n/t

[Eurobabe]

14. My 25 y/o daughter makes over $50K a year

she's got a bachelors degree. I guess she's doing OK by these standards. But, but, her company is closing in June and moving their HQ to Montreal.

So what does the future hold for her? We are a bit worried.

Thankfully she has been smart, has a 401K, and have substantial savings.

[slampoet]

15. I have the equiv. of a masters degree in my field and a bachelors in annother.

The most I have ever earned in one year is 31k in 2000
I earned 30k in 2001 and the most I have ever earned in any other year was 24k


As a result i have to spend some of my time actually reselling things that i find on the curb and in dumpsters so i can make ends meet.


I am 37.


My great grandfather had only been in America for 11 years and owned his own house by the time he was my age.
My grandparents on both sides owned their own homes and businesses by the time they were 37.
My father was able to help send me to college by the time he was 37.

I am 37 and haven't made enough money in any year, to get married, afford a dog, save up a down payment on a home, or especially afford to have a kid.

I am 37 and have friends who are living with an other couple just so they can afford to have one child between all four of their college degrees.


I won't have kids i guess, until I save up enough money (about 10k,) so I can afford to leave the USA and move to a country that cares about families.