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Wage Drop Has Been Worst In Decades

Wages for American workers have fallen dramatically since the financial crisis, in what will likely turn out to be the worst such plunge since the Great Depression, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Many American workers. Most American workers, even. Not all. I know a few people who've done well - they work in states that have had among the lowest unemployment rates through all this. Massachusetts is one of those states, but that's because Boston has held up pretty well. Here in the western part of the state, among the old mill towns down along the river, things aren't all that fine. All this rejoicing in the press about adding a few new jobs here, a few there, doesn't apply where we are.

I was rejoicing a little earlier about not having to work tomorrow (there's a big snowfall in the forecast and this time they just might mean it), but now I do. There is an intro-to-Windows class scheduled for this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon and the woman who usually does that asked me to take it for her so she can help with the mob of people in the waiting room today. That kind of crowd is not unusual on Mondays but today is, of course, Tuesday. Most of the people waiting today were told yesterday to come back, and by the end of the morning today people were already being told to come back tomorrow. 

I don't know if these are people who just got laid off last week or if they're folks who need to come in to renew unemployment benefits. It's easy to tell they'd rather be working than sitting around waiting to see someone for help. Things get tense. They probably haven't heard the recession's over. Maybe they can't afford a newspaper.

At least the rich guys got to keep their tax cuts.