Low-Wage Workers Make Up a Large Portion of the Denver Metro Workforce Over 365,000 metro workers, or more than one in four, are employed in a low-wage occupation with median wages of less than $13.01 per hour.
Low-Wage Jobs in the Metro Area are Projected to Continue Growing More than a third of projected job growth by 2016 in the metro’s largest occupations will be in low-wage occupations likely to pay less than $13.01 per hour.
The Metro Area is Losing Middle Class Families According to the Brookings Institute, the proportion of middle-class families in the Denver metro area fell by 10.2% from 1970 to 2005.
The Divide Between High-Wage & Low-Wage Workers in the Metro Area is Growing Because wages of high-wage workers are growing at a faster pace than those for low-wage workers, the gap between the highest and lowest paid jobs in the region has grown steadily over the past 50 years.
Low-Wage Workers Have a Hard Time Making Ends Meet in the Metro Area 446,933 workers, or nearly one out of three, earn less than what it takes for an individual to make ends meet based on the Self-Sufficiency Standard for the region.
There are Racial and Gender Disparities in the Metro’s Low-Wage Sector African-Americans and Latinos are over-represented in many of the largest low-wage occupational categories. Women in low-wage jobs earn even less than their male counterparts.
Few Workers Make the Leap Out of Low-Wage Work National evidence demonstrates a stubborn lack of mobility within low-wage industries, as well as difficulty moving out of low-wage jobs into other sectors.
Listen to FRESC's Executive Director, Carmen Rhodes, speak with David Sirota on Colorado Progressive Radio, AM 760, about FRESC's new report, May 6, 2009.
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