America’s undervalued workforce: How essential workers keep cities running amid stark pay gaps

There was a time when the American dream was defined by the white-collar worker, steady paychecks, corner offices, and the assurance of stability. But the country’s labor landscape has shifted dramatically.

Today, it’s the health and personal care aides, nearly four million of them, who form the backbone of the US workforce, underscoring a profound evolution in how America works and who keeps it running.According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, these workers now hold the most common job in the nation, with an annual median wage of just $34,000. The story this data tells is not just about numbers, it’s about a nation whose economic engine increasingly depends on essential workers earning modest pay, often in physically or emotionally demanding roles.

America’s most common jobs: A mirror of its inequalities

The data, compiled by CNBC Make It, paints a revealing picture of modern America: From care aides and retail clerks to fast food workers and freight movers, the nation’s most prevalent jobs mirror both its resilience and its inequities.While the healthcare and personal care sector dominates nationwide, the nature of “most common” work varies sharply across regions. In cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, it’s the manual laborers, those who lift, move, and stock, who make up the largest share.

Meanwhile, in New York, the epicenter of economic ambition, the most common occupation remains care work, performed by hundreds of thousands who earn a fraction of what the city’s finance elite make in a single bonus season.

The data has been obtained from CNBC Make It’s report.

City by city: The work that defines urban America

New York: The care economy capitalIn the nation’s largest city, home health and personal care aides dominate the workforce, with over 605,000 employed at a median annual wage of $37,990.

The city’s aging population and expanding healthcare infrastructure have made this sector indispensable. Yet, despite the city’s affluence, the earnings of these workers sit far below its soaring cost of living. On the other end of the spectrum, general and operations managers and registered nurses command six-figure salaries, reflecting the stark wage divide that characterizes New York’s economic fabric.Los Angeles: Labor behind the glamourThe world knows Los Angeles for its Hollywood stars, but its most common workers are far from the spotlight. Over 350,000 home health and personal care aides form the city’s largest labor group, followed by fast food workers and manual stock movers. With median annual wages hovering around $35,000–$39,000, these workers sustain the city’s service economy while grappling with some of the highest housing costs in the country.Chicago: The working-class strongholdChicago’s identity remains deeply industrial. Here, manual freight and stock movers top the employment chart, earning a median of $40,030 annually. The city’s central location as a logistics hub drives demand for such roles. General and operations managers and registered nurses earn significantly more—$105,310 and $96,480, respectively, but they represent a far smaller share of the population.Houston: The managerial metropolisIn Houston, general and operations managers lead the workforce, an unusual pattern among major cities, with 105,830 employed at a median wage of $108,090. Yet, the city’s employment base is a tale of contrasts: while executives thrive, tens of thousands of fast food and retail workers earn barely a quarter of that figure.Phoenix: Balancing growth and wagesPhoenix, one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the nation, reflects a hybrid labor identity.

While general and operations managers earn a respectable $94,130, many of the city’s most common jobs, like retail salespersons and fast food workers, pay between $33,000 and $35,000 annually. The city’s economic expansion has created opportunities, but wage growth lags behind population growth.

The wage divide: America’s unequal paycheck

What emerges from this data is a stark hierarchy of labor. At one end are registered nurses and operations managers, often earning six figures.

At the other end are care aides, fast food employees, and retail workers, whose wages barely cover basic expenses.This widening pay gap reveals not only differences in education or skill but also the undervaluation of care and service work—the very sectors that kept America functioning through the pandemic. The nation’s economic resilience, in many ways, rests on shoulders that are underpaid and overworked.

The story behind the statistics

Beyond the spreadsheets lies a narrative of transformation.

As automation reshapes traditional industries and population aging accelerates, America’s dependence on human-centered roles, caregiving, customer service, logistics, is deepening. These are jobs that cannot be outsourced or digitized, yet they remain among the least compensated.The US labor market, then, stands at a paradoxical crossroads: Essential workers are indispensable but undervalued; managerial roles are lucrative but increasingly rare. The next decade will likely determine whether America redefines the worth of its most common jobs or continues to build its economy on the quiet endurance of those paid the least