"swerve."

words.

"these strikes take place against the backdrop of widespread anxiety in an era in which global competition and rapid technological changes have put the middle class at risk. Four years into a “recovery,” we’ve still got 20 million Americans who want full-time work and can’t find it. Half of all jobs in the United States pay less than $35,000 a year. Wages have been stagnant for decades, while a handful of top earners have walked off with nearly all the recent gains in national income.

Meanwhile, according to the SEIU, the typical hamburger flipper is no longer the teenager of popular imagination, but a struggling adult of 28. Many have lost better-paying jobs and are scrambling for whatever they can get.

The paradox is that for both fast-food employers and their critics these trends present an opportunity. If global economic integration is putting downward pressure on the wages of jobs that can be performed elsewhere, the one sector immune to these pressures is in-person service work. That means jobs in areas such as home health care, retail sales, teaching, personal grooming and fast food.

In-person service work accounts for roughly 30 million jobs in the United States. The sector is experiencing faster job growth than the economy overall, but wages are relatively low and lag wage growth in the broader economy. If we could make this non-offshorable segment of American work a more certain path to the middle class, it would offer an important measure of security and optimism in a global economy that poses threats to many Americans. Figuring out a feasible way to do this ought to be a national priority..."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Time for ‘Big Mac’ statesmanship