Seven out of 10 low-wage workers say they are having difficulty paying for basic things such as health care and health insurance, and 74 percent say it is harder for them to pay for health care, according to a new national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, The Washington Post, and Harvard University, released Aug. 4. The survey assesses financial challenges that low-wage workers face, including difficulties obtaining and paying for health care, and their views about their financial and job situations.
The telephone poll was conducted from June 18 to July 7, 2008, among 1,350 randomly selected low-wage workers nationwide. Low-wage workers were defined as adults ages 18 to 64 working at least 30 hours per week, not self-employed, and earning $27,000 or less in 2007. This income cutoff was chosen because it roughly corresponds to the bottom 40 percent of the wage distribution. Access the report.
