What Is the Working Poor?

Working poor, also known as working poor, busy, salaried, hard-working poor, working-poor, refers to people who have a fixed job but are relatively poor (such as earning below a certain poverty line). Unlike the unemployed, although they are paid, the amount of wages is not enough to maintain a reasonable quality of life.

Work poverty

Right!

Work poverty

Relative to

In 2012, according to statistics from the Comptroller's Office, the average annual income in the three groups of Taiwan under the age of 30, 30 to 34, and 35 to 39 were all lower than 15 years ago. but

Dispatch workers

In view of working poverty, some people advocate solving the problem with the minimum wage, but because of its shortcomings, it is not implemented in many countries; and the implementation of the minimum wage may not necessarily alleviate the problem of working poverty, such as Taiwan s minimum wage (103 Yuan / implemented from 2012) There is still a long way to go before the actual reasonable wages, but Taiwan still has a considerable part of the hourly wage system below the basic wage. In addition, some employers also circumvent minimum wage or labor-based regulations. The main method is to use the responsibility system to force overtime without paying overtime. In addition, they also make extensive use of hourly pay, manpower dispatch, low-paying interns, and business outsourcing. And charitable organizations like to use volunteers to save costs, but they also tend to increase working poverty.

Thai Slum Repairman

In order to reduce working poverty, it is also necessary to legislate to limit the responsibility system, dispatch system, volunteers and internships, and effectively enforce and punish illegal employers. Medical and charitable organizations in Taiwan use the name of volunteers to evade labor regulations in disguise and reduce job opportunities.

The tax system does not reward the employment of foreign workers or industry migration, and requires medical and charitable organizations to avoid the replacement of hired labor with volunteers, which can increase the job opportunities of the people in the country; based on the theory of supply and demand, increasing job opportunities can increase The ability of a client to negotiate with an employer.

Southeast Asia Straw Mat Factory

And because medical care and housing are often a heavy burden for non-wealthy people, effective housing policies and universal health insurance can reduce the burden on the people, thereby reducing the cost of living, and the money saved by the people will be invested in consumption, expanding the consumer market and employment rates.

Changing society's attitude towards workers is also a way to reduce working poverty. For example, many jobs have low social status, poor working conditions, are prone to occupational injuries, and even have low salaries. As a result, young people are unwilling to invest and have high unemployment and high unemployment As long as the salary is raised and the working environment is improved (such as strictly banning smoking in the workplace, providing safety protection equipment, and educating seniors in the workplace not to overly rely on the old to sell the old, so that newcomers need only work hard to become skilled and not spend too much time in managing workplace relationships ), Improve the image of the job, you can avoid this problem.

Or the government implements a social assistance system:

Provide practical, high-quality and cheap employment training, school education

Provide universal health insurance and medical subsidies

Provide a large number of high-quality cheap homes

Provide adequate maternity benefits, childcare benefits, and better housing subsidies

Provides a real salary subsidy or a voucher designated for the purchase of necessities such as food

Provide labor subsidies, such as subsidizing their salaries for non-wealthy classes using domestic care and hourly maids, etc. For charities, they can also provide labor subsidies and monitor their use of volunteers, so that most volunteers can get salaries close to the profitable business standard. , So private companies must give better conditions to find employees ^[2-8]