Low-wage jobs new normal in U.S.

The American economy took a turn for the worse in 1974 and the downward trend continues to this day, according to Harold Meyerson of the The American Prospect.

Read: U.S. consumer spending up

Since 1974 “productivity has increased by 80 percent, but median compensation (that’s wages plus benefits) has risen by just 11 percent [….] The middle-income jobs of the nation’s postwar boom years have disproportionately vanished.

“Low-wage jobs have disproportionately burgeoned. Employment has become less secure. Benefits have been cut. The dictionary definition of ‘layoff’ has changed, from denoting a temporary severance from one’s job to denoting a permanent severance,” Meyerson explains.

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Self-employment on the rise

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