EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Australia has been warned to guard against creating a class of working poor. Academics are concerned the nation is heading the same way as the United States, with a large divide between low skilled and high skilled jobs. They say now is the time to stop that happening. Ashleigh Raper reports.

ASHLEIGH RAPER, REPORTER: David Westrip has been a cleaner for 20 years, and he likes his job, but it barely covers his rent and bills. He sees little way of changing that.

DAVID WESTRIP, CLEANER: Even though the job is a good job and the people are very good, the company is very good, you feel like you're in a rut and you can't get out of it.

ASHLEIGH RAPER: He's part of a rapidly growing group of low paid, low skilled Australian workers. The trend is drawing comparisons with the struggling United States job market.

ARNE KALLEBERG: Well, we have a lot of what I would call "bad jobs" - low wage jobs that have been created in recent years by employers who are trying to cut costs and they have got a very vulnerable population.

ASHLEIGH RAPER: The US job market's experts says Australia has fared better than America because of a higher award wage and a stronger union movement, but there are signs we're developing a sub-class of working poor. The number of Australian workers considered low paid - earning around $600 a week - has grown to 23 per cent.

CHRIS WARHURST, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY: And what we have got to do is to say to ourselves, "This is a heads up". We can start making choices about whether we want to continue down that road and become polarised and more precarious and casual in our employment as the US is.

ASHLEIGH RAPER: A national employment conference has been developing a strategy to take to Government. The aim is to provide more training for low paid workers and encourage for secure employment with incentives around productivity.

TIM AYRES, AMWU: We've got to make sure our jobs are high quality jobs that bring high skills, and make sure the work places are competitive in the global market.

ASHLEIGH RAPER: For that to be achieved, he says the Government, employers and unions must work together.