Give America a Raise
I’d like to talk today about a subject that is in hot debate in Congress – the minimum wage.
The current wage, last raised in 1997 (from $4.25 per hour), is $5.15 per hour. The Congress has been discussing proposals, which Democrats have courageously attached to multiple pieces of legislation to force a debate on the subject, to raise the wage to $7.25 per hour in yearly increments.
The minimum wage was first approved by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and has been raised several times since. The current wage has not been raised in eight years, the second longest in the history of the wage.
I’ve been an advocate of a higher minimum wage for some time, but in this most recent debate, it was the math that sold me.
Keeping in mind that the national poverty line is $14,824 for a family of three, let’s do some math. We’ll say a guy’s working 2 minimum wage jobs to support his family of three. Combined, he’s putting in 50 hours a week, which is a lot of time that he doesn’t get to spend with his two beautiful daughters, and since his work is spread between two jobs, he doesn’t get overtime pay.
Let’s try it - - 5.15*50=$257.50/week. There are 52 weeks in a year, so we come up with a yearly income of $13,390. That’s $1,434 below the poverty line.
I know what you’re saying – “Wait a minute! You’re telling me that, at our current rate, a guy working more than full time can’t keep his family out of poverty?”
Exactly, and we aren’t even trying to factor in expenses such as housing, food, health insurance (which minimum wage employers don’t usually offer), daycare – the list goes on. And God forbid one of our subject’s jobs gets moved to Mexico thanks to NAFTA.
The point is, the minimum wage is far too low. In 1979, the value of the minimum wage ,adjusted for inflation to modern purchasing power, was $6.92. That means that, since 1979, the wage has lost 26% of its value.
People are struggling to raise their families, and the Federal government needs to have their back.
17 states, including Illinois, and the District of Columbia, have all raised their minimum wage beyond the standard set by the Federal government. Illinois currently has a minimum wage of $6.50 per hour, thanks to Governor Blagojevich and the Democratic General Assembly.
Some cities, such as Santa Fe, have enacted their own wage laws, higher even than that of their respective states. In 2003, the City of Santa Fe mandated that wages paid by companies larger than 25 employees must be raise to $10.50 per hour by 2008. San Francisco applied a “living wage” – wage calculated for the necessary expenses of the worker – to some Bay area workers, and in 2004 raised the minimum wage for large businesses to $8.50 per hour ($7.75 per hour for small businesses).
Convinced yet? Minimum wage hikes directly effect the country – a study done in the late 1990’s found that raising the wage one dollar, from $5.15 to $6.15 per hour, would lift 900,000 people out of poverty. Nine hundred thousand people!
It’s time to send people to Congress, like Danny Stover, who will fight for Illinois workers. Americans haven’t gotten a raise in eight years, and Stover thinks we deserve one.
So let’s give America a raise, and elect those who care about keeping working families out of poverty.
The current wage, last raised in 1997 (from $4.25 per hour), is $5.15 per hour. The Congress has been discussing proposals, which Democrats have courageously attached to multiple pieces of legislation to force a debate on the subject, to raise the wage to $7.25 per hour in yearly increments.
The minimum wage was first approved by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and has been raised several times since. The current wage has not been raised in eight years, the second longest in the history of the wage.
I’ve been an advocate of a higher minimum wage for some time, but in this most recent debate, it was the math that sold me.
Keeping in mind that the national poverty line is $14,824 for a family of three, let’s do some math. We’ll say a guy’s working 2 minimum wage jobs to support his family of three. Combined, he’s putting in 50 hours a week, which is a lot of time that he doesn’t get to spend with his two beautiful daughters, and since his work is spread between two jobs, he doesn’t get overtime pay.
Let’s try it - - 5.15*50=$257.50/week. There are 52 weeks in a year, so we come up with a yearly income of $13,390. That’s $1,434 below the poverty line.
I know what you’re saying – “Wait a minute! You’re telling me that, at our current rate, a guy working more than full time can’t keep his family out of poverty?”
Exactly, and we aren’t even trying to factor in expenses such as housing, food, health insurance (which minimum wage employers don’t usually offer), daycare – the list goes on. And God forbid one of our subject’s jobs gets moved to Mexico thanks to NAFTA.
The point is, the minimum wage is far too low. In 1979, the value of the minimum wage ,adjusted for inflation to modern purchasing power, was $6.92. That means that, since 1979, the wage has lost 26% of its value.
People are struggling to raise their families, and the Federal government needs to have their back.
17 states, including Illinois, and the District of Columbia, have all raised their minimum wage beyond the standard set by the Federal government. Illinois currently has a minimum wage of $6.50 per hour, thanks to Governor Blagojevich and the Democratic General Assembly.
Some cities, such as Santa Fe, have enacted their own wage laws, higher even than that of their respective states. In 2003, the City of Santa Fe mandated that wages paid by companies larger than 25 employees must be raise to $10.50 per hour by 2008. San Francisco applied a “living wage” – wage calculated for the necessary expenses of the worker – to some Bay area workers, and in 2004 raised the minimum wage for large businesses to $8.50 per hour ($7.75 per hour for small businesses).
Convinced yet? Minimum wage hikes directly effect the country – a study done in the late 1990’s found that raising the wage one dollar, from $5.15 to $6.15 per hour, would lift 900,000 people out of poverty. Nine hundred thousand people!
It’s time to send people to Congress, like Danny Stover, who will fight for Illinois workers. Americans haven’t gotten a raise in eight years, and Stover thinks we deserve one.
So let’s give America a raise, and elect those who care about keeping working families out of poverty.
