By Robert Sulzer

August 2, 2013

Low-wage workers, consisting largely of women and minorities, are long overdue for an increase in the minimum wage.  The very slow recovery from the Great Recession has impacted none more than the low-wage worker.  A significant increase in the minimum wage at this critical time in the economic recovery will both increase the spending power of the worker and further stimulate the economy which drives the creation of jobs.  Let us not forget that there is a moral aspect of this as well.  Every hard working American deserves a “living wage” that they can be proud of; one that enables them to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

President Obama, in his State of the Union message for 2013, proposed raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour.  This increase would not be enough to completely keep up with inflation, but it would both help the low-wage worker and is an amount that may get the bipartisan support necessary to pass through this congress.  In the same speech, the President proposed something even more meaningful—indexing the minimum wage so that it increases each year as the cost of living slowly rises. I think that is a great idea.

Keep in mind that most minimum wage workers are adults, not teenagers.

Besides stimulating the economy, a minimum wage hike to $9 an hour would lift millions of Americans out of poverty.  Women make up two-thirds of the minimum wage earners, so this hike would also help close the gender wage gap, in which on the average women make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes.  A hike to $10.10 an hour, which is what truly is needed, would also create more racial justice, because people of color are much more likely to work minimum wage jobs and it would lift millions of them out of poverty.

If the federal government does not increase the minimum wage, then we taxpayers will have to pay more for low-paid workers, such as those who work for Wal-Mart and McDonald’s and still qualify for government benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid. In other words, our taxes are subsidizing giant corporations, such as Wal-Mart, who pay their workers wages which are much too low to subsist on.  Therefore, we are paying for their food stamps and other benefits.

A number of states have already increased the minimum wage. A recent poll shows that 80 percent of Americans support an increase to $10.10 an hour, including 90 percent of Democrats and even 2/3 of Republicans. Let us do what the majority of Americans want and is also good economic policy – raise the minimum wage to a “living wage.”

To put a finer point on this, the chart below comes from a McDonald’s handbook for its workers.  This chart is intended to help the workers understand how to create a budget that will enable them to manage their resources based on the income from a job at McDonald’s.  We can all see flaws in the expected costs of various items listed on this chart and we can all see that items such as “food” are not even listed.  But I want to bring your attention to the top two items.  In addition to the full time job at McDonald’s they are expecting their employees to have a second job as well.  I think that says it all!