Competitive it may be, but the business of picking and processing fruit has remained a low-wage industry.

The biggest downturns have been in low-wage industries like hotels and restaurants.

Around 79 percent of workers in low-wage industries do not have paid sick time.

There are fears for the future in the South, particularly in areas dependent on low-wage industries like apparel manufacturing.

"Because there is so little government enforcement in low-wage industries, many employers are counting on nobody to be there to stop them."

Others say North Carolina made perhaps the only choices available earlier in the century, when it lured low-wage industry that helped modernize a poor state.

"Workplace violations are becoming standard practice in many of the state's low-wage industries," the report said.

A higher wage will reduce the high job turnover in these low-wage industries.

More than 4 of every 10 black and Latino men in 1990 were employed in low-wage industries.

Most mainstream economists, though, believe that globalization is not something we should fear, even if it does eliminate low-wage industries like costume jewelry.