The blog Political Calculations took data from the Congressional Budget Office, “which published a study of the lowest-wage workers in the U.S. from 1979 through 2005,” and looked at the occupations of the bottom 20% of earners in the U.S. Then it took a chart of the 10 full-time jobs with the lowest annual earnings as compiled by BizJournals.com and estimated the hourly wage based on 40-hour weeks. Conclusion: don’t plan on operating a Tilt-a-Whirl and retiring comfortably.

Three of the jobs—waiting tables, bartending, and, uh, bellhopping?—don’t include unreported tips. After the food and beverage jobs, the next lowest spot on the chart is “Amusement and Recreation Facility Attendants.” Interesting—this could explain why that Zipper ride operator at the fair yelled at us when we were kids and tried to scoop up spare change that fell out of riders’ pockets. That was his money.

Average Hourly Wages as estimated by Political Calculations * does not include unreported tip income
Waiters and waitresses* Waiters and waitresses’ assistants Bartenders* Amusement and Recreation Facility Attendants Baggage Porters and Bellhops* Food Preparation Workers Not Classified Elsewhere Early Childhood Teacher’s Assistants Maids and Housemen Teacher’s Aides Food Preparation Kitchen Workers		$4.21 $5.94 $6.39 $6.97 $7.20 $7.77 $7.96 $7.99 $8.01 $8.43

“The Jobs That Pay the Least” [Political Calculations]

“America’s 25 Best and Worst Paying Jobs”
(Photo: Mister Scratch)

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