Low-Wage Workers and Health Care

This brief is based on a survey conducted this summer by The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University to focus on the experiences and challenges facing the lowest paid members of the American workforce.

Low-wage workers rate “getting more affordable health insurance” as the top priority for the federal government to improve people’s financial situation. Sixty-two percent of low-wage workers find it “very” or “somewhat” difficult to afford health care and health insurance.

The Survey of Low-Wage Workers is the 17th in a series generated under this three-way partnership. The partners worked together to pick the survey topics, design the survey instruments, and analyze the results. This telephone poll was conducted from June 18 to July 7, 2008 among 1,350 randomly selected low-wage workers nationwide. The Washington Post is featuring findings from the survey in a series of articles that began August 3 with the most recent article published on October 16.

Survey Brief (.pdf)