In “
A Payoff Out of Poverty” (New York Times, 12/19/08) Tina Rosenberg highlights a recent report from
The Mobility Agenda and reviews a new conditional cash transfer initiative, Opportunity NYC,
promoted by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Rosenberg warns
(as we did) that the benefits may be lost if the labor market doesn’t change:
Education
and health, however, will take you only so far. Suppose Opportunity NYC
succeeds. The likelihood is that these families will still be poor. One
in three jobs in America pays less than $11.11 an hour, with no
benefits. Full time, that’s less than $23,000 a year.
This
may sound like a bleak future, but it’s the unfortunate (and
preventable) reality of an economy dependent on low-wage jobs without
benefits. Good jobs don’t just benefit the workers who fill them –
they can help make us all better off.