Jul 23 2007
Minimum Wage Hike
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Many lawmakers, along with advocates for low-wage workers, are celebrating the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade. Yet many acknowledge that raising it from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 will provide only meager help for some of the lowest-paid workers.
About 1.7 million people made $5.15 per hour or less in 2006, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“The reality for a minimum-wage worker is that every penny makes a difference because low-wage workers make the choice between putting food on the table and paying for electricity or buying clothes for their children,” said Beth Shulman, a former vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
“Saying that, it’s clear going up to $5.85 is not enough to really make sure that people really can afford the things that all families need,” said Shulman, the author of “The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans.”
Minimum-wage workers will get an additional 70-cent boost each summer for the next two years, ending in 2009 at $7.25 an hour. That comes to slightly more than $15,000 yearly before taxes for a 52-week work year.
Today, someone in such a job and earning $5.85 an hour would bring home $12,168 a year before taxes. The federal poverty level is $10,210 for singles, $13,690 for couples and $17,170 for families of three.
I for one am glad to see the minimum wage go up across the board, it’s great that some relief will be coming to workers but here’s the thing that many people also seem to beforgetting. The cost of living is also increasing accordingly as well. Many local establishments, especially locally owned ones, have already increased the prices of their services to compensate the extra that has to go to payroll.
So is this really going to help anyone?
