Hundreds of thousands of Americans are performing arduous jobs at the minimum wage, and that minimum wage isn't much. Additionally, these jobs offer very few to no benefits at all. Minimum wage workers clean houses, serve food, care for children and the elderly, deliver food, and stock shelves. They work in these jobs while taking care of children, parents, as well as attending to current bills like electricity, insurance and college tuition.
Despite their best efforts, the low-wage workers are falling further and further into debt. According to the new Oxfam map, the minimum federal wage is $7.25/hr. This wage causes most people, especially single parents and women of color to live in poverty. The right thing to do now is to raise this minimum wage.
The discussion is ongoing for congress to raise the minimum wage to $12 and eliminate the tipped minimum wage as well. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), this would help to give more than 35 million workers live better lives. There are tons of reasons why the minimum wage needs to be raised for folks that do these difficult jobs, let''s get into them.
Why Minimum Wage Should Be Raised
It is long overdue
It’s been almost a decade since this issue was last raised. Since then, there has been inflation and a million other things which prove that this current wage is outdated. It hasn’t kept up with the times and has also failed to keep the incomes of the top CEOs and top one percent from contributing equally to America’s growth.
As a result of this, the low-waged workers have not been benefiting from productivity and economic growth. If this wage had kept a good pace with their productivity, it should be around $20/hr. just 30 years ago, the wage gap between workers and CEOs was around 59:1, now it has soared to 361:1. The average CEO makes around $13 million, while the minimum wage worker makes $15,080 this gap is almost 924:1. It is totally unacceptable!!!!!!
It will address gender and racial inequalities
The marginalized people who tend to do more than anybody else in any setting shall stand to greatly benefit from this review of the minimum wage. Here are the statistics as they stand now;
- 27% of the American workforce would benefit from this
- 39% of Latina and black American women would benefit – this is in comparison to only 18% of Caucasian men.
- 38% of African American workers – both men and women.
- 33% of Latino workers – both men and women.
- 32% of women workers would benefit from this.
It would reduce poverty levels
This proposed bump from $290 each week to $600 would help in lifting millions of families from poverty to more civilized living. More than one-quarter of the American workforce, which is around 40 million people would have their wages and livelihood raised and changed forever.
It would help in fueling the growth of the economy
Roughly, there shall be around $120 billion spent on paying the workers, which would be pumped back into the economy for the payment of various necessities such as food, rent, and clothes. According to economists, boosting the purchasing power of these workers is basically putting money into consumers’ pockets, and when they spend the money, the ripple effects shall affect the entire economy.
During a recent poll of small business owners, the results showed that at least 67% of them supported the minimum wage increment to around $15. They said that this would spark a demand in consumers’ goods which would enable them to retain their employees, make more sales, and even hire new ones. Raising the wage shall not cause employers to cut jobs.
It would save taxpayers money by reducing dependence on government programs
When employers do not pay people enough money to survive, they tend to seek help from the government, which means that taxpayers shall be subsidizing the corporations. According to the economic policy, most recipients of public assistance are workers or people who have family members who work on minimum wage and are usually at the bottom of the pay scale. Raising this wage for these low-income people shall unambiguously reduce their net spending and their need for public assistance.
It is what many Americans need and want
The majority of the American public, - actually almost three quarters which includes the majority support this bill to raise the minimum wage. In fact, over half of the states have been raising the wage in order to restore fairness in most workplaces.
Raising The National Wage Conclusion
All work should be dignified and worthy. After years of hard work, low-wage workers deserve to have a bump up in their salaries in order to get them and their family members out of poverty. However, this great and very important legislation is likely not to pass as congress is facing an impasse along party lines. Voters can help send the importance of this message with their vote in the upcoming US elections.
