Overcoming Barriers to Healthy Work in Upstate New York
In this fourth report of the “Low-Wage Workers’ Health Project,” workers from Syracuse, Ithaca, Binghamton and Albany/Troy were brought together through partnerships with community-based organizations. Workers created innovative body mapping and created visual displays envisioning healthy work. Then, workers engaged in dialogue about these visual representations to produce rich discussion about their experiences on the job. These conversations were summarized to create a clearer picture of low-wage work in these regions, with a new focus on barriers to the envisioned healthy workplace.
Managing the Landscape of Low-Wage Work and Health in Syracuse
Strengthening the existing and extensive community based resources in New York State that provide comprehensive occupational health and safety services to low-wage workers is a crucial step for ending worker exploitation and improving occupational health.
Healthy Work in Syracuse? Conversations with Low-Wage Workers
The Low-Wage Workers’ Health Project seeks to characterize local workplace conditions in the low-wage sector of the job market through interaction with people who live and work in Syracuse.
Low-Wage Work in Syracuse Worker Health in the New Economy
During the recent economic downturn, many jobs paying decent wages were lost, but in the recovery that followed, low-wage occupations showed strong gains. Higher wage jobs also increased, but jobs in middle pay ranges, after plummeting in the recession, showed only very slow growth. This is bad news because the experience of low-wage work differs greatly from the traditional blue collar work. By definition, the pay is lower, but other specific problems including wage theft, insecure or precarious work, discrimination, and decreased attention to workplace hazards have been accompanying these growing wage trends nationwide.