We live in a paradox: having a paid job, considered the key to a decent life, does not guarantee economic stability. In fact, in Spain, Almost three million working people are in poverty.
We are talking about people who have done everything that the social script indicates: look for work, make an effort and, still, at the end of the month, the numbers do not add up. This terrible oxymoron is the central axis of the latest report from Oxfam Intermóntitled Working poverty: when working is not enough to make ends meet.
It is tempting to look at the macroeconomic and labor figures of recent years and conclude that the recovery has arrived: the unemployment drops, records are reached in job creation—especially among young people and women—and economic indices improve. However, these figures do not translate into a proportional improvement in the quality of life of a significant part of the working population. In sectors such as agriculture and domestic work, three out of ten employed people live in povertylike one in four people autonomous.
We are talking about people who have done everything that the social script indicates and, even so, at the end of the month, the numbers do not add up.
This is where discourses that measure progress solely through job creation falter. Jobs are created, yes, but what type? The productive system and the economic model perpetuated for decades encourage unwanted bias and low wages that do not lift many employed people out of poverty. Furthermore, the price crisis, especially in housing, continues to tighten. Even if the minimum wage is raised, in households in poverty where there are people working, housing expenses (rent either mortgage and supplies) consume between 67% and 79% of income. Working poverty is a sure sign that the system is not working for too many people.
As in so many areas of life, inequality plays a crucial role, with groups being much more vulnerable to falling into poverty, even if they have a job. Three out of every ten single-parent households in Spain are in a situation of working povertyand in the majority of these homes, it is a woman who bears all the economic weight.
These figures reveal how unpaid care work —which has historically fallen on women—is still a trap. Sara, a working mother, describes it perfectly: “I have had to turn down many jobs because it was impossible to balance work with taking care of my children. There is no job where you can take care of taking them and picking them up, and hiring someone is not economically feasible.”
Another group particularly hard hit by in-work poverty are people born outside the EU. Almost 30% of them live in povertya rate that is more than double that of those born in Spain. Why this difference? Because, in addition to facing the general precariousness of the labor market, migrants must deal with additional barriers: discrimination, the lack of recognition of their qualifications, and the exclusion of many labor rights.
Another of the most devastating aspects of working poverty is the emotional impact caused by the feeling of effort no reward. Miguel, a 54-year-old man who works as a doorman, sums it up crudely: “We made it very close to the end of the month, asking for loans and prolonging the agony. Although it sounds very sad, with my work the four of us are eating. We are going day by day. “We have given up many things: going out with friends, almost zero outings to restaurants.”
Half of households in working poverty have given up essential health services, such as dental or psychological treatments
Living in working poverty means quitting. Give up leisure, health, education, and, often, the dreams that meritocracy promises us. Six out of ten people in this situation wanted to continue studying, but 54% had to abandon it due to lack of resources or the need to work. Furthermore, half of households in working poverty have given up essential health services, such as dental or psychological treatment.
Faced with this situation, one cannot help but ask: what are we doing to solve it? There are proposals, and Oxfam Intermón has pointed out some. From focusing on improving part-time contracts, following advances in temporality, to strengthen inspection mechanisms to combat exploitation that many people suffer, especially in the most precarious, feminized and racialized sectors.
In a society where the main source of income for the majority comes from salaries, The minimum that should be guaranteed is that working means something more than surviving. At the end of the day, what we demand is dignity and rights. Or in the words of feminist unionist Rose Schneiderman in her speech on the Lawrence textile workers’ strike in 1912, “we want bread and roses”.
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