Allyson Fredericksen, Deputy Director of Research for the People's Action Institute, discusses her new report with Richard Eskow on "The Zero Hour." Click here for audio.
The People's Action Institute's new report, Waiting for Payoff: How Low Wages and Student Debt Keep Prosperity Out of Reach (pdf), documents the real cost of living in the United States. It takes more than $15 per hour in nearly every state, is considerably higher in some states, and tops $17 as a national average. Student debt raises that cost by more than a dollar per hour, and parents with children need considerably more.
The federal minimum wage is only $7.25 per hour.
Discrimination makes the problem even worse. For every dollar paid to white male college graduates with degrees, black men are paid 78 cents; Latinos are paid 81 cents; black women are paid 72 cents; and Latinas are paid 69 cents.
We discussed the report with its author, Allyson Fredericksen, on The Zero Hour. That conversation can be heard here.
