Success Stories from San Francisco Prove That Retailers Profit When They Treat Their Workers Fairly

http://www.alternet.org/labor/success-stories-san-francisco-prove-retailers-profit-more-when-they-treat-their-workers-fairly

Every month the federal government issues a new jobs report. The stock market gyrates, pundits pundify, politicians politic. Whether employment expands slowly or fast one central fact remains. The fastest growing occupations all pay low wages: retail salespersons, cashiers, food preparation and food service workers such as waiters and waitresses.

Since February 2010 industries whose jobs pay between $9.48 and $13.33 an hour have accounted for 44 percent of job growth. The salary of many full-time workers in these industries keeps them in poverty. And even this miserable situation is getting worse. The average retail worker earns about 12 percent less, adjusted for inflation, than a similar worker in 1979, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

It gets worse. An increasing number of retail jobs are part time. “Over the past two decades, many major retailers went from a quotient of 70 to 80 percent full-time to at least 70 percent part-time across the industry,” Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of the Strategic Resource Group, a retail consulting firm told the New York Times. Their hourly wages are almost 35 percent lower than those of full-time employees. They often do not receive health benefits and are scheduled too few hours to earn a living.

Part-time jobs are no longer the domain of the young. Many are adults in their prime working years—25 to 54. Part-time employment used to be voluntary. Today involuntary part timers total 7.5 million, up from 4.4 million in 2007.