Those Serving the Rich Among Fastest Growing U.S. Workforces

A “servant class” that serves the needs of the country’s top one percent is among one of the fastest-growing job markets in the United States, economic analysis finds.

As about 1.2 million mostly low-skilled legal immigrants are admitted to the U.S. every year to take primarily low-wage jobs, an underclass of servants for the wealthy has boomed over the last decade compared with overall job growth.

Research by MIT’s David Autor reveals that servant class jobs like manicurists and pedicurists have grown 114 percent between 2008 and 2018. Meanwhile, all U.S. jobs have grown just seven percent in that same time period.

Likewise, massage therapist jobs have grown 105 percent over the last decade, family therapist jobs have grown 98 percent, skincare specialist jobs have grown 93 percent, and animal caretaker jobs have grown nearly 60 percent.

Economists admit that these servant class jobs are often self-employed and therefore leave workers without benefits like health insurance and provide low wages.

A piece published by The Atlantic notes that although foreign-born workers across the U.S. represent about ten percent of the overall workforce, foreign workers represent 20 percent of all workers in the servant class — indicating that foreign-born workers are twice as likely to work servant class jobs.

Data published exclusively by the Associated Press shows that in 2017, there were about 3.2 million servant class workers in the U.S. – an increase of 2.8 million since 2010.

These servant class workers, according to the data, earn an average pay of about $36,000 a year. Compare this to the average pay of all occupations in the country, which stands at about $51,000. This indicates that servant class workers are earning on average $15,000 less than the typical American worker.