Money — sweet, beautiful, hunger-staving, rub-it-all-over-my-body money.
Obama promised to raise minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011, and although it’s a too little too late, it looks like he’s trying to deliver.
Last Tuesday, Obama announced his push to raise minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 during his State of the Union address. My reaction? An excited, yet subdued “Hooray.”
I’ve worked several crap jobs in the past, including two that dealt with actual feces. Both of those jobs paid less than $9 an hour, and the thought that I could’ve made even 75 cents more to hose diarrhea and dog vomit off an overactive, sick Labradoodle is a nice consolation.
It gives hope to millions of people like me and those who work the type of jobs I once held.
After all, minimum wage jobs may not require intensive training or a college degree, but they can still be physically and/or emotionally demanding.
Today’s minimum wage, however, is neither reflective of that effort, nor does it reflect changes in today’s economy.
When the folks over at The State of Working America — the Economic Policy Institute’s flagship publication — adjusted past wages for inflation, they found that minimum wage workers today make less than their 1970s counterparts.
The federal government has combatted inflation by raising minimum wage 10 times in the past 35 years, averaging one raise every three-and-a-half years. With the last change occurring in 2009, it makes sense to raise the minimum wage now — the most peripheral reason being keeping with tradition.
The only thing that leads me to believe raising the minimum wage isn’t a good idea is the fact that I’m the one saying it.
I’m young, single and come from a family living above poverty. Obama’s proposal isn’t exactly aimed at helping me or, for that matter, most of you reading this. If all goes according to plan, we’ll have college degrees within the next four years and won’t be working minimum wage jobs regardless of if we have families.
According to the Associated Press, however, 15 million Americans work for minimum wage, including some who may never work anything but a minimum wage job. Although we may not be directly affected, we should consider the well-being of those people.
Having said that, opponents of the change claim those Americans will actually suffer from the raise to $9 an hour. Employers, they argue, will be forced to cut employee benefits or fire workers to meet rising costs. Furthermore, they’ll also be less likely to hire new employees with the high cost of training.
On the other hand, the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that raising the minimum wage in the past has had an inconclusive or insignificant effect on the job market.
Initial losses were offset by the attraction of higher paying jobs, which in turn lowered the employee turnover rate. The CEPR concludes that when employees’ salaries are adequate to cover their expenses, they’re less likely to leave, even when other $9 an hour jobs exist.
Of course, raising the minimum wage isn’t a cure-all for poverty. It may need to work in concert with certain tax cuts or credits, and many without jobs won’t receive the benefits either way.
That doesn’t mean we should abstain from aiding the people we can, though. There’s certainly no shame in unintentionally helping college students or pimply teenagers from middle and upper class families along the way, either.
In the end, employers will be able to find an equilibrium and minimum wage workers will be able to help themselves while pumping money back into the economy.
As I see it, Congress is wasting time by having not approved the raise already — and time is money.
