Feb. 20, 2006 – Recent statistics show that the fastest-growing
jobs in the US also happen to be those with the lowest
compensation. At the same time, the minimum wage is, in real
dollar terms, the lowest it has been since the law establishing
a federal minimum wage, the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, was
amended in 1947. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) last month
reported that the official unemployment rate had fallen to 4.7
percent. Buried in the rosy economic scenario portrayed by
recent BLS reports is the fact that few jobs in the fastest-
growing categories pay well. According to the BLS January jobs
report, food-service and service-provider jobs grew a combined
69,000 in January. The report was followed this month by the BLS
annual Occupational Outlook Handbook, which projects continued
rapid growth in demand for home-healthcare workers, medical
assistants and personal-care aides, all service-related jobs
that generally pay little more than the minimum wage. Though
service-related employment categor