Minimum wage raise needed
Much of the world is in a state of political unrest.
In Ukraine. In Venezuela. In North Korea. The Middle East.
We’re lucky. Here in the U.S., we have our problems, but they are subtler. Our unrest feels more like a head cold than a fever — it’s not as debilitating, but it does seem to go on forever.
What are we fighting about? Still, endlessly, we fight over whether or not America’s working poor should be thrown a life raft. Whether that life raft takes the form of government benefits like SNAP (food stamps) or Medicaid or an increased minimum wage, we continue to disagree about the basic things citizens should be able to count on.
Unfortunately, the debate over the SNAP program cuts has concluded, and the funds have been slashed by $800 million a year. Some families receiving SNAP benefits now can expect $90 less every month to eat with.
But there’s still hope for the minimum wage raise.
Before I say anything else about raising the minimum wage, though, I want to say this: I love small businesses. I sound like a politician making a stump speech when I say it, but I do. I think local, independently owned businesses are the key to saving us from the clutches of the Wal-Marts and McDonalds of the world that devalue work, want a 365-day work year and quickly obliterate any bubbling up of union activity.
Any liberal worth her salt celebrates small business.
Surprisingly, according to a 2013 Gallup Poll, almost half of all small business owners support a minimum wage increase. Even though 60 percent also believe a minimum wage hike is more likely to hurt their business than help, financially, the support for it is still there. Those small business owners seem to see the bigger picture.
The best and most successful small business owners are the ones that have a stake in their communities. They want to see the good things that can happen when people have more money.
According to a study by the government’s Congressional Budget Office (CBO), raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour will lift 900,000 people out of poverty. Almost a million people! Take the politics out of it completely, and look at it this way: If someone said to you, “I have a plan to save a million people from poverty. It won’t cost any human lives or harm the land, and, in fact, has been proven to have net positive impacts several times in the past.” What would you say?
Perhaps you’ve heard the most popular sound bite to come out of the CBO report: Raising the minimum wage is projected to cost 500,000 jobs. But that’s not the whole picture.
Economists have shown that raising the minimum wage has “little or no” effect on overall job loss. The CBO acknowledged that in their report but also acknowledged the study that showed no net job loss from a minimum wage raise. They figured the impact could be either roughly zero jobs lost or one million, so they chose a figure right in the middle — 500,000.
So, why are we still fighting about this?
Because we’re at a philosophical impasse, basically, in the way we view work.
We probably all know someone who built a business from the ground up and worked 70 hours a week to do it. If their business is now successful, their success is logically at least partly a result of their hard work. That success is deserved.
But what about someone who works two low-wage jobs — for a total of 70 hours a week — and barely scrapes by? Are they not working hard, too? Do they deserve an inferior fate?
Truth is, the world is full of many kinds of people. There are people who abuse the system and people who do everything right and fall on hard times, anyway.
There are people who start a business and find success beyond their wildest imaginings, and people who start a business and fail miserably — sometimes because of a flaw in their business plan, sometimes because of reasons outside of their control (like the economic collapse) and sometimes for no real reason at all.
The question is, should we punish the good among us for the sake of the few who take advantage of the system?
Conservatives love to talk about fairness and justice — about how the system’s “moochers” aren’t playing fair, that those who work hard shouldn’t have to give over what their hard work brought them.
But is it fair that any kids or seniors or low-wage workers should live their lives in poverty because of a few bad apples?
No. Not anywhere in the world. And especially not here.
Jessica Vozel is originally from Perryopolis and, after attending graduate school and teaching in Ohio, now works as a freelance journalist and copywriter in the Pittsburgh area.