How low can you get: the minimum wage scam

[n2doc]

Heidi Moore

You'd think the exceptionally low minimum-wage – $7.25 an hour – would be the shame of a country like the United States that prides itself on its economic leadership. Half of minimum-wage jobs are held by adults over 25 years old, and asking adults to live on $7.25, or $14,500 a year, doesn't leave them with enough to rent an apartment, commute to work, raise a child and participate in society in any meaningful way.

Many US states have higher minimum-wage requirements than the government, with Washington State leading the pack at $9.19 an hour. That's a start, but many large, international companies will only pay the minimum the federal government requires. As a result, the federal minimum wage keeps an entire class of people trapped in economic servitude, focusing their attention on survival rather than growth, barring their ability to save enough or pay for education that would allow them to rise to the middle class.

Income inequality is as bad as it has ever been – and the reason is simple.

Low-wage workers can't even care for their own health without giving up some other necessity. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, it took a minimum-wage worker 130 hours to earn a year's worth of health benefits in 1979. That is only three-and-a-half weeks of full-time, minimum -age work. By 2011, the same health coverage cost 749 hours, or 19 weeks of full-time, minimum-wage work. Working nearly half the year to afford only healthcare, and nothing else, is a ridiculous demand to make of low-wage workers.

The low minimum wage is also as costly for the government as it is cheap for companies. While McDonald's or other fast food companies save pennies and boost their profitability by paying a low wage, their workers cannot survive on that amount and often end up taking welfare benefits. In 2012, 4.3 million people received welfare benefits and 47 million received food stamps. The number of Americans getting food stamps – a national hunger crisis – has risen in tandem with the number of people unemployed or out of the workforce.

more
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/20/minimum-wage-scam

[Dawson Leery]

1. k/r

[LiberalEsto]

2. And how much do the CEOs of all these companies make, I wonder?

[n2doc]

3. The children of the founder of WalMart are all among the richest people on earth n/t

[lark]

5. They are scum of the earth!

Sam Walton is whirlilng in his grave, crying for the shame his heirs have heaped on the company. They used to buy American - no more after Sam. They used to pay good bonuses at 7 years - averaging over $70,000. Now at 7 years you are lucky to get anything - my husband didnt and left the company. They are ass-wipes of the lowest kind.

[Demo_Chris]

4. Clearly the minimum wage is too low, but...

But what SHOULD it be?

Remember as well that the issue goes beyond just some random number. The more people earn, in general, the less they are entitled to in foodstamps and other benefits. Further, an increase in minimum wage is generally not accompanied by a corresponding increase in the wages of everyone above that. Those who have clawed their way a step or two up the ladder remain where they are, and the bottom just rises to meet them. Further, it's absolutely a mistake to forget the very small businesses who are barely making it now and simply cannot afford any increase -- and add to this the larger corporations you offset the increases with layoffs to cover.

And none of this even begins to address the other side of the issue: COSTS.

We live in a nation of haves and have-nots. The percentage in the latter category is exploding, and yet the prices for basic necessities has generally risen as well. Half the population is living in or near poverty, yet the costs for medical, housing, and education have only grown, and grown faster than ANY possible minimum wage hike can compensate for. We have now reached the point at which we are two nations, and the half with money has written off the half without, and the people at the top -- seeing the coming collapse -- are merrily looting everything they can get their hands on.

[RC]

6. The problem is only partly the minimum wage.

The major part of the problem is a lack of Living-Wage-Jobs. If we jobs we have paid a Living-Wage, family bread winners (adults) would not be working several jobs to try to feed their families. Teenager and people looking for a bit of supplemental income would be doing those minimum wage jobs. As it used to be.

The low minimum wage and the lack of Living-Wage-Jobs are part of the same problem and need to be addressed together. Quite often they have the same root - greed, on the part of those running the companies

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. +1. n/t

[AAO]

8. I remember my first real job as an adult - $8.682/hr - I thought I was rich!

Course, that was 35 years ago.

[7962]

9. If you were making 8.68 an hr 35 yrs ago, you darn near WERE rich!

At that time, I was making about 7.25 and thought I owned the world. Then I got married......

[AAO]

10. Yeah, the "good old days". Too bad the world changed. Greed, that's all it is.

[AAO]

11. Oh crap - I just took the time to add it up. Only 31 years ago. Sorry,

[Brigid]

12. "Maybe these employers should start paying people like adults too."

That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?