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Jeans Plant Gives Hourly Workers a Safety Net

A worker in the Canton, Miss., Levi's plant processes a stack of jeans.
Elaine Korry
/
NPR
A worker in the Canton, Miss., Levi's plant processes a stack of jeans.

One in four U.S. jobs now qualifies as low income, according to the Census Bureau. Millions of working families are barely scraping by. Most have little or no savings, and a sudden financial emergency can push them over the edge into poverty.

As part of our series on low-wage workers, NPR's Elaine Korry reports on the efforts of one company -- Levi-Strauss and Co. -- to help workers get out of a sudden crisis -- and keep them from getting into a jam in the future.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Elaine Korry is an NPR contributor based in San Francisco. From August 2004-June 2007 she worked as an NPR senior reporter covering social policy for NPR, with a focus on education, and on the lives of the nation's most vulnerable citizens — the homeless, those living in poverty, working in low wage positions, and trying to find their way to a more stable life.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.