The problem seems to be that there are not enough people with the proper skills to do the jobs. First, we need people to help low wage workers know about higher wage jobs. Then low wage workers need to be trained for the higher wage jobs.

no pension.

K&R

It is something I have been saying after watching how the "collapse" was handled. I might stretch it out and say it has been a recovery of the same system that fucked us in the first place. I normally word it by saying there were no fundamental changes. Fundamentally we are in the same place we were.

Obama recovered all the jobs. Stick to the talking points please

they're gonna start stamping their feet!

There are lots of workers in this country who would LOVE $13 an hour plus benefits. My own pay in 2008 was nowhere NEAR $20 an hour. Even now it is only about $1 an hour more than $13.33 an hour.

Not really "low" wage in the big picture. Not where I live.

The disappearance of all those careers? Meh!

I'm not being facetious at all. It's refreshing that you are so explicit about what the Third Way considers just fine for the new American standard of living. Slightly higher slave wages!

For people to sit here and deride $13 an hour when I have spent much of MY working life making much, much less - well that makes you all sound like a bunch of high-paid elitists. From 1999 to 2001 I was making from $7.25 to $8.50 an hour. So from my shoes, I don't sneer at people making $13 an hour. All those careers in the past? Well, their high wages and benefits didn't really trickle down to me.

And like I am spocksman for the 3rd way.

Millions are making the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Some are making $2 more than that and think they are doing pretty good. Try to imagine if you offered THEM (meaning ME) $12 an hour.

they give you $520. That is not a good wage in any way in todays society. Not even in areas where the cost of living is very low. No one making $520/wk, living on their own, would pass my application process for a rental. That is not a living wage.

I make about half of that.

Fortunately I don't have to work full time for that amount, but half my wage would still be higher than the minimum wage, so presumably some people do work full time for about half that amount.

Fortunately, I don't have to pay rent.

...but I'm not sure why it doesn't seem to. More people seem to look at that and think voting makes no difference and both parties are the same. Then not vote, and take the results as proof of the theory.

Really, one party sees that as a problem, and the other sees it as perfectly fine.

And we need to primary the hell out of those who try to scuttle in for 2016.

We don't need more corporatists posing as fake populists but then pushing corporate economic policies so that this garbage keeps happening even under a Democratic administration.

We don't need more Penny Pritzkers and Tim Geithners and Arne Duncans and Monsanto shills and Tom Wheeler/cable company vultures being given the red carpet into the NEXT Democratic administration.

but the cost to taxpayers in that form of public assistance which I suspect is mostly food stamps which sees well over a dollar back with each dollar spent. You get the multiplier effect with the dollar spent in the grocery store and what the grocery store worker spends in the local economy.

I actually view this graph in a way they're helping the US economy and getting more bang from the taxpayers buck but I know what they're trying to say. I just couldn't help from being distracted by that.

what is measured here is jobs lost and gained by industry using industry norm pay scales. This does not directly measure individual jobs, as a person can make low pay in high pay industries and high pay in low pay industries quite easily.

This page (use the first link) shows median individual income in both current and real (2013) dollars. The median has wavered between 28 and 30k since the mid 90s, and is right now at about the midpoint in that range. It went UP quite noticeably to that range during the Clinton miracle economy.

https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/people/

Retrieving historical data from this alrernate source will show a different look but the same oscillation and stable average showing no significant decrease

http://www.bls.gov/cps/earnings.htm

If there were huge numbers of $25+/hr jobs going away and huge numbers of $8/hr jobs replacing them we'd see a greater difference and a clearer downward trend looking at this more discrete and more applicable metric.