Corporate Welfare and the Minimum Wage
Published on Friday, March 21, 2014 by Common Dreams
Corporate Welfare and the Minimum Wage
by Joslyn Stevens
The arguments against raising the minimum wage are bullshit. The majority of Americans including conservatives support an increase yet congress continues to drag its feet on doing right by the people they claim to serve. The conservative “pull-yourself up-by your-bootstraps” mentality has become an acceptable excuse to justify kicking people when they’re down. The greedy and elitist attitudes of CEO’s and bankers have created a culture of entitlement in this country in which stealing from others less powerful is the best way to get to the top regardless of the social cost.
The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009 despite cost of living increases and the fact that Americans are being forced to get by on less pay, food stamps, unemployment, savings etc. Every resource the working poor needs to stay afloat or get ahead is gone or disappearing. The increases we keep hearing about of $9-$10/hr phased in over two years to “prepare Corporate America” will not do much for the working class who need a significant raise now. How is it that no one working a full-time job at minimum wage can afford a two bedroom apt in this country?
Let’s not forget the federal tipped wage of $2.13/hr which is beyond criminal but still in place largely because of lobbying to keep it there by the National Restaurant Association, which brought in $660.5 billion last year. Servers don’t makes hundreds in tips like many assume and often end a shift with less than ten or twenty dollars even if they had a good section; I know that firsthand. Slow business and bad weather on top of tipping out means no money for groceries or rent and a large amount of time spent standing around wasted only to do it all over again the next day... IF you’re on the schedule.
There’s a reason it takes congress decades to consider a wage increase (3 times in 30 years) and only days to cut checks to billion-dollar corporations pleading poverty.
More:
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/21