While gas, groceries and the cost of living are on the rise, many people in Alabama and beyond are struggling to make ends meet due to their wages staying the same. A new report by Oxfam, an organization working to fight inequality, finds that over 26% of the workforce in Alabama is earning low wages. The outlet defines workers earning low wages as those who take home less than $17 an hour.
Oxfam reports that Alabama has a higher proportion of workers earning low wages than the national average, which is about 23%. This is contributing to what many are calling a “low wage crisis.” Alabama is one of 20 states that have failed to lift their minimum wages above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.
Dr. Kaitlyn Henderson is a senior researcher at Oxfam America who authored the report. She said without any federal action on raising the minimum wage, many states are hesitant to take the first step.
“This is the longest the U.S. government has ever gone since minimum wage law was created in the 1930’s without raising the minimum wage at all,” Henderson said. “So, this is a pretty unprecedented moment. It has been 15 years since the minimum wage was changed at the federal level, and there are many states that rely on the federal minimum wage to establish their own wage laws, including Alabama.”
The so-called “low wage” crisis is affecting a greater sphere of people than many realize, Henderson explained.
“A lot of people associate minimum wage workers as teenagers, high schoolers working after school. The truth is that low wage workers are overwhelmingly parents. They are almost entirely adults over the age of 20. They are caregivers. They are essential members of our economy, and they absolutely deserve our investment and our care,” Henderson said.
In Alabama, Henderson said, a wage of $7.25 an hour covers only about 20% of what is needed to cover the cost of living for a family of four. This is causing these lower income households to struggle increasingly as the cost-of-living soars.
“Families who are relying on [minimum wage] are struggling so much,” Henderson said. “If only 20% of what you need is being covered by your wage, that means that you don't have money for things like childcare. That means you have a really hard time affording things like groceries. It also means you have a hard time affording things like housing. So, it really is leaving a lot of families in the lurch.”
Oxfam’s report shows the number of women earning low wages is disproportionately higher, both in Alabama and in the United States as a whole. Nationally, 27% of women earn low wages, and in Alabama that number is 33%, which is almost a third of women. This is even higher among women of color, with Black women at 40% and Latina women at almost 48% in Alabama.
This is due in part to a history of occupational segregation, Henderson explained.
“[Occupational segregation] is essentially the legacy of women, especially women of color or communities of color, disproportionately being employed in sectors or industries that pay very low wages,” said Henderson. “Childcare is an example. Most childcare providers are women, and a lot of them are women of color, and they tend to be underpaid.”
Henderson said there are often misconceptions about partisanship surrounding raising the minimum wage. However, she said, people across the political spectrum agree on the basis of the movement: “if they work hard, they deserve a fair wage.” She said putting this into action takes movement on the local level.
“I think this is really an issue of gaining consciousness of the problem and sort of creating the political will toward making a change,” Henderson said. “So, it really is up to communities to help put pressure on their policymakers on the needs for a higher wage, because right now, we're not seeing a lot of movement among certain policymakers in certain states where there has been a long-term reliance on the federal minimum wage.”
To read Oxfam’s report, click here, and for an interactive map of low wage workers in the U.S., click here.
