Thank God I don't make minimum wage. Oh, right, I pretty much do. They just trick me by calling it a stipend and giving it to me in one lump sum without making me report actual hours worked. Okay, well then thank God that I'm not solely dependent on my income to get by, because there is no way that I could do that, and I'm just talking about taking care of me, myself, and I.
The Senate just struck down an initiative to raise minimum wage and made it quite clear that there's not much of a chance of a raise happening during the next two years. It's a shame. The other day I was in a store where they had the federal wage laws posted. I looked over them and realized that it has been over seven years since the minimum wage was raised. In 1996, it was raised to $4.75. In 1997, it was raised to $5.15. It's been that ever since. I remember $5.15, because that was minimum wage the year I first started working. I was lucky...I made more than minimum wage, pulling in a whopping $5.25 an hour. It was fine for me. Back then I was sixteen. I had few expenses. I could put gas in the car for under $1.00 per gallon. But the problem is that while minimum wage has held the same, nothing else has. The cost of gas is approaching $2.15, and may go higher by this summer. It seems like those on minimum wage will now have to work a full day just to fill up their cars. And that's not the only thing that has gone up - rent, groceries, bus fare, just about anything you can think of. Everything is more expensive, so it makes no sense to me that the government thinks people can still get by on a measly salary of $5.15 per hour. That's hardly enough for a sixteen year old to think that working might be worthwhile. But the sad truth is that there are many people well beyond the age of sixteen who are only making minimum wage. These people have to worry about more than gas for their car and money for the weekends. They have to pay rent. They have to pay for health insurance (since most minimum wage jobs don't come it). They have to pay for clothes. They have to make car payments and pay for insurance, maintanence, and gas. They have to buy all their food. And some of them have to pay for all of this not just for themselves, but also for their children. Come on, there's just no way that the minimum wage is a livable wage.
Sure, I know the arguments against raising minimum wage - it will increase inflation or it will cause companies to lay people off - but I don't really believe them. Inflation seems to be increasing just fine on its own and the job market isn't very rosy even with the pathetic minimum wage we currently have. Companies won't lay people off if they actually need those people's help. If they did, they'd just have to pay current employees overtime, and that's way more expensive. Sure, they wouldn't have as many "benefits" to pay for, but most minimum wage jobs don't have any benefits to speak of, and if that was a true concern of the businesses, they'd lay off those people now and save on the benefits.
It's really sad that the men and women who were elected to public office (with the help of many people probably making nothing but minimum wage) and who like to give raises to themselves although they are already making very high salaries and collecting magnificent benefits, don't think that America's lowest income workers deserve a raise. It's not a hand-out. It's a long overdue right for people who work fulltime to earn enough to live. Being paid enough for one's work to maintain a minimum standard of living should not be a privilege, but a right.
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