Can I find work, and is it worth it?
Jobs, unemployment, and job quality, full-time vs. gig, and whether work actually pays enough to live on.
Three things decide whether a job is worth it: does it pay enough to live on, does producing more get you paid more, and can you count on the hours. Here's what the federal data says.
Is a full-time minimum-wage job enough to live on?
No. The federal minimum is worth about half what it was at its 1968 peak, and it hasn't risen since 2009, the longest freeze on record.
Peak real value was 1968 ($14.39 in 2024 dollars). Current $7.25 has roughly half the purchasing power of the 1968 minimum. Frozen since 2009, longest period without increase in FLSA history.
When workers produce more, do they get paid more?
Not since 1979. Productivity has grown about 2.7× faster than the typical worker's pay, the two used to rise together.
⚠ EPI's pairing of net productivity with median worker compensation is an analytical framing. The divergence itself is measured; the causal claim (that policy choices drove it) is correlation supported by strong evidence but not experimentally proven. Label accordingly.
Is anyone still bargaining for better pay on your behalf?
Less and less. Union membership has fallen by half since 1983, even though union workers still earn about $12,000 a year more than nonunion workers, and 71% of Americans approve of unions.
Union membership and higher wages correlate strongly, but the causal direction is debated. Union workers earned $1,404/week vs. $1,174 for nonunion in 2025, a $230/week or ~$12,000/year gap. However, this reflects occupation/industry mix, not just the union effect.
If you want full-time hours, can you get them?
Mostly, now. Involuntary part-time work (wanting full-time but stuck part-time) spiked to 6.4% after the 2008 crash and has since receded to 2.7%.
⚠ The BLS Contingent Worker Supplement was discontinued after 2005, brought back for 2017, and run again in 2023. Continuous time series is NOT available, flag the gaps. Gig economy estimates from BLS and academic surveys vary widely depending on definitions.
Do the jobs you can actually get come with benefits?
It depends heavily on full-time vs. part-time. In 2024, 89% of full-time private workers had health benefits, but only 26% of part-time workers did. For retirement plans it's 75% vs. 42%.
In 2024, 89% of full-time private-industry workers had access to medical care benefits vs. 26% of part-time workers. For retirement plans: 75% full-time vs. 42% part-time.
⚠ This data requires deeper pull from BLS National Compensation Survey. Marking as partially filled, key comparison points included, full time series needs direct BLS table extraction.