Low-wage workers have borne the brunt of the changing labor market, including wage stagnation, growing income inequality, and increasingly unstable work environments. Most research on low-wage workers focuses on precarious minimum wage employment; however, some low-wage workers hold jobs earning more than minimum wage with consistent, full-time hours. This study explores strategies parents in these “good” low-wage jobs use to provide for their children, using data from in-depth interviews with hospital workers. We find workers use multiple strategies, which we categorized as scarcity, maintenance, and investment strategies to highlight the distinct types of resources and varying amount of stress associated with them. Finally, we compare the types and number of strategies parents use by hourly wage versus net household income.

中文翻译：

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从稀缺到投资：拥有“好”低工资工作的低收入父母所采用的策略范围

低工资工人首当其冲受到不断变化的劳动力市场的影响，包括工资停滞、收入不平等加剧和工作环境日益不稳定。大多数关于低工资工人的研究都集中在不稳定的最低工资就业上；然而，一些低工资工人从事的工作收入高于最低工资，而且有稳定的全职工作时间。本研究使用对医院工作人员进行深入访谈的数据，探讨了在这些“好”的低工资工作中，父母用来养育孩子的策略。我们发现工人使用多种策略，我们将其归类为稀缺性、维护性和投资策略，以突出不同类型的资源以及与之相关的不同程度的压力。最后，我们通过每小时工资与家庭净收入来比较父母使用的策略类型和数量。