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June 19, 2006
A Moral Obligation
It has been nearly ten years -- 1997 -- since there has been an increase in the federal minimum wage. It has been stuck at $5.15 an hour (that's $10,712 a year, assuming a 40-hour work week, 52 weeks a year), while the cost of living in America has hardly stood still.
An article from the Chicago Tribune that was printed in today's Chronicle details recent efforts by various states to pass their own higher minimum wage.
A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 83% of Americans support raising the minimum wage to $7.15 an hour -- a 39% increase. In 2004, a state ballot initiative to raise it in Florida passed with 71% in a state President Bush narrowly won. This issue cuts across party lines.
Rewarding work is part of the American ethos -- if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to make it. Does anyone actually believe a person can achieve even a modest existence for him or herself (to say nothing of supporting a family) on $5.15 an hour? It seems impossible, yet 2 to 3 million U.S. residents somehow survive on that meager sum.
The old right wing argument against raising the minimum wage -- that it would harm small business and actually eliminate jobs -- has not been borne out by reality. (Imagine that -- a Republican policy view at odds with reality.) In fact, in Wisconsin, where a 14% wage increase was approved by voters, more revenue has been generated. Low wage earners spend the money they have, so increased commerce, sales tax and other revenue follow such a wage increase.
Practical arguments aside, however, we have a moral obligation to ensure that hard-working, law-abiding citizens achieve a decent minimum standard of living. Congress should do the right thing and increase the minimum wage.
Posted by houtopia at June 19, 2006 10:59 PM