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Working Poor in America

Low-wage workers are everywhere in the US. It's time for Congress to come together and ensure people earn a decent wage.

Millions of Americans do arduous work in jobs that pay too little and offer too few benefits. They serve food, clean offices, care for the young and elderly, stock shelves, and deliver pizza. They work these jobs year after year, while caring for their children and parents, trying to save for college, and paying their bills. And yet despite their best efforts, these low-wage workers fall further and further behind.

The way we see it at Oxfam, if you work hard, you should earn a living wage. Together with a broad coalition of allies, we see a future where raising the federal minimum wage (to $10.10 an hour) would benefit more than 25 million workers, lift five million to six million people out of poverty, strengthen our economy, and save taxpayers billions of dollars.

See where the highest concentrations of low-wage workers are and how your district ranks on our interactive map.

See the map

Author

Oxfam

Publication date

Publication type

Research