By Juan D. De Lara, Ph.D.
September 2013
Please note: reports dated earlier than June 2020 were published under our previous names: the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) or the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII).
President Obama’s recent visit to an Amazon.com warehouse in Chattanooga, Tennessee was supposed to provide a glimpse into what good middle class jobs look like in today’s economy. According to the President, warehouse jobs offer American families economic stability at a time when employment can be difficult to find. Major retailers like Amazon and Walmart regularly gain public and political support by claiming that their supply chain workers earn middle class wages. But as this report points out, not enough of the global logistics economy trickles-down to meet the needs of local blue-collar families.