It's Not About the MINIMUM Wage

The argument against raising the minimum wage is just too intense and dogmatic.  It doesn't make sense.  Why would people argue so vehemently to keep people in poverty, while raising the minimum wage would lower dependence on government services AND result in more spending?  Seems like a win-win.

But every time the subject of raising the minimum wage comes up republicans in Congress begin to moan and wail.  For ten years, from 1997 to 2007, the minimum wage was set at a ridiculous $5.15 an hour.  The highly questionable "tipped worker" minimum wage -- if you receive more than $30 per month in tips this means you -- is now, in 2014, what it has been since 1991:  a whopping $2.13 per hour.

Working well within the fact-free zone, republicans talk about how important it is for teens to work hard to develop character.  Doesn't matter that one-third of minimum wage workers are over 40.  Ditto for the fact that the cost to fill a gas tank -- much less maintain a car -- makes it nearly impossible for a minimum wage worker to get to  that low-paying job.  And it's not like republicans are offering ways for low-wage workers to pay the bills -- they oppose any initiative from food stamps to health care to college education -- that might help a worker survive the abysmal financial hardship of their employment.

Yet we all know that when the minimum wage has gone up, things have gotten better.  After all the Sturm und Drang, workers spend more money, businesses do more business, employers hire more workers, workers spend more money and the spiral keeps moving upward.  Until, that is, minimum wage has once again failed to keep up with costs.

So why all the fuss?  I don't think that the fight against raising the minimum wage has all that much to do with minimum wage workers.  The thing is, when the minimum wage goes up, workers who are at levels above the minimum wage also will get a bump in pay.  The rising tide in fact does raise all boats, and this is what all the fuss is about.  Those in the middle class who are struggling also have a tremendous amount to gain in this fight, and that is exactly what corporate America is paying our legislators to fight.

Unfortunately, this remains a well kept secret.  We keep hearing -- and rightly so -- about those who are unable to survive on the minimum wage.  But this argument doesn't mean much to those who are also struggling to make ends meet, but are earning more than the minimum wage.  So many of us who are caught up in our own financial battles, while the one percent is pulling the strings, need to understand that this fight to raise the minimum wage is a fight to raise the wages and standard of living of all of us.

It has been proven, and will be again, that this is a fight we all need to weigh in on, loudly and passionately.  When the working poor win, so do we all.

Hiding the Poor

In the US we've gotten quite good at keeping the poor out of sight.  Also, disguised.  They are not merely segregated into parts of town we tend not to visit.  These days they wear the Wal-Mart frock, serve us french fries, and clean our hotel rooms.

And we are pretty out of touch about how poor our working poor are.  I recently was talking to some family members about tipping hotel housekeepers.  I had read a book that shocked me by saying that a reasonable tip per night was $2-$3.  All these years, I had been overtipping with $5 tips, assuming that the woman who cleans my tub and toilet deserves at least that.

My son-in-law contested that they actually make a good salary.  I did quite the double-take.  He's a fairly recent college grad making a nice living in computers.  I told him that I was pretty sure these women made salaries not much above minimum wage.  Since this was a friendly, happily inebriated last-day-of-my-visit, we soon went on to other subjects.

Since I've been home, though, I've been mulling this over.  Today, I found some statistics.

Indeed, with the exception of a few states like New York, the wages hover around $20,000.  And I would guess that the big city in those states tip the scale a bit.

So this career path, which involves doing the kind of job that I don't even like to do in my own home, and for hotel guests that are probably often not as neat and considerate as I am, also likely involves not being able to pay one's bills, and not being able to afford extras, like buying a pizza to take home to the kids at the end of a long shift.  I would imagine the benefits do not include sick pay and paid vacation either.

And invisible?  How often do we actually know who is doing this scut work for us?  Unlike a waiter, you can skimp on the housekeeper's tip and never have to look her in the eye.

My point being that this is shameful.  And that maybe the worst thing about this situation is that we are able to not know that it exists.  And this is how we successfully hide our poor.