What the U.S. Secretary of Labor had to say about wages and inequality in Miami
U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said Friday the lack of wage growth and inequality in Miami is “concerning” as the region recovers from the economic downturn caused by COVID.
“Wage growth in Miami is concerning to me,” Walsh said in an interview with The Miami Herald. “You have people being paid a wage they can’t support a family on. We’re looking at the recovery through the equity lens, to make sure we have a pathway into the middle class.”
He said the Department of Labor hopes to address the skills gap and workforce development in South Florida.
“Communities that have historically been left behind, [the] Black community, Hispanic and immigrant communities and women — we have work to do [in Miami] in those areas,” he said. “In Miami, and all over the country, we’ve become a place where people either have wealth or are fighting to survive.”
He said that the department plans to do targeted investments for job training in Miami that focus on the healthcare sector, elderly care and childcare.
“Those are some areas we think will affect Miami and where we think wages need to be lifted and the workforce needs to be better trained,” he said.
Walsh, the former mayor of Boston who was sworn in as Secretary of Labor in March 2021, spoke with the Herald following the release Friday of a disappointing September 2021 jobs report. Only 194,000 jobs were added to the economy in September, falling well short of economists’ expectations that 500,000 jobs would be added. It’s the second consecutive month of low job growth: the economy only added 235,000 in August, down from around 1 million jobs in July.
Walsh said the delta variant was to blame for the low job growth in August and September throughout the country. He said Miami’s tourism-centric economy took a hit due to the variant, but he’s hopeful the hospitality industry will continue to lead job growth as the number of COVID-19 cases begins to dip.
“If we can get more people vaccinated and get ourselves beyond the pandemic, we’ll see those numbers go up and more people returning to work,” Walsh said.
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 3:28 PM.
