~~ the following is a piece I did for the 2013-14 school year of "The Ram Pride," Ringgold High School's school newspaper ~~
Since 2009, the federal minimum wage has
remained at $7.25 an hour, despite increasing once both years before. Many
believe that minimum wage should increase, while others think that it would be
bad for the economy. Some states, like California, have already raised their
minimum wage, but the state of Pennsylvania has kept it at $7.25. Exactly how
much to raise the federal minimum wage, and by when, is a point of contention
amongst supporters. Remarks from the president during the last state of the
union address prompted discussion on raising minimum wage nationwide, even
though little progress is being made for supporters.
Back in February of this year, Barack
Obama said in the State of the Union Address that he would like to see federal
minimum wage increase to $9 an hour, and then automatically increase after that
with inflation. According to “Inequality.org,” the minimum wage “[a]djusted for inflation using the BLS online
inflation calculator… would come to $10.55 per hour in 2012 dollars.” Obama is either compromising, or attempting to
avoid bad economic implications for such a large increase. In his speech,
President Obama points out that “a family with two kids that earns the minimum
wage still lives below
the poverty line.” What’s frustrating for proponents of this increase is that,
as Annie Lowry from The New York Times writes, “the proposal would see the federal floor on hourly wages
reach $9 in stages by the end of 2015.” That is a long time from now.
Recently, though, strikes that
originated in New York from November have flooded the entire country. The
Thursday before Labor Day, “workers at McDonald's and other fast-food chains conducted strikes and
walkouts in nearly 60 cities,” according to
USA Today. These protests aren’t specifically asking for a minimum wage
increase, just a standard wage increase, but to $15. Still, these strikes
express a large disappointment over wages for workers towards the bottom.
Additionally, America as a whole supports a minimum wage increase to $9.00,
with, according to a February poll from Pew, 71% in favor and 26% opposed.
I talked to Mr. Manko, Ringgold’s Advanced
Economics Teacher, to get a grounded perspective on the matter. When I asked
him whether or not there would be an extreme reaction from businesses to a
minimum wage increase, he said changes would “happen gradually.” At the end of
the day, he says businesses won’t let wage increases eat away profits, although
“some may” just eat the costs. He did cite some chains like Sheetz that pay
their workers above the minimum wage, and explained that offering good wages is
an effective way of enticing people to work for you. When I asked whether or
not Pennsylvania raising minimum wage independent of the rest of the country
would have differing results from a federal increase, he said “you’d see an
increase in cost of living,” citing other states that saw increased costs of
living with a minimum wage increase. I challenged him by saying that it may
have been the cost of living that prompted a minimum wage increase instead, and
he conceded that it is a tough “chicken before the egg” problem. He did note
that there are more to the equation than wages for workers, saying that
benefits like healthcare and vacations are important.
Perhaps most importantly, I asked why the heck we
haven’t seen an increase in minimum wage in around three years. His response:
“Politicians are scared” of upsetting corporations.
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