E/CN.4/1995/78/Add.1 page 16 in employment is still widespread in the United States, with African Americans three times as likely as Whites to face discrimination when applying for entry level jobs. The depressed United States economy and the global restructuring occurring has meant that workers with little education cannot find decent paying jobs. Others who have found new jobs in the service sector typically receive lower wages, and most of these jobs normally do not provide medical insurance or decent fringe benefits. Federal government policy and corporate cutbacks again have exacerbated the worsening employment conditions. 55. For instance, during the 1980s, the federal minimum wage was frozen at $3.35 per hour. This policy expanded the working poor. Thousands of persons working full-time cannot afford the basic necessities of life. Not able to participate in the economy in any meaningful way, many in the Black working class have opted to participate, or turn their heads while their children participate, in the underground economy. 56. In addition, racial discrimination in employment has been a central objective of corporations adjusting to the emerging international realities. The Supreme Court led in the assault in this area. The 1988-1989 Court decided that United States law prohibiting employment discrimination should be drastically reduced. In five cases the Court’s restrictive rulings limited the domestic human rights machinery from protecting persons injured by discriminatory behaviour. 27/ E. Political participation 57. Notwithstanding the Constitution and federal laws purportedly granting the vote to all "citizens", numerous barriers exist to the participation of people of colour in the political process; the chief barrier being the structure of the system itself, which ensures that people of colour will not be able to elect their fair share of representatives at the national, state or local levels. In particular, the single district electoral system employed throughout the United States, which requires winning candidates to attract a majority or plurality of the vote, makes it difficult for people of colour to elect representatives since in most districts people of colour are outnumbered by White voters. For instance, although Black people make up 12 per cent of the United States population, they occupy only about 5 per cent of the elected offices in the country and have only 1 per cent of the seats in the Senate. In addition, the low number of people of colour holding elected offices can further be attributed to the fact that few of them have one million or more dollars to spend on running for the Senate. In short, although people of colour in the United States generally have the right to vote, they do not have the equally fundamental right to representation. 58. When they are appointed to positions of political responsibility, elected African American officials, for example, whether mayors, governors, judges or other elected officials, may face various forms of harassment - which do not affect other elected officials - by the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Such practices were commonplace during the 1980s under the Republican Administration. A number of Black elected officials were placed under surveillance, their telephones tapped, subjected to investigations, spied on by cameras for corruption or embezzlement, and juries hearing cases involving some of them were