Obama leads McCain among low-wage workers: poll

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama holds a two-to-one lead over Republican John McCain among low-wage workers but many are uncommitted to either presidential candidate, to according to a new poll by The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University.

Obama's advantage is due largely to overwhelming support from African Americans and Hispanics, but even among white voters, the Illinois senator leads McCain 47 percent to 37 percent, The Washington Post reported in Monday editions.

The poll found that one in six white workers polled remains uncommitted to either candidate, the Post reported.

Most of the respondents were pessimistic about the impact of the November 4 election. A majority of those polled, both white and minority, said that no matter who won their personal financial situation would be unlikely to change, it said.

The poll included interviews with 1,350 randomly selected workers 18 to 64 years of age who put in at least 30 hours a week but earned $27,000 or less last year, the newspaper said.

The group, which accounts for nearly a quarter of U.S. adults, views Obama as the more empathetic candidate and the one who most closely shares their values, it said

The poll suggests McCain's biggest challenge is among minority workers.

Ninety-two percent of African Americans chose Obama as the candidate most concerned with their problems; not a single black respondent said that about McCain, the Post said.

Hispanics also sided with Obama on that point, favoring him by more than 40 percentage points as the more empathetic candidate, the newspaper reported.

The national poll was conducted June 18 to July 7 among randomly selection low-wage workers. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.