What our other readers have said:
No 'gloom and doom'
Every time the minimum wage has been increased — 19 times since its inception in 1939 at 25 cents an hour — many prophets have declared gloom and doom for business and the economy. As we can see today, this has not happened. The hard-working and innovative entrepreneurs have met the challenge, and the economy and society have benefited
Ray Pope, Downers Grove, Ill., USA
'Well being is a community concern'
When I was in high school, my caregivers simply could not make ends meet with the principal breadwinner working 40+ hours a week and the homemaker taking in washing and ironing. It looked as though I might have to drop out of school, and with the Vietnam war raging, it would have certainly meant the draft. Fortunately, there were those in government who realized that industry cannot – and may not want to – attempt to provide full employment.
With a program that let kids from needy families work at the rural high school I attended, I was able to clean the cafeteria, classrooms, work on the grounds, etc. in order to make enough money to finish high school. I was so grateful for what my country did for me, I immediately went into the Marines after graduation and did a tour in Vietnam.
Until we develop an attitude of work-for-what-you-get and a fair, livable wage to get the things you need (not just want), we will never get rid of poverty to a significant degree. The "well-being" burden should be a community concern, from the top of the economic pyramid to the bottom. Had it not been for the war, President Johnson's War On Poverty would have served us well, because business is concerned only with the "bottom line," but government can be concerned with the "well-being" bottom line, if we choose to do so.
Irv Mattingly, Louisville, Ken., USA
A wage hike throws everything off
Elementary economics: If raw products, labor, insurance, and other business expenses go up in a free economy, the employer will calculate the new cost and increase price of the good or service, thus negating the effect.
This also affects the value of the dollar, our ability to compete in exports, and causes us to buy too heavily from other countries. Thus introducing balance of trade problems.
This is supposed to be a free market economy. By raising everyone's pay on a given day, you get no more productivity than you originally had.
Who better knows when an employee needs a raise than their employer? Employees don't even appreciate a raise from congress as much as they do from their employer. The whole thing is politics, pure and simple.
Seaborn Howell, Jr, Bonifay, Fla., USA
More trade education, less college prep
As the minimum wage increases, prices for goods will also increase and the lower wage earners will be right back where they began. I think schools should focus more on teaching trades and college prep courses than the dribble that is taught now. Too many states (or maybe all, not sure) focus too much on the required tests that students have to take to pass high school. College is not for everyone and everyone should not have to be asked to prepare for college. I drive a truck and make a very good living. Teach more trades and more students have skills to use when they leave school.
Lee Modgling, Burleson, Tex., USA
Prices will rise...
Raising the minimum wage does nothing. It is only a ploy by legislators to make people feel good. In very short order, prices will rise on everything since prices are based on cost and raising the minimum wage raises costs. Prices are based on a percentage profit margin, so prices will rise at a greater amount than the rise in the minimum wage. Simple economics that very few, especially those that are getting minimum wage, seem to understand. What raising the minimum wage will accomplish is a compression of those making more than minimum wage. The buying power of everyone that earns a living will decrease — including those earning minimum wage.
The simple fact is that those earning minimum wage are and will be on the bottom no matter how high the minimum wage is raised. The minimum wage will never be a living wage.
John Griffiths, Lusby, Md., USA
Redistribute our welfare
Being from Massachusetts, I will say that the major issue with this story is about housing problems. The fact that people have so little choice about the basic needs of shelter, heat, water, and electricity cancels out the gains brought on by wage increases. Now, even though the market for homes has deflated some, rents still go up. The real point is that with little new low-income housing relative to demand, poverty will continue, but it isn't really because of inflation. It is because the market has no interest in providing low-income housing.
Another part is that benefits like health insurance now make up a huge portion of what businesses pay. Hopefully my state's new plan for health insurance will work out to remove that large burden of poverty as well, although I remain very skeptical. The truth is that as a society we need to assert how we want our welfare to be divided, and increasing minimum wage is one way of making some difference, but that chang alone won't solve poverty.
Tucker Morgan, Somerville, Mass., USA
US wealth should translate to good wages for all
No one who works should have to live in poverty. A country as wealthy as the US should have all its citizens earning a decent wage.
David Hamerski, Milwaukee, Wis., USA
What about the service industry?
While hiking the minimum wage is long overdue, I wonder how it will affect those of us in the service industry. The last time the feds hiked the minimum wage, our minimum wages went from $2.09 to $2.13/hour: 4 whopping cents! Whooo hoooo!? Nope, I still can't afford health insurance, since my employer doesn't offer a company plan. Nope, they still don't give us vacation time, sick leave or paid holidays, even for those of us that have been there for over 10 years! All in all, I'm happy for those that will reap the rewards, but sorry that those of us in the service industry continually get left behind on the minimum wage increases, left to become an even lower bottom rung on the ladder, and expected to settle for a few pennies every 10 years or so.
T. Fisher, Burke, Va., USA
Redistribute wealth
CEO income is nearly 500 times that of their front-line workers. Twenty years ago it was less than 20 times front-line wages. These increases could be paid out of the pocket-change of these greedy leaders. The US desperately needs some redistribution of wealth: some of its citizens are starving!
F. Fish, Vancouver, BC, Canada
The poor spend, the rich save
Those who earn at the minimum wage spend it all back into the economy. Those who gain by keeping wages low do not spend it all back into the economy. There is no reason to keep the economic base low, when the lowest spend all they earn and fuel the economic mushroom effect; whereas the business owners that suppress wages to increase profits do not spend all their gains and therefore take from the economic mushroom effect. Wealth polarization has been supported by keeping the minimum wage the same while the cost of living has risen.
Joseph L. Goldman, Alpine, Tex., USA
Targeted assistance is more efficient
A national minimum wage benefits those who live in high-cost urban areas and hurts those who live in less-expensive parts of the country. The national minimum wage is a major factor in the depopulation of the mid-continent region, where the cost of living is lower but wages below the national minimum wage are prohibited, which creates a barrier to the competitiveness of businesses in less expensive areas.
State-level minimum wage laws better serve the needs of low-income families and workers and the businesses that employ them than a nationwide minimum wage. But the earned income tax credit and other targeted assistance programs are much more efficient and cost-effective ways to help low-income workers and families than either state or federal minimum wage laws.
Robert Shriner, Warrenton, Va., USA
The facts for workers
While I agree that minimum wage might need to be raised, that many "mom and pop" stores will have to lay off workers to support this hike are the cold hard facts.
What good is such a high increase if it will put many wage-earners either out of work or on shorter hours? Seems this will defeat the purpose of the hike altogether.
Congress needs to talk with small business owners and weigh the effects for workers: increased pay for reduced hours or layoffs.
Darlene Calvert, Gastonia, N.C., USA
Wage increase? Get out of Iraq.
How much money is being spent on Iraq? I know first-hand the struggle of poverty. Do those decisionmakers in Washington know what it is like to have to choose between purchasing milk or diapers, between buying food or paying the power bill – and then dealing with the consequences of choosing food over power?
How much better for that money to be spent on decent low-income housing for struggling families! Give it to our libraries, our schools, give it to St. Jude's. It's time to stop throwing our money away in Iraq.
Tabatha Perez, Brier, Wash., USA
Change is needed – beyond just a wage increase
What should be done and what people will voluntarily do on their own may be different. What should be done is a shift to plant-based diets and renewable energies (for transportation and utilities). Personal and local vegetable and fruit farming, manufacturing, and energy generation should be encouraged, with transitional subsidies as may be beneficial. Movement away from such large national structures as are still in place in some places could be beneficial. Good, sensible population planning and attitudes could also help a lot.
Robert E. Monaghan, W. Chatham, Mass., USA
Don't blame illegal immigrants
Let's not blame the illegal immigrants – if you prefer to blame low minimum wages on illegal immigration, then blame the employers who hire the illegal workers; they pay low wages to hard-working people who produce far more than $5.15/hr.
I came from a low income family as well. I grew up with no health insurance, my parents shopped at yard sales and thrift stores. During vacation from school, I'd go with mom to clean houses. I got a part-time job at a fast-food joint when I started high school, while maintaining straight A's in all my classes. Of course all of the money I made was given to my parents to help out paying bills. I knew education would be the only way out of poverty, and I worked very hard to get into college and complete my degree in computer science.
I truly believe education is the only way out of poverty.
Linda Vermeulen, Los Angeles, Calif., USA
Children are expensive
People have got to stop having children they cannot afford to raise. If the guy in the story had no children, he and his wife could bring in $30K/yr and live in decency. With 2 kids, now 4 people are living in ... poverty.
Rob Steal, Denver, Colo., USA
Create more meaningful employment
Raising the minimum wage is long overdue. Now if we can just create more meaningful employment that solves social and environmental problems, workers will have more of a sense of purpose at the same time they are lifted out of poverty.
Tom Curry, Alpine, Tex., USA
A 'living wage' is morally right and makes economic sense
Everyone gains. Remember that axiom "no man is an island"? It's even more true when discussing economics. The unvarnished greed that drives the anti-union and part-time, low-wage economy is not only immoral – it's plain stupid.
When people are underpaid, they end up qualifying for assistance or end up as write-offs, etc. They also pay very little other than sales taxes. Low wage employers essentially shift a substantial part of their labor cost onto non-profit charities and government agencies.
Paying people a fair "living" wage means that people can take care of themselves and their families in dignity. It also means that they will have more to spend, returning virtually all of their money to the economy – unlike the very wealthy. This generates more jobs. Families that earn a living wage can buy houses and add to the local tax base rather than using services at a rate higher than their tax contribution.
There is more – lots more, but paying people a fair living wage with decent benefits is the moral thing to do and economically the wise thing to do. Slum wages are not in the community or nation's interest. Any government that supports a non-living wage is actually subsidizing corporations and individuals at the expense of citizens and taxpayers.
David A Gregory, Marion, Ariz., USA
Too much relying on government
Why is the government telling private businesses what to pay their employees? If you want to make more money, go out and get it. Get another job, get more education. Do what you have to do to get where you want.
Depending ongovernmentt to help you through life is what communist countries are all about. This is the US, not a communist nation.
Bob Leeper, E. Grand Rapids, Mich., USA
The nature of business
Pay differentials are far more a manifestation of power dynamics than merit or true competition.
Businesses that cannot afford to compensate employees at such a low level are probably not going to survive anyway.
Philip Murphy, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
More money in more wallets
The summum bonum of economics is to place the most money directly (via gainful employment) into the greatest number of wallets. And even in this great economic powerhouse, that does not mean those making $100K or more per year. Is not this what Henry Ford did in paying his factory workers exorbitantly higher wages than was common at the time? Trickle up, not trickle down.
Jeff Slahor, Morgantown, W.V., USA
To fight poverty, educate women
Undocumented immigrants stand to gain, and black teenagers stand to lose. The alternative to the marketplace's minimum wage is no wage. When labor is priced beyond the value that is determined by the market the quantity demanded will decrease. This will result in higher unemployment among the lowest earners, for the most part, black teenagers.
Organized labor appreciates increases in the minimum wage because they feel that it will force their non-union competitors to charge rates that more closely parallel their exorbitant ones. Depending on the nature of the industry, this may be true. However, if the company can be moved to a non-union state, it will.
Without question, the most effective way to lift any society out of poverty is to completely educate women. Beyond every moral advantage, the productivity of society and the quality of life will increase significantly.
Michael O'Brien, Washington, D.C., USA
Give low earners a government supplement
All people should file income tax reports. Those people, families etc. who earn less than the amount that the federal government sets as the poverty line should be given a supplement. There are millions in the US who will never be able to buy a home, or a car, or ever be able to feed their families properly. Think of the boom if these people could afford to purchase proper food, or a home, or proper food for their families.
George Chandler, Beaverton, Ontario, Canada
Against a minimum wage
I think in many cases a minimum wage worker receives minimum wage because he produces less goods or services than the minimum wage. If a worker produced $12 per hour of goods or services, and employer would be willing to pay more than minimum wage to retain the employee.
It follows that if we increase the minimum wage, the employer will have to increase prices, or lay off workers, to continue in business. That means that prices will go up for all of us, including the minimum wage worker. I don't see how that benefits the country, or the minimum wage worker, who will still have too little income to buy goods and services, as their prices will have gone up.
Some minimum wage earners may be laid off if the minimum wage is dramatically increased. Employers may be able to support a given number of minimum wage earners even though they lose money, but when we arbitrarily increase the minimum wage substantially, the employer may no longer be able to absorb the loss, and may be forced to lay off workers to continue in business if they cannot increase their prices.
I dislike the idea of a universal minimum wage. The federal government recognizes the variance in living costs, and pays workers in some locations more than workers in other locations, even though they all do the same work; why then, other than political posturing, do we insist on a universal minimum wage?
I think we will never eliminate poverty, as some people are just economically illiterate, and make unwise decisions no matter how much money they have. I do think the schools could address the problem better than they do. But even given the knowledge and training to live responsibly, some of us will fail, and I think those who do fail could best be served by eliminating faceless government programs, and relying on charitable organizations that would give tough personal advice that the poor do not currently get.
William Brown, Lakewood, Ohio, USA
Remove illegal immigrants
The evidence is that illegal immigrants depress wages. Therefore, the removal of illegal immigrants from the job market will allow the law of supply and demand to increase the pay of ordinary working-class Americans.
Jeffrey Reed, Washington, D.C., USA
Higher wages equals more enlistment
Recruitment of enlisted military personnel will benefit, as higher mandated wages reduce the number of such jobs employers can justify, or make a profit from. The increase in unemployment among young, low-skilled high school graduates and dropouts will force males in particular (ineligible for welfare) into the ranks, just in time for the increase in authorized size of the army and marines, and the troop "surge" in Baghdad.
N. Joseph Potts, Miami, Fla., USA
'Thedownwardd spiral of never enough'
At the new minimum hourly wage the yearly total will be $14,996.80 before taxes. If even with the magnificent gross yearly increase of $4284, a "typical family of four" still qualifies for the useful benefits of food stamps and WIC. Perhaps there will be winners all around, as a well-fed and well-funded person is much more productive than someone worried about how to make ends meet in that endless downward spiral of never enough.
Ann Kenny, Cranston, R.I., USA
Workers are people
I can't imagine why anyone would be against raising the minimum wage. Small business owners see the need for their workers to earn a decent amount of money. Perhaps larger businesses have begun thinking of workers as things, not people.
Sharon Bloom, Albuquerque, N.M., USA
Skyrocketing cost of medication a factor
The cost of living has been rising, and medication especially has been skyrocketing. The minimum wage has not increased over a decade. It's time to raise the minimum wage.
Li-Jane Lee, Baton Rouge, La., USA
