St. Louis Knowledge Workers Make Big Gains While Blue-Collar Workers Lag

[TexasTowelie]

How affordable is St. Louis? The answer differs sharply depending on where you're coming from.

A new study from Apartment List shows that wages have risen in the metro area, even when adjusted for the increased cost of housing — but only for knowledge workers. For service workers and blue-collar workers, once you adjust for the cost of housing, wages have actually dropped.

The study looks at 2005 from 2015. Knowledge workers in the St. Louis area — including engineers, lawyers, designers and managers — saw a seven percent increase in wages in that period, even when accounting for housing costs.

But blue-collar workers saw their wages drop 7.1 percent when housing costs are factored in. And service workers saw a 8.1 percent drop, the study says.

Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2017/07/05/st-louis-knowledge-workers-make-big-gains-while-blue-collar-workers-lag

[wasupaloopa]

1. I have never seen the term knowledge workers before.

It use to be based on education level.

[lostnfound]

2. "Guess they should have studied harder" wouldn't be a good answer

When I was want to Canada and met third or fourth cousins who all descended from the same great grandfather or great great grandparents, I was acutely aware that a community needs opportunity for a decent standard of living for ALL of our distant cousins.

Ignoring the plight of the less educated or the more "mechanically inclined" has been a failure of globalization, and the Achilles heel of political parties