I’ve seen too many Facebook rants about this that I have to offer up a different side to the following argument. People are so quick to jump to the idea that we should NOT raise the minimum working wage, which is currently $7.25 per hour in Georgia (federal minimum wage.) Some people argue that they would rather see us make the U.S. dollar worth more, rather than raising the minimum wage, because if we raise the minimum wage, that will make store owners raise prices on everything they sell, which will cause a lot of people to not be able to afford anything besides the necessities, which will inevitably cause a drop (and maybe even a collapse) of the economy, and a lot of businesses will have to shut down. However, I think people need to get some perspective on what it is like to work a minimum wage job and realize that $7.25 per hour simply isn’t enough to live off of. And apparently, a lot of people don’t believe it should be. However, if your parents have always paid for your education and supported you throughout your life until you got a “real job,” or if you were working age 20+ years ago when the economy was doing a lot better than it is now, then it’s very easy for you to jump to the argument that people who work minimum wage jobs should just “get a real job," that they will always work for minimum wage if they have "minimum skills," that they do not deserve a living wage, or that they are just lazy.
The federal minimum wage has barely changed since the 1980s, but inflation has skyrocketed since then. We have always adjusted wages to account for inflation in the past, and there have never been any problems with it. As a matter of fact, it helps the economy. The more money people get paid, the more money they spend, thus boosting the economy, which we desparately need right now. According to Huffpost Business, a study conducted in 2013 revealed that, if the minimum wage was adjusted according to 2012 inflation, then it would be $10.52/hr. According to the same study, if the minimum wage were adjusted according to increased productivity, it would be $21.72/hr! Back in the 1960s, it was normal for people in their early 20s to be able to buy a house while living on two low-middle incomes. Now people are living with their parents into their late 20s/early 30s. It's not because they are lazy; it's because life is much harder, and money is scarce.
If you think that the economy will fail, because businesses will have to shut down if we raise the minimum wage, that simply has not been the trend, if we are going by what has happened in the past. Up until the 1980s, we have always completely adjusted the minimum wage according to inflation, and the economy has never failed. On the contrary, it has always put more money back into the economy. The economy is in the toilet now for completely different reasons. And we could actually pay less in taxes, because paying people a living wage will get them off of welfare, which I know opposers of the minimum wage rise will love to hear. You can't keep wages inhumanely low AND not have people on government assistance, so which one are you willing to give, so you don't have to give the other one?
And of course, a lot of people are worried about how prices will increase if the minimum wage increases. A new study shows that, if we increase the minimum wage to $15/hr, then a Big Mac that normally costs $3.99 will cost $4.16. This is a mere 0.17 cent increase. (Check out the article here: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/08/03/3687171/15-minimum-wage-big-mac/.) And a lot of people, including myself, are not calling for that big of an increase in the minimum wage. I think the minimum wage would be just fine if it were between $10-12/hr.
Here’s what I’m trying to get you guys to think about and gain perspective on: It’s not as simple as you think to just be able to go out and get a high-paying corporate job. Step out of your little bubble for a single second, and try to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. I’m going to give you some examples of people who haven’t had it as easy as you probably have, and maybe you’ll see why some people are stuck in minimum wage jobs, or at least for awhile:
Example #1: Juan is a Mexican-born 18-year-old man whose parents brought him to the United States when he was 3 years old. America is all he’s ever known, but his parents don’t even speak English, and they have always worked minimum wage jobs under the table. His parents have never told him about what he could be or do in the future. They’ve never built him up to dream and shoot for the stars. They’ve always told him that all he’ll ever be is a low-life cashier working for minimum wage. Juan has a chance to break away from this, but it’s not so easy when this is all he's ever known. And it’s extremely difficult when all Juan has is a high school education and no money to go to college. His parents can’t help him, and he never worked toward anything that could get him any scholarships when he was in high school, because his parents never pushed him in school or told him how important education is. He can’t get college loans unless he has someone to cosign on the loan with him, since he is young and doesn’t make enough money. His parents don’t make enough money to cosign on the loans, and they are in the United States illegally, so they have no credit either. Juan has no one to back him up or help him out, so he has to do it all on his own. So maybe Juan decides he’s going to work a job as many hours as he can until he can get some money together for school. Or maybe he’s going to work a job until he’s old enough and has enough good credit to sign for his own college loans. Guess what kind of job he qualifies for while he works his way toward getting himself into college? A minimum wage job.
Example #2: Emily’s parents believe you should be responsible and do your own thing as soon as you turn 18 or graduate high school. When she graduates high school, her parents kick her out of the house. She has no money, and she has to get an apartment of her own and get a job, neither of which she has ever had on her own. She is young and has no money, so where does she go? Probably a minimum wage job, since she has no college education. Maybe her parents agree to cosign on college loans for her so she can get herself into college. But she takes some extra time getting through college since she has to work full time and pay for everything herself. How is a college student supposed to work off of $7.25 per hour and support herself while she makes her way through school? I believe this is the most common scenario we see, and this is very similar to what my scenario was when I was working minimum wage jobs.
Example #3: Nina was a great student in high school, but she made one mistake when she was 16 years old, and she got pregnant. She was only a child herself when she made one mistake that shaped the rest of her life. Maybe she even used protection, just like all the other girls in school. She did the same thing they did, but she was the unlucky one who slipped through the cracks. Her baby ended up being her greatest joy in the world, but it set her way back, because now she has to not only pay to take care of herself and put herself through school, but she has to take care of a child too. She gets little help from her parents, and the father doesn’t want anything to do with her or the baby. Maybe she can get court-ordered child support from the father, but she gets no help from him other than financial help. And they are 16 years old, so how much financial help could the father offer anyway? So where does Nina work? Probably a minimum wage job, since she doesn’t even have a high school diploma yet, let alone a college degree.
So take a moment to think about how fortunate you have been. Hopefully none of the scenarios above describes you. If your parents have supported you in everything you’ve done, that’s blessing #1. If your parents have paid for you to go all the way through college, or have at least contributed in some way, that’s blessing #2. And the root of it all: If your parents taught you to shoot for the stars and that you can do anything if you put your mind to it, count that as the most important blessing they could’ve ever given you. A lot of people aren’t so lucky.
Think about the kids who are thrown into this minimum wage bull crap. Think about the woman who accidentally gets pregnant and has no money or education. Let's say the father has nothing to do with her or the baby. Think about that poor baby who has to grow up in squalor, never knowing when or where his next meal will come from. Think about that poor kid who knows what his mom is doing with all those men who come into the apartment. And all this, just so that poor baby has some food to eat tonight.
We all know what happens when there is a huge population under the poverty line. Squalor. Crime. Racism. Abuse. Unhappiness. Suicide. Prostitution. Do you like any of these things? Well, that's what happens when people work their butts off at a job that doesn't yield enough money to get by, at the very least. We have seen, time and time again, that workers who are paid well do better at their jobs, feel appreciated, strive for more, and have better self-esteem. This is the recipe for greatness. People don't take their jobs seriously or work hard when they aren't valued and can just go across the street and get paid just as poorly there if they lose their first job. So think about what comes from treating people like scum, whether you believe they're scum or not. I'm not saying we should raise the minimum wage to $20 per hour or something incredible like that. But hard working people who maintain at least some sort of full time job should never have to worry about whether their babies are getting enough to eat or not.
A lot of people claim that minimum wage jobs are meant for high school students who need to learn work ethic and need extra spending money, but these jobs are NOT meant for anyone past high school. And they believe that, if you’ve made a minimum wage job your career, then you’re a failure. This is simply not true. Did you know that 88% of people who work on minimum wage are 20+ years old? The average age of minimum wagers is 35. All kinds of people work minimum wage jobs, and it’s because, at least for the time being, they can’t get anything better. I worked my way through college at a minimum wage job until I finally found a serving job my last semester of college that yielded more money than minimum wage. Are you telling me I’m a failure, because I had to work a minimum wage job while I put my own self through college without any outside help, all the while paying for my own housing and food? (By the way, this didn't last very long before minimum wage simply wasn't enough, and I had to seek help from my grandparents.) I agree that people should shoot for more than minimum wage jobs in the long run, but these jobs are meant for people who can’t get anything better for the time being, particularly while they’re in school. So think twice before judging someone’s situation and why they’re working a minimum wage job.
Also, think about how hard it is to survive on minimum wage, if you're in a situation that forces you to work off minimum wage, even if it's temprary, and maybe realize that $7.25 per hour simply isn’t enough for someone to survive. And even if you think no one should “make a career out of a minimum wage job,” the point is that some people do. And even if you don’t think it’s something people should do, not everyone can go to college and work swanky corporate jobs. Some people don't have the brain capacity or the talent, and some people have mental or phyisical health problems that hold them back. The fact is we NEED cashiers. We NEED food preps. We NEED servers and bartenders and cooks and bus drivers and warehouse workers and countless other people who make the world go round. Do you think we have enough high schoolers to fill those jobs? No. So the best we can do is take care of our hard workers. And as long as there are billionaires in this world, I will NEVER believe that it’s ok to pay workers $7.25 per hour, which by the way, ends up being about $5-6 per hour after taxes are taken out. But no matter what your idea of a solution for this problem is, try to break out of your little bubble and see things through other people’s eyes, and realize that not everyone has had as easy of a life as you probably have.
Now think about it this way. How many people in the nation want to go to school but don't due to lack of funds? A LOT. If we paid our workers better, then more people would be able to afford school and become educated. Don't we want more educated people in our nation? If people don't see education as an option, because it's so expensive, then people don't even try, and they get stuck at their minimum wage jobs. Furthermore, an ungodly low minimum wage makes the poverty level even deeper. It pushes tons more people even farther down below the poverty line, while a few people remain at the top of the pyramid. This particularly affects blacks and Latinos, perpetuating the divide between the races. We should distribute this money a little more evenly, don't you think? Yes, people who work extremely hard to make it all the way to the top and do a lot of good for the world should definitely make a lot of money, but I don't think it would hurt them very much for them to sacrifice a fraction of what they make so that millions of other hard working people can earn a living wage. Billionaires have, I'm sure, worked very hard to get to where they are, but I can tell, I've never seen someone work harder than someone working on a low wage. At my old job, there was a lady who is in her 70s and working 70+ hours a week at 2 very strenuous, bodily-taxing jobs. .
Yes, people who make minimum wage and don't have a college education and haven't worked toward high skills should definitely be paid a low wage, but $7.25 per hour is not even close to that. It's a slave wage that no one can live off of. Paying workers a wage that low while the dollar is practically worthless in this economy is like telling someone they don't even deserve to eat or have a roof over their head. Yes, these people deserve a low wage if they are working a job that literally anyone could work, but they, for sure, deserve more than $7.25 per hour.They deserve just enough money to be able to afford a very small place to live with a roommate or two, as well enough food to fill them up
Look, there will always be lazy people in the world. You can't fix lazy. There will be people who never aspire to be anything more than a cashier. Maybe that comes from their upbringing, or maybe they just don't care about life, or maybe they are just lazy. I don't know. I've never been one of these people. But there are far more hard-working Americans than lazy ones, if you ask me. And if you hold up a full-time job, then in my opinion, you're not lazy. It would be cool if you would aspire to be more and shoot for that dream, but to each his own. If you're apart of the working poor, and you give your entire life to a job, then you deserve to earn enough money to survive. That's how most Americans are anyway. They work very hard with not much to show for it. Yes, some people are lazy and barely do anything with their lives. But this small number of people shouldn't ruin it for everyone. Let's stop worrying so much about our precious billions of dollars and start being a little more generous to people who work just as hard as we do but haven't quite made it to the top yet. It's for the greater good anyway if we want to rid the world of poverty and crime, give more children a chance at a better life, and get our country educated.
The federal minimum wage has barely changed since the 1980s, but inflation has skyrocketed since then. We have always adjusted wages to account for inflation in the past, and there have never been any problems with it. As a matter of fact, it helps the economy. The more money people get paid, the more money they spend, thus boosting the economy, which we desparately need right now. According to Huffpost Business, a study conducted in 2013 revealed that, if the minimum wage was adjusted according to 2012 inflation, then it would be $10.52/hr. According to the same study, if the minimum wage were adjusted according to increased productivity, it would be $21.72/hr! Back in the 1960s, it was normal for people in their early 20s to be able to buy a house while living on two low-middle incomes. Now people are living with their parents into their late 20s/early 30s. It's not because they are lazy; it's because life is much harder, and money is scarce.
If you think that the economy will fail, because businesses will have to shut down if we raise the minimum wage, that simply has not been the trend, if we are going by what has happened in the past. Up until the 1980s, we have always completely adjusted the minimum wage according to inflation, and the economy has never failed. On the contrary, it has always put more money back into the economy. The economy is in the toilet now for completely different reasons. And we could actually pay less in taxes, because paying people a living wage will get them off of welfare, which I know opposers of the minimum wage rise will love to hear. You can't keep wages inhumanely low AND not have people on government assistance, so which one are you willing to give, so you don't have to give the other one?
And of course, a lot of people are worried about how prices will increase if the minimum wage increases. A new study shows that, if we increase the minimum wage to $15/hr, then a Big Mac that normally costs $3.99 will cost $4.16. This is a mere 0.17 cent increase. (Check out the article here: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/08/03/3687171/15-minimum-wage-big-mac/.) And a lot of people, including myself, are not calling for that big of an increase in the minimum wage. I think the minimum wage would be just fine if it were between $10-12/hr.
Here’s what I’m trying to get you guys to think about and gain perspective on: It’s not as simple as you think to just be able to go out and get a high-paying corporate job. Step out of your little bubble for a single second, and try to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. I’m going to give you some examples of people who haven’t had it as easy as you probably have, and maybe you’ll see why some people are stuck in minimum wage jobs, or at least for awhile:
Example #1: Juan is a Mexican-born 18-year-old man whose parents brought him to the United States when he was 3 years old. America is all he’s ever known, but his parents don’t even speak English, and they have always worked minimum wage jobs under the table. His parents have never told him about what he could be or do in the future. They’ve never built him up to dream and shoot for the stars. They’ve always told him that all he’ll ever be is a low-life cashier working for minimum wage. Juan has a chance to break away from this, but it’s not so easy when this is all he's ever known. And it’s extremely difficult when all Juan has is a high school education and no money to go to college. His parents can’t help him, and he never worked toward anything that could get him any scholarships when he was in high school, because his parents never pushed him in school or told him how important education is. He can’t get college loans unless he has someone to cosign on the loan with him, since he is young and doesn’t make enough money. His parents don’t make enough money to cosign on the loans, and they are in the United States illegally, so they have no credit either. Juan has no one to back him up or help him out, so he has to do it all on his own. So maybe Juan decides he’s going to work a job as many hours as he can until he can get some money together for school. Or maybe he’s going to work a job until he’s old enough and has enough good credit to sign for his own college loans. Guess what kind of job he qualifies for while he works his way toward getting himself into college? A minimum wage job.
Example #2: Emily’s parents believe you should be responsible and do your own thing as soon as you turn 18 or graduate high school. When she graduates high school, her parents kick her out of the house. She has no money, and she has to get an apartment of her own and get a job, neither of which she has ever had on her own. She is young and has no money, so where does she go? Probably a minimum wage job, since she has no college education. Maybe her parents agree to cosign on college loans for her so she can get herself into college. But she takes some extra time getting through college since she has to work full time and pay for everything herself. How is a college student supposed to work off of $7.25 per hour and support herself while she makes her way through school? I believe this is the most common scenario we see, and this is very similar to what my scenario was when I was working minimum wage jobs.
Example #3: Nina was a great student in high school, but she made one mistake when she was 16 years old, and she got pregnant. She was only a child herself when she made one mistake that shaped the rest of her life. Maybe she even used protection, just like all the other girls in school. She did the same thing they did, but she was the unlucky one who slipped through the cracks. Her baby ended up being her greatest joy in the world, but it set her way back, because now she has to not only pay to take care of herself and put herself through school, but she has to take care of a child too. She gets little help from her parents, and the father doesn’t want anything to do with her or the baby. Maybe she can get court-ordered child support from the father, but she gets no help from him other than financial help. And they are 16 years old, so how much financial help could the father offer anyway? So where does Nina work? Probably a minimum wage job, since she doesn’t even have a high school diploma yet, let alone a college degree.
So take a moment to think about how fortunate you have been. Hopefully none of the scenarios above describes you. If your parents have supported you in everything you’ve done, that’s blessing #1. If your parents have paid for you to go all the way through college, or have at least contributed in some way, that’s blessing #2. And the root of it all: If your parents taught you to shoot for the stars and that you can do anything if you put your mind to it, count that as the most important blessing they could’ve ever given you. A lot of people aren’t so lucky.
Think about the kids who are thrown into this minimum wage bull crap. Think about the woman who accidentally gets pregnant and has no money or education. Let's say the father has nothing to do with her or the baby. Think about that poor baby who has to grow up in squalor, never knowing when or where his next meal will come from. Think about that poor kid who knows what his mom is doing with all those men who come into the apartment. And all this, just so that poor baby has some food to eat tonight.
We all know what happens when there is a huge population under the poverty line. Squalor. Crime. Racism. Abuse. Unhappiness. Suicide. Prostitution. Do you like any of these things? Well, that's what happens when people work their butts off at a job that doesn't yield enough money to get by, at the very least. We have seen, time and time again, that workers who are paid well do better at their jobs, feel appreciated, strive for more, and have better self-esteem. This is the recipe for greatness. People don't take their jobs seriously or work hard when they aren't valued and can just go across the street and get paid just as poorly there if they lose their first job. So think about what comes from treating people like scum, whether you believe they're scum or not. I'm not saying we should raise the minimum wage to $20 per hour or something incredible like that. But hard working people who maintain at least some sort of full time job should never have to worry about whether their babies are getting enough to eat or not.
A lot of people claim that minimum wage jobs are meant for high school students who need to learn work ethic and need extra spending money, but these jobs are NOT meant for anyone past high school. And they believe that, if you’ve made a minimum wage job your career, then you’re a failure. This is simply not true. Did you know that 88% of people who work on minimum wage are 20+ years old? The average age of minimum wagers is 35. All kinds of people work minimum wage jobs, and it’s because, at least for the time being, they can’t get anything better. I worked my way through college at a minimum wage job until I finally found a serving job my last semester of college that yielded more money than minimum wage. Are you telling me I’m a failure, because I had to work a minimum wage job while I put my own self through college without any outside help, all the while paying for my own housing and food? (By the way, this didn't last very long before minimum wage simply wasn't enough, and I had to seek help from my grandparents.) I agree that people should shoot for more than minimum wage jobs in the long run, but these jobs are meant for people who can’t get anything better for the time being, particularly while they’re in school. So think twice before judging someone’s situation and why they’re working a minimum wage job.
Also, think about how hard it is to survive on minimum wage, if you're in a situation that forces you to work off minimum wage, even if it's temprary, and maybe realize that $7.25 per hour simply isn’t enough for someone to survive. And even if you think no one should “make a career out of a minimum wage job,” the point is that some people do. And even if you don’t think it’s something people should do, not everyone can go to college and work swanky corporate jobs. Some people don't have the brain capacity or the talent, and some people have mental or phyisical health problems that hold them back. The fact is we NEED cashiers. We NEED food preps. We NEED servers and bartenders and cooks and bus drivers and warehouse workers and countless other people who make the world go round. Do you think we have enough high schoolers to fill those jobs? No. So the best we can do is take care of our hard workers. And as long as there are billionaires in this world, I will NEVER believe that it’s ok to pay workers $7.25 per hour, which by the way, ends up being about $5-6 per hour after taxes are taken out. But no matter what your idea of a solution for this problem is, try to break out of your little bubble and see things through other people’s eyes, and realize that not everyone has had as easy of a life as you probably have.
Now think about it this way. How many people in the nation want to go to school but don't due to lack of funds? A LOT. If we paid our workers better, then more people would be able to afford school and become educated. Don't we want more educated people in our nation? If people don't see education as an option, because it's so expensive, then people don't even try, and they get stuck at their minimum wage jobs. Furthermore, an ungodly low minimum wage makes the poverty level even deeper. It pushes tons more people even farther down below the poverty line, while a few people remain at the top of the pyramid. This particularly affects blacks and Latinos, perpetuating the divide between the races. We should distribute this money a little more evenly, don't you think? Yes, people who work extremely hard to make it all the way to the top and do a lot of good for the world should definitely make a lot of money, but I don't think it would hurt them very much for them to sacrifice a fraction of what they make so that millions of other hard working people can earn a living wage. Billionaires have, I'm sure, worked very hard to get to where they are, but I can tell, I've never seen someone work harder than someone working on a low wage. At my old job, there was a lady who is in her 70s and working 70+ hours a week at 2 very strenuous, bodily-taxing jobs. .
Look, there will always be lazy people in the world. You can't fix lazy. There will be people who never aspire to be anything more than a cashier. Maybe that comes from their upbringing, or maybe they just don't care about life, or maybe they are just lazy. I don't know. I've never been one of these people. But there are far more hard-working Americans than lazy ones, if you ask me. And if you hold up a full-time job, then in my opinion, you're not lazy. It would be cool if you would aspire to be more and shoot for that dream, but to each his own. If you're apart of the working poor, and you give your entire life to a job, then you deserve to earn enough money to survive. That's how most Americans are anyway. They work very hard with not much to show for it. Yes, some people are lazy and barely do anything with their lives. But this small number of people shouldn't ruin it for everyone. Let's stop worrying so much about our precious billions of dollars and start being a little more generous to people who work just as hard as we do but haven't quite made it to the top yet. It's for the greater good anyway if we want to rid the world of poverty and crime, give more children a chance at a better life, and get our country educated.
This is exactly what I'm talking about.
It makes sense that, if we raise prices on everything else, we should probably raise the minimum wage.
A lot of people agree that we should increase minimum wage.
Sorry for the profanity if it offends you, but this is a really good point.
I can't believe anyone would ever argue against a higher wage for one person, just because someone else's wage is not high. Fight for both of them to earn what they are worth! This kind of thinking isn't helping anyone. It's not going to help the paramedic if the hamburger-flipper doesn't get $15/hr. Now, instead of at least one of them having a better life, now neither of them got anything, and it's all because of jealousy and greed.
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