The most common jobs in the United States are home health care aide, retail salesperson and fast-food and counter worker, which are all tied for first place on a long list of professions tracked by the government, according to analysis of federal data by The Washington Post. From caring for the elderly to serving the lunch rush, people who work these jobs are bedrocks of the everyday economy.

However, the 2023 median salaries listed for the top three most common jobs — and many others — do not offer a living wage in any state across the country. Ranging from about $29,500 for home care aides to $33,600 for fast-food servers, the median salaries offered by the top three most common jobs are at least $11,000 short of what is needed to make ends meet in states with the cheapest cost of living. California is out of the question.

“Median salary tells you that exactly half [of the workers] are being paid less, and half are being paid more,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), in an interview.

Median salaries are not much better for public school teachers, restaurant servers, janitors, bus drivers, warehouse stockers and order fillers, and many essential workers who were hailed as heroes during pandemic lockdowns. With wages and the cost of living quicky becoming major campaign issues ahead of the November elections, President Joe Biden is trailing Donald Trump in the polls and hemorrhaging support from voters without college degrees, a large group that includes many Black and Latino voters as well as union members that Democrats depend on.

Meanwhile, executive compensation is ballooning at the highest rate in 14 years. CEO pay at S&P 500 countries increased by nearly 13 percent in 2023,........

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