Or at least $7.60?
I'm talking minimum wage. The Senate just rejected a proposal by Ted "Another Round" Kennedy to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $6.25. Kennedy said that it was unacceptable that a single mother with two children working full time for the minimum wage was still $4,500 below the poverty line. Well, $6.25 would leave her $2,700 below — is that acceptable? Why didn't Kennedy propose raising the minimum wage to $7.60 per hour? At least that would put the hypothetical worker at the poverty level.
But the bigger question is, why should someone working full time have an income at the poverty level? Shouldn't someone with a full time job earn enough money to not be living in poverty?
I know we can get into all kinds of stereotypes about what poor people have, or expect to have. Like big screen home theater setups, new cars with $4000 custom wheels, pack-a-day cigarette and 6-pack-a-day beer habits. But if you think about the cost of a decent apartment (where gun shots aren't routinely heard at night), utilities, food from a grocery store, a car bought used (2 years old) and kept for 8 years, clothes, etc.; could you live on $15,200 per year? Even without a cell phone, cable TV, etc.? I don't think I could.
I think the minimum wage should be $10. At least.
But I'd have to be willing to give up the $1 menu at Wendy's. And prices might have to go up at a few other places. Maybe I'd eat at home a bit more, and I'd probably be healthier for it.
I recall that Henry Ford paid his workers the unheard of wage of $5 per day, thinking that he needed workers who could afford to buy his own product. Those wages surely increased the costs of his cars (compared to what they would cost if he paid less). And it is credited with increasing wages of other factory workers. I'm sure some prices went up as a result. But it didn't cause a massive layoff of workers and didn't throw the economy into a tailspin.
I say it's time to do it again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
A few days ago, I watched a History Channel mini-series called "Hitler's Managers", one episode of which dealt with Ferdinand Porsche.
One of his Claims To Fame was the development of the Volkswagen (Beetle), and he was encouraged to price it at 990 Marks in 1938. It was mentioned that if a German worker could save 5 Deutsch Marks/week he could afford one of these vehicles, and hinted at a finance program with that target.
One thing that wasn't mentioned in the series (assuming I didn't miss it) is something I found on the web:
The price of a ‘beetle’ was set at 990 marks - equal to 35 weeks wages. To help workers buy a car, Doctor Ley started a hire-purchase scheme. Workers paid 5 marks a week until 750 marks were in the bank. Then they would be given an order number entitling them to a car as soon as it was made. No customer ever received their car. Even though workers paid millions of marks into the hire-purchase scheme, the Volkswagen factory was turned into a weapons factory as soon as the Second World War started in 1939.
I A9'ed for "minimum wage FAQ" and found an interesting (well, if'n you have a hankerin' for numbers and such) item at:
Economic Policy Institute
Me thinks "the inflation-adjusted minimum wage is 26% lower today than in 1979" is amazing. Should the Minimum Wage be automagically adjusted for inflation? Or would that create some vortex-spiral and spell the End of Life on Earth?
Post a Comment