When he was campaigning in 2008, President Barack Obama promised to raise the federal minimum wage, declaring “people who work full-time should not live in poverty.” Obama proposed raising it to $9.50 by 2011. That would merely adjust the minimum wage for inflation and restore its 1968 purchasing power.
Despite the very modest increase he proposed, neither the White House nor Congress has done anything to make it happen. In fact, at least three prominent Republican Senate nominees advocated abolishing this worker protection altogether as they fought tough races. It’s a good thing they all lost.
We need to raise the minimum wage, not eliminate it. Boosting the minimum wage would help our lowest-paid workers as well as the entire economy. According to the Economic Policy Institute, every dollar increase in wages for a worker on the bottom rung of the pay scale creates more than $3,500 in new spending after one year.
The minimum wage, established during the New Deal to provide a “minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency and general well-being,” is falling short. A person working full time at the $7.25 hourly minimum wage would earn $15,080 annually before taxes and deductions.
Consider a working single mom with two children: the federal poverty level for this family is $18,310. She could work full time and still earn $3,000 less than poverty wages.
While raising the federal minimum wage would only be a small step in helping low-income families (other income-boosting measures like the Earned Income Tax Credit and dependent care tax credits are proven to be more effective in fighting poverty), it’s nevertheless an important step for ensuring that workers in minimum and near-minimum wage jobs can better bridge the gap between their meager income and expenses.
In addition to raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation, the government must ensure that all workers get this fundamental labor protection. In 2009, approximately 3.6 million people earned the minimum wage or less. A stunning 2.6 million of those people legally earned less than the minimum wage because they’re excluded from the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.
Home health workers, who provide invaluable care to the elderly and disabled — allowing them to live with dignity in their own homes — are still excluded from minimum wage and overtime protections under the so-called “companionship exemption.”
Before the end of the year, the Department of Labor is slated to finally include reform to the companionship exemption in its regulatory agenda. Yet, home health workers are only one segment of the workforce that’s excluded in one way or another from meaningful labor protections that all workers need and deserve.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal responded to the Great Depression by establishing a safety net that could alleviate poverty and help the economy recover. The minimum wage, an essential labor right, is just as important now as it was then.
Some officials and newly elected lawmakers are now proposing dangerous “recovery” strategies, such as cutting taxes for the rich and slashing budgets for social services that will leave millions of Americans behind. While it’s reasonable to presume that it’s risky to boost wages during a recession, several economic studies indicate otherwise. Increasing the minimum wage, and thereby increasing purchasing power for the poorest Americans, actually helps the economy recover.
Raising the minimum wage would be a step to restoring dignity for millions of workers, enabling many ordinary working Americans to become part of the economic recovery rather than its collateral damage.
Tiffany Williams is the advocacy director for Break The Chain Campaign, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies. www.ips-dc.org.
Viewpoints
Related Photos
-
Tiffany Williams
Raise the minimum wage
Boosting it would help our lowest-paid workers as well as the entire economy
- Viewpoints
-
-
Coal problem worth tackling in Washington and Frankfort
Despite hysterical cries from radical environmentalists, neither Sen. Rand Paul’s Defense of Environment and Property Act nor Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Coal Jobs Protection Act would allow activities that bring harm to Kentucky’s wildlife or waterways for the sake of propping up the coal industry.
-
Peter Perlman — Life lessons from a lawyer’s lawyer
One of the great moments of my life was sitting next to legendary Louisville attorney Frank Haddad at a luncheon when he learned he had received the first Peter Perlman Outstanding Trial Lawyer award from the Kentucky Academy of Trial Lawyers.
As they started his bio, the surprised Frank started crying like a baby. A sudden heart attack took him less than a year later. Winning the Perlman award was the crowning achievement of his career. -
Credit score insanity
Frequently, people stop me and ask me personal finance questions.
The most common is how to improve their credit history score.
If you need to improve your credit score, it means you have lousy credit. Before fixing the score, people need to ask how their credit got so bad to begin with. -
‘Tells’ about who will blow their money
Kentucky Derby week is one where gambling takes a forefront in my life. Along with the non-stop activities in my home state, I am speaking at a dinner for the Society of Settlement Professionals in Las Vegas and a film crew from Italy is flying in from Rome to interview me for a documentary about lottery winners.
-
Viewpoints change when critics gain power
Scandals like those roiling Washington often look more or less nefarious as time and facts unfold. After all, what at first looked like a third-rate burglary turned into Watergate.
I doubt the scandals around Benghazi, the IRS and subpoenas of Associated Press phone records reach Watergate status — but we must await more information and time to know. -
Trouble’s last ride
When announcing my retirement, I made reference to letting “Trouble” having one last ride.
-
Going from school to work requires preparation, faith
(Editor’s Note: After graduating from EKU on Saturday, Seth Littrell came to work Monday at the Richmond Register as a reporter/photographer.)
This past Saturday weekend I graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with my bachelor’s in journalism.
It was the single goal I had been working toward for the past four years, and as I walked across that stage I realized I was the first person in my family to do so. -
Report on former EKU Center for the Arts director called 'biased, unfair'
I am writing in response to the Richmond Register’s May 3, 2013, article concerning the former Executive Director of the EKU Center for the Arts. The article I reference appeared on the front page of your newspaper with the headline “Sexual harassment, other offenses alleged in Hoskin’s records in 740 pages of documents.”
-
Recognizing those who provide care
How fitting it is that the beginning of National Nursing Home Week is Mother’s Day, May 12.
-
That’s just how it is: Part four
I mentioned in the first column in this series that I still get razzed for wearing Marshall University Green.
Former EKU President Joanne Glasser always teased me about it. She told me I looked much better in maroon, and I always reminded her I bleed green. I don’t think she ever really cared. - More Viewpoints Headlines
-
Okla. City Mayor: Up to 13K Homes Hit by Tornado
Raw: Aftermath of Deadly Attack in London
Paperless Scanner, Vision of the Future
Florida FBI Shooting Has Boston Bombing Links
Garcetti Elected Los Angeles Mayor Over Greuel
Raw: New Video of Deadly Oklahoma Tornado
IRS Official Pleads 5th Amendment
Lawyer: Feds Investigating Susan Powell Case
Former Rep. Weiner Running for New York Mayor
Jodi Arias: Death Penalty Would Cause More Pain
Police Ram House to End Hostage Standoff
Families Begin Returning to Their Homes in Moore
Raw: Aerial View of Moore Tornado Damage
Looking for Love? Take the Prague Metro
First Person: Baby Falcons on a New York Bridge
Crews Race to Find Survivors of Okla. Twister
Oklahoma: Images of Devastation, Reunion
Raw: Students Clash With Police in Chile
Protests Outside Cincinnati IRS Office
New Xbox One Entertainment Console Unveiled
