Poll: Poor workers still optimistic

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- They may be poor but a survey released Sunday indicates low-end U.S. workers like their jobs and remain hopeful they can move up to the middle class.

At the same time, The Washington Post reported, low-income workers have trouble making ends meet and have no financial cushion for a rainy day.

The poll revealed what the Post called a "complex" picture of the status of poor working Americans who often do without the basics and feel they get no help from the government while at the same time expect their children will do better.

The results take on added importance in an election year in which the middle class is feeling the squeeze from higher prices, stagnant wages and ongoing pressure on the global economy.

"I don't think we want to live in a country where people are working and doing what they are supposed to do but yet they can't get the basics," said Beth Shulman, a scholar with the Russell Sage Foundation's Future of Work Project.

The nationwide poll, conducted June 18-July 7, questioned 1,350 randomly selected people who worked at least 30 hours a week and earned no more than $27,000 last year. It was sponsored by the Post, Harvard University and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.