Half of American jobs pay less than $18 an hour

Washington Post - Half of the jobs in America currently pay less than $18 an hour, according to Labor Department data. That’s about $37,000 a year if someone works full-time. Forty percent of jobs in the country pay less than $15.50, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. There’s always debate about what constitutes a “good-paying job,” but it’s notable that manufacturing jobs, which President Trump campaigned on bringing back, pay over $20.50 an hour, on average.

The latest report on America’s job market came out in early August from the Labor Department. It showed that wages are up only 2.5 percent from a year ago. That’s well below the historic average for the country, and it’s about the same rate of increase as the final years of the Obama administration.