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The Living Wage-Class #14-Gerald Lizzo
March 17, 2015 | Leave a Comment
Despite strong advocates and equally as strong opposition, it seems both the federal and state government alike have decided income inequality in this nation needs to be addressed in the form of an increase in the minimum wage. Mayor de Blasio recently passed a bill targeting some 18,000 New York City workers who work on economic development projects that receive at least $1 million in subsidies from the city. Those workers who do not receive benefits will now $13.13 per hour while those receiving benefits $11.50. President Obama has pushed for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which currently sits at $7.25, to be as high as $10.10 though his efforts quickly fell down. It seems then that for now politicians have decided that an increase in minimum wage is a solution in fighting the large income gap in the United States.
As for me, I am not so sure. For me, it is just one step in an entire process. I think it would be great to pay everyone more money but The New York Times article brings up a good point about wage determination. It, like nearly anything else with a price tag on it, is affected by the basic economic laws of supply and demand. I am not going to work for $9 an hour when down the street I can do the same work for $10. On the other hand, businesses are not going to pay for something that is not of good value. The Washington Post article brings up the idea of fast food workers striking in order to be paid $15 an hour. It also goes on to justify how this should be a reality because of the significant increase in the cost of living. For me, this makes sense, but paying someone $15 seems pretty expensive for the work they are doing, work that requires very little skill or education.
Another issue that I believe to be important is, if there is a raise in the minimum wage, will that actually help the poor? The Heritage article discusses how while this may be the assumption, the reality may look quite different. According to the article, those affected most will be middle income families with children essentially working on the side as they begin to build their career. If this is the case, then a rise in the minimum wage would actually only perpetuate the existing issue of income inequality in this country. Then again, The New York Times article says the exact opposite, saying that roughly half of the workers affect by an increase in the minimum wage to just $9 would those families earning led than $40,000. So, I guess there is no exact way to measure exactly what the affects would be if there was an increase in the minimum wage but clearly, we need to do some more research.
For me, finding a way to increase wages for all is essential to not only finding a solution to the vast amount of income disparity in this country, but also to general economic growth within the country. But before we get there we have to create jobs for people. It really doesn’t matter if there are good paying jobs if there are not enough to go around. The labor-force participation rate is currently right around 60%, the lowest it has been since the 1970s. That should be a big indicator of how confident people are in this economy. An increase in wages would help to bring people back to the labor force, but there has to be something there for them when they get there. How do we create these jobs? I am not an economist or politician but I do know that our nation’s infrastructure is horrific. If you have turned on the news lately you probably saw something about all of the potholes everywhere after the brutal winter. Maybe start a government program to start addressing issues such as these. I know it is easier said than done, but it is just a thought.
Finally, I think the last issue we need to address as well is education. We have mentioned this in the past but I think both the topic of income inequality and education are two issues that go hand in hand together. I mentioned above it seems a little crazy to pay $15 an hour to a guy flipping burgers and I think this goes along with the notion of vast technological advancement within our society. Many simple tasks can now be down by computer, we do not need anyone to do it for us. Rather than having a guy take orders at the counter, we have people developing software so we can do self-checkout. This makes it even more difficult to create jobs because it is useless to create jobs no one can do or worse, create a new job that will not be needed in a decade. A solution to this is by making improvements in our education system to better prepare individuals for the society in the future.
