If you're working for the Federal Minimum Wage, it's time to start lighting your cigars with 100 dollar bills!
It's official, H.R. 2 has passed the United States Senate with a vote of 88-8 (with four overpaid tax vacuums refusing to vote). With this increase the working poor in America will now make roughly the same amount of money that they did during the Johnson Administration... hooray!
Any raise in minimum wage is a good thing for working poor families in America, don't get me wrong. However, increasing the pay of working people at the lowest rung of our economic system from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over a period of three years is hardly going to elevate these people into positions of great wealth... or positions of "getting by." Congress will undoubtedly pat themselves on the back and wallow in their own ego as they throw a bone to the constituents living in their own back yards, well, the back yards just outside of the gate, razor wire, vicious dogs and armed guards protecting their own back yard.
The working poor in this country deserve to be treated with respect. These aren't people asking for a handout, these are people waking up every morning to do thankless jobs that, whether you like it or not, keep our country moving. If for one week the entire minimum wage workforce in this country decided to simultaneously go on strike, this nation would be positively paralyzed. The implications would be far-reaching and the consequences to our way of life would be immediately apparent. So, if these people make up such an important demographic, why are they largely ignored by our government?
Well, they're too poor to hire lobbyists.
Globally, the issues surrounding the well-being of the working poor have been addressed in many different ways. The most effective of these seems to be the system implemented the the Northern European grouping of Scandinavian countries. In these countries the minimum wage is based on collective agreements that take into account the cost of living in the area, average salary and other factors to come to an amount that, while certainly no great shakes, allows the residents of the nation in question to live above the poverty line.
In the graph above you'll notice the often shocking rates of child poverty in the United States in comparison to those in much of Europe. I find it amazing that in this "Christian Nation" we will allow our children to go to sleep hungry at a considerably higher rate than those in "Godless Europe."
When it's all put out there on the table, it really is the kids that are of the highest concern. Many families in the United States work two and three jobs just to stay above water, while many others simply do not have the capacity to do so. With soaring childcare costs, no universal health care and a minimum wage that has steadily dropped (with slight peaks during the Clinton Administration) since 1980 it becomes increasingly difficult to understand why many in these situations even chose to GO to work.
Often opponents of minimum wage increases are also the most vehement opponents of our current welfare system. However, take a minute to think about this:
Even with the proposed increase in the minimum wage, recipients will be "handsomely" paid around $290 per week... gross. A single mother working a forty-hour work week will be forced to make ends meet on resources so limited that many of us couldn't even imagine how it could be done. Upon entering the work force (in this golden age for the working poor) this same single mother would have childcare costs amounting to (based on the national average) $111 per week. Even in extremely low "cost of living" areas, it would be remarkably difficult to find an apartment, suitable for a child, for less than $100 per week. Simply keeping a minimum of the utilities running (water, heat, electricity... this doesn't factor in telephones, cable, etc) is going to be $120-$150 monthly at the absolute least.
So, based on a weekly GROSS income of $290, a single working mother would be expected to shell out a low average of around $248.50 each week just to keep going. This, of course, isn't counting expenses like gasoline, car payments, clothing, food or god forbid, insurance.
Faced with these alternatives, what exactly would be someone's motivation to "get off welfare" and enter the workforce? Get up each morning and work a miserable, thankless job while spending less time with your children and cutting off your resources at the knees hardly seems like a wise decision for a family. Even more upsetting is that this great nation forces families to make decisions like this every day.
Although the Democrats' proposal is a step in the right direction, it's still miles away from reaching the point where we should be. The people of the United States deserve better than this. If you're willing to get up every day and head out to a job that you hate for less than you deserve, you should at least bring home enough money to ensure that the work you've put forward that day was worth it.
Restoring pride, curbing violence and building the future is built largely around the eradication of poverty. This is a very real problem, and one that we actually have the means to solve in the near future. We can only hope that our lawmakers will see the light, but don't hold out too much hope. After all, this type of fiscal oppression is...
It's official, H.R. 2 has passed the United States Senate with a vote of 88-8 (with four overpaid tax vacuums refusing to vote). With this increase the working poor in America will now make roughly the same amount of money that they did during the Johnson Administration... hooray!
Any raise in minimum wage is a good thing for working poor families in America, don't get me wrong. However, increasing the pay of working people at the lowest rung of our economic system from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over a period of three years is hardly going to elevate these people into positions of great wealth... or positions of "getting by." Congress will undoubtedly pat themselves on the back and wallow in their own ego as they throw a bone to the constituents living in their own back yards, well, the back yards just outside of the gate, razor wire, vicious dogs and armed guards protecting their own back yard.The working poor in this country deserve to be treated with respect. These aren't people asking for a handout, these are people waking up every morning to do thankless jobs that, whether you like it or not, keep our country moving. If for one week the entire minimum wage workforce in this country decided to simultaneously go on strike, this nation would be positively paralyzed. The implications would be far-reaching and the consequences to our way of life would be immediately apparent. So, if these people make up such an important demographic, why are they largely ignored by our government?
Well, they're too poor to hire lobbyists.
Globally, the issues surrounding the well-being of the working poor have been addressed in many different ways. The most effective of these seems to be the system implemented the the Northern European grouping of Scandinavian countries. In these countries the minimum wage is based on collective agreements that take into account the cost of living in the area, average salary and other factors to come to an amount that, while certainly no great shakes, allows the residents of the nation in question to live above the poverty line.In the graph above you'll notice the often shocking rates of child poverty in the United States in comparison to those in much of Europe. I find it amazing that in this "Christian Nation" we will allow our children to go to sleep hungry at a considerably higher rate than those in "Godless Europe."
When it's all put out there on the table, it really is the kids that are of the highest concern. Many families in the United States work two and three jobs just to stay above water, while many others simply do not have the capacity to do so. With soaring childcare costs, no universal health care and a minimum wage that has steadily dropped (with slight peaks during the Clinton Administration) since 1980 it becomes increasingly difficult to understand why many in these situations even chose to GO to work.Often opponents of minimum wage increases are also the most vehement opponents of our current welfare system. However, take a minute to think about this:
Even with the proposed increase in the minimum wage, recipients will be "handsomely" paid around $290 per week... gross. A single mother working a forty-hour work week will be forced to make ends meet on resources so limited that many of us couldn't even imagine how it could be done. Upon entering the work force (in this golden age for the working poor) this same single mother would have childcare costs amounting to (based on the national average) $111 per week. Even in extremely low "cost of living" areas, it would be remarkably difficult to find an apartment, suitable for a child, for less than $100 per week. Simply keeping a minimum of the utilities running (water, heat, electricity... this doesn't factor in telephones, cable, etc) is going to be $120-$150 monthly at the absolute least.
So, based on a weekly GROSS income of $290, a single working mother would be expected to shell out a low average of around $248.50 each week just to keep going. This, of course, isn't counting expenses like gasoline, car payments, clothing, food or god forbid, insurance.
Faced with these alternatives, what exactly would be someone's motivation to "get off welfare" and enter the workforce? Get up each morning and work a miserable, thankless job while spending less time with your children and cutting off your resources at the knees hardly seems like a wise decision for a family. Even more upsetting is that this great nation forces families to make decisions like this every day.Although the Democrats' proposal is a step in the right direction, it's still miles away from reaching the point where we should be. The people of the United States deserve better than this. If you're willing to get up every day and head out to a job that you hate for less than you deserve, you should at least bring home enough money to ensure that the work you've put forward that day was worth it.
Restoring pride, curbing violence and building the future is built largely around the eradication of poverty. This is a very real problem, and one that we actually have the means to solve in the near future. We can only hope that our lawmakers will see the light, but don't hold out too much hope. After all, this type of fiscal oppression is...
posted by Cory | 5:17 AM
1 Comments:
Well, said.
You could not pay me $58 a day to work at McDonalds. At the same time, you have no idea how sickened I am every single time applicants let me know that they cannot possibly work 40 hours a week. Simply, because they will lose their homes/ apartments, insurance and of course they are always going back to school. I know I sound awful, but the fact is I am all about helping anyone trying to help themselves. You're right, they just don't have much motivation to do so.
My first experience in Human Resources was an employee handing me a letter of resignation. She just said they'll pay me more if I quit.
Something, needs to be done, but it won't as long as everyone in Washington is celebrating their success. Meanwhile, Medicare and Medicaid continue to set the wages that for people who work direct care and we have been trying for 2 years now to get a bill passed to increase the wages of direct care workers. What these people who have worked effortlessly in trying to accompolish have just found, is that they are now just minmium wage workers. When before they made around $3 more and up to $5 more in some areas.
But in reality, what are we going to do???
On step in the right direction, but still not what is needed.
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