Mar
18
Living Wage – Tina Jing Ru Shen
March 18, 2015 | Leave a Comment
After reading the three articles, I am starting to second guess my opinions on raising wage. Goodman voices Sherk and Romer’s beliefs that raising wages will not help the poor as there is only a small proportion of the poor working in minimum wage jobs. However, after reading the restaurant server perspective in Kasperkevic’s article, I am beginning to think in a consumer’s perspective and what will benefit me as a customer. Then there is the question suggested in Hawkins’ article: how much should the minimum wage be raised? There are so many different opinions from the politicians mentioned in the article. I wonder how and why they came up with different numbers.
Goodman’s article about the five “myths” of income inequality resonated with me the most. Although his opinions are skewed away from understanding the poor, some of his words hold truth that I personally have experienced. However, I am skeptical of his claim that the poor are poor because they chose to be. The numbers that Goodman cites from other sources may be irrefutable. Perhaps it is true that 39.2 percent of low-income families did not work. But there are possible reasons for their unemployment. Goodman implies that the 39.2 percent chose to stay at home and feed off of the other 60.8 percent, but what if that 39.2 percent was looking for jobs, but failed to qualify for those jobs because they could not afford proper education and experience?
Based on the third myth that Goodman discusses, I agree that at least a small proportion of the poor chose not to move up because of government benefits. As I described in one of my previous posts, my friend’s mother barely works. She used to work as a stable jewelry maker, but quit her job after she discovered the paradise of government benefits to the low-income. Currently, she lives off of food rations, government housing, and other government benefits, which apparently allows her and my friend to live adequately. This is a perfect example of how some are taking advantage of government benefits, which diminished their incentive to work hard for their own earnings.
Kasperkevic’s article about tipping and minimum wage sparked some basic questions that I have wanted answered for a period of time. Why do we have tipping in the United States? In the consumer’s perspective, I have been to many restaurants with poor service. I dislike the idea of tipping to service that does not deserve reward. During my trip to Shanghai last summer, all the restaurants I went to had cheery waiters and waitresses. Additionally, food was served much faster than here. When it came to paying, I actually felt a little guilty that I could not tip the server. I was expecting poor service because tipping was not a norm there, but I received excellent service. Conceptually, I imagined that restaurants with tipping policies would have better service, and those without would have poor service. But since it is apparently the other way around, how is the non-tipping system in other countries working better than our tipping system here?
Also, if getting tips is the main source for American servers to have a decent wage, then why not raise the wage and just cut tips? Other countries seem to be faring well with higher server wages and no tipping. And cutting the tipping policy relieves some burden off customers. At least for me, I feel that I psychologically need to justify why I have to tip a waiter. If he/she provides excellent service, I would be happy to tip as much as I want. However, throwing my money away to bad servers just leaves me feeling dissonant. So raising wages for servers and ending the tipping policy will benefit both distressed servers and customers. But then there is the question of how much the minimum wage for these workers should be raised. If restaurants are forced to payer significantly higher (like the Democratic Senate’s proposed fair wage), then the opportunity for the unemployed low-income workers to get the job will be even less likely.
