低薪工人如何获得更好的机会?(1)

PAUL SOLMAN: But it's not just the trades that can't fill jobs today. Tons of low-wage workers seem to be fed up with their pay and work and just aren't taking it anymore. And maybe they shouldn't, says economist Byron Auguste.

BYRON AUGUSTE, President and Co-Founder, Opportunity@Work: During the pandemic, we saw tens of millions of essential workers do amazing things, things that required skills, that required adaptability, that required problem-solving, that required teamwork, that required communication under very difficult conditions.

PAUL SOLMAN: And given data collected by his firm, Opportunity@Work, they could be earning a lot more.

BYRON AUGUSTE: Thirty million today have the skills, based on the work they're doing, for jobs that pay at least 50 percent more than the jobs they're in.

PAUL SOLMAN: So, how to get those tens of millions of low-wage workers better opportunities? Government job training programs are one route, like Back to Work Rhode Island, where then-Governor Gina Raimondo used federal CARES Act money to fund training programs in areas where employers couldn't fill jobs.

GINA RAIMONDO, U.S. Secretary of Commerce: We will tailor these training initiatives so that, when you hire someone, you have confidence they're going to be able to do the job.

PAUL SOLMAN: Some 4,000 Rhode Islanders have already graduated into new higher-paying jobs. But, in general, says Professor Doug Besharov, government isn't the ideal overseer.

DOUGLAS BESHAROV, University of Maryland: It doesn't learn fast enough. It fights the last war. And change is happening more rapidly as we speak. And it will continue to happen. And I think government will be left behind.

ARIELLA SPITZER, Mathematica Policy Research: There's a huge body of research on government job training. And, overall, I would say the results are unfortunately disappointing.

PAUL SOLMAN: Economist Ariella Spitzer studies job training.

ARIELLA SPITZER: The good ones, we're seeing at most 5 to 10 percent earnings increase.