I’ve read this NY Times article about three times now in the last two days. Each time I read it, I get a little angrier. It’s about a growing segment of people referred to in the article as “mobile homeless” — people/families who have lost their homes and live out of their cars.
The number of “mobile homeless,” as they are often called, tends to climb whenever the cost of housing outpaces wages, Dr. Hopper said. Last year was the first year on record, according to an annual study conducted by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, that a full-time worker at minimum wage could not afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country at average market rates.
The notion of “minimum wage” is, in my mind a fucking crime. As long as “minimum” does not equate to “living” the term is just plain criminal.
Hattip to Sarah at Corrente for this one.
Yes, there are many reasons that lead people to lose their homes: devastating hurricanes, medical bills, a death in the household leading to half the necessary income… But it is the working poor living paycheck to paycheck who are teetering closest to that razor’s edge. Rising costs of housing outpacing stagnant income compounded by income not being adjusted to ever rising rates of inflation are major roadblocks to people picking themselves up by their bootstraps. Martin Luther King Jr. in regards to his personal rise to prominence said on an August 13, 1967 appearance on Meet the Press:
It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.
The issue of putting together enough scratch to maintain a home is colorblind and his statement is germane to the struggle for a living wage. A living wage provides a lowest common denominator where people can live and progress. The notion of minimum wage today is criminal.
I’m simply not old enough to know if the notion of a minimum wage ever really worked out as a living wage, but in my lifetime in this last quarter century, it hasn’t. If it ever did, great. But to think now that the minimum wage, which ranges from about $5.15 to $7.15 per hour depending on where one lives, provides enough income to live somewhat comfortably is a fucking sham.
I’ve watched ten year old footage of shows, documentaries, union meetings, what-have-you of people saying back in the 1990s and earlier that the minimum wage should be $9 or $10 per hour, yet we’re still stuck at a federal minimum of $5.15 per hour. I was recently told that in 1968, the minimum wage was $7.44 in 2005 dollars. We’re forty years behind.
While things like universal healthcare go a long way, a progressive push towards a living wage can help build up a little money to fall back on if a medical emergency were to occur. A living wage allows entire communities to collectively rise up above the poverty line. And with that little cache of income, families can spend a percentage more at their local markets and stores cycling money through their local economy. It is a trickle up effect. It never trickles down, never. I know that the Senate candidate I’m volunteering for, Chuck Pennacchio will fight for a living wage, I urge others to find similar candidates running locally during this midterm election to support.
What are your experiences with the minimum wage? How has your community tried to fight for a more level economic playing field? The minimum wage in your state.
What are the fiscal conservatives arguments against a living wage? It seems to me like a lot of people opposed to it simply believe unskilled workers don’t deserve it. The old “poor people are poor because they’re lazy” argument. “If they worked hard enough, they’d be manager”. I’ve also heard some claim that only teenagers earn minimum wage, so they don’t need a higher wage. First, that’s not true, and second, don’t they know how much college costs these days?
But I’m guessing that there must be some more arguments against a living wage that aren’t based purely on apathy or ignorance regarding the poor. Perhaps some would argue that a living wage would destroy small bussiness, since they couldn’t afford it? Do they some of them think that the lowest wage would be a living wage in a free-market capitalist system?
in a free market capitalist system, or you no longer have a free market capitalist system.
When a day’s labor – any labor – is valued by the free market to be lower than the price of a day’s survival, you no longer have either capitalism, or a free market, you have feudalism.
And if you want a middle class, and families, and upward mobilility, that Living Wage must be enough to purchase a day’s survival for two or three people.
There is no question that feudalism is better for the lords, at least in the short term…
A very good [and very long] article on Living Wage and a case study of Santa Fe [min wage of $9.50] in the NYT Magazine from Jan 2006, the good and the bad.
The arguements against a living wage are bogus and put out by corporate hacks. The repugs make a big deal out of being “pro-family” but rail against the idea of wages that actually allow for the existence of functioning families. As for small businesses, if they can’t afford to pay a living wage, they can’t afford to hire people.
Ah yes, the minimum wage which isn’t enough to even survive on in the most frugal and dire of circumstances.
Oh wait, it doesn’t even apply to everyone. Waiters and waitresses get a sub-minimum wage, 2.13 an hour, which is supposed to be made up by tips or by management in the event they don’t earn 5.15 an hour.
Oh wait, not just them. There are a whole host of people ineligible for the minimum wage, including sailors and farm workers.
Oh wait, not just them either. Children working part-time jobs in some conditions are ineligible for that princely sum of 5.15 as well. Children over 12 can be paid 4.25 an hour while children under that can work for absolutely free in certain circumstances.
Oh shit let’s not forget people earning a “training” wage for 90 days. And people given those horrific 30 hour work weeks at the minimum wage.
Oh and damn we can’t forget people hired as “subcontractors”, paid no wage at all, quite often to do construction work.
Furthermore people working solely on “commission” do not receive a minimum hourly wage. And there’s an exemption for the minimum wage to people who load trucks. Yes I swear it’s the truth.
Workers in “seasonal” jobs, especially at recreation slash tourist facilities, often imported from around the world, are also exempt from the minimum wage laws.
In some cases, jobs such as companions for the elderly, fishermen (and women) and people working at small newspapers are exempt from minimum wage laws. And even more bizarrely, “homemakers making wreaths at home” are also exempt.
And the minimum wage doesn’t necessary mean CASH at 5.15 an hour, but can be given in “equal measure”, such as boarding or food.
And god forbid we remember the millions who work without papers, those who are forced to work through work breaks, those locked in their stores and those forced to work off the clock.
But yeah, it’s a beautiful day in America.
Pax
Michigan is finally raising our minimum wage to be above the pathetic federal requirement:
It is absolutely pathetic that it has been this low for this long. Especially in Michigan, where there are required expenses tied directly to climate that many of the other federal minimum states don’t have to deal with.
Wages, Fair Labor Standards Act, and more than you’ll be able to read @ Dep’t of Labor, but read it anyway. No child in this Country is even exposed to the law and regulation of “working in America” at any point in their K-12 education. Problem one.
Everything and anything you’ve ever read about the damage to the economy, loss of small business, eliminating jobs for teenagers, and taking jobs away from single mothers is ossified bullshit. Before, during, and after passage of every piece of legislation since the ’30s, the same two groups trot out lawyers using the same tired arguments to advocate for “management” or “labor”. Again, ossified bullshit.
Arguably one of the most litgated pieces of American law, the FLSA as is now stands should be overturned and rewritten as a permanently appreciating living wage. But you won’t find support in either of the two predominant political parties. S.14 (go look it up) was the Democratic entrant this session, and could have been called ISDN (it still does nothing).
The corollary piece of this puzzle is universal medical care, which is another concept beyond the capacity of either party’s “cognitive collective”. Anal-cranial surgery delayed is legislation denied. Coupled with a wage sufficient for a single person to meet basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, the “new floor” would require legislators actually dedicated to the welfare of the people of this Country, instead of to the nearest unnatural cash act.
Yes, Horatio, one of my major buttons has been pushed, but as you may note by my extremely calm and reasoned statements above, “I’m off my medications and I’m better now”. (John Astin, Night Court, sometime in the ’80s). End point: do not under any circumstances believe there is any politican currently in office who will support the notion. Sorry, but “K Street” extends from D.C. to San Francisco, and all points in between.
The good news? There isn’t any on this one.
I’ve come to the point of believing the only solution will be a collapse of our economy or a major market crash.
Do you see any solutions? Universal health care and some law tying legislators’ pay to base/minimum wage-fair labor laws?
Solution? Tie medical care and wages together by defining a “minimum standard of living”.
What is a wage? People go to work, they spend 8 or even more hours working and after that they receive money for this. However,there is one crucial question: how much people should be paid for their work? How much they need to make a living and to have e normal life?Well, no one can say exactly, but the minimum wage should be enough so that one will know that he/she can rely on it to make a decent living.
Unfortunately, it seems that the minimum wage is not enough. Actually, in the case with Bulgaria the minimum wage is 160 leva.Just to make the picture clearer, I will give you one example: during the winter months a Bulgarian household has to pay for heating around 200 leva! So, I ask, how can a family pay for heating if both the parents receive a minimum wage? How can they buy food, clothes, pay taxes with 320 leva per month? I do not see how they can live:( So, in Bulgaria with a minimum wage of 160 leva one has to decide whether he/she wants to eat, to pay for heating, to pay his/her taxes, to go to the sea, to pay for the education of his/her children or to buy them clothes. One thing is for sure, he cannot pay for everything, thus he must decide which is more important. However, one cannot distinguish between basic things – heating,clothing, education,and eating are all equally fundamental and no one can live without them!
This is the sad story in Bulgaria. Here, people work for nothing;they receive so little that they can hardly cover all their expenses. Doctors and teachers receive around 300 leva, while the average wage in Bulgaria varies between 290 and 400 leva. But this is a ridiculous wage for someone who has spent his life saving lives and who has studied seven years to become a doctor. It is a ridiculous wage for someone who has dedicated his life to educating children. Moreover, with a minimum wage of 160 leva one cannot lead a normal life, thus his right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food,clothing,housing and medical care and necessary social services, which is clearly expressed in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is violated.
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Taking the issue of a living wage to the UN, now that’s an interesting idea.
Thunder, hank you for sharing your experience in Bulgaria. Know that you are not alone in fighting for the ability to afford the basic necessities.