Jobs that pay too little for people to get by are growing as a share of Colorado’s economy and the wages those jobs pay are shrinking. That’s not only bad for people in those jobs and for the economy as a whole. It also means many employers are getting a free ride as taxpayers foot the bill for public assistance workers need when they aren’t paid enough to make ends meet.
From 2000 to 2013, the 20 percent of Colorado workers making the least saw their pay drop by 8 percent when adjusted for inflation. This has resulted in a greater portion of the Colorado labor force working in low-wage jobs. In this report, we define a low-wage job in today’s economy and discuss the demographics of workers in those low-paying jobs both by occupation group and industry. We also provide new data on the costs to the state of providing public support for employees working in jobs that pay low wages.
Click below to read the report.
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