minimum wage

Posted on Monday, June 26th, 2006 at 8:45 am

Let’s just say that I wasn’t surprised when our legislators decided to leave the minimum wage where it has been, but to give themselves a raise. Honestly, have you tried to live on $5.15 an hour? (I know our legislators haven’t.) Even working 40 hours per week at $5.15 AND social service supports, that is not enough to live on, especially if you have a family to support.

I stumbled upon a site from the US Department of Labor. It has interesting information about minimum wage laws in the United States. I didn’t realize how different the states are on this issue.

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2 comments

 1 
David F. Prenatt, Jr.:

How do you respond to the position that an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit would be a much more effective and equitable way of helping the working poor than raising the minimum wage?

[Reply]

terah Reply:
July 7th, 2006 at 3:44 pm

I really know no details about that position, but my first reaction is that the working poor need money today, not when they file their taxes. It’s possible that a tax credit would be better in the long run, but I really have no idea. All I know is that it sucks when you’re poor and working like you’re supposed to and still can’t manage to buy your kids’ school supplies. And I wish that our policymakers would take the time to actually understand what poverty is really like.

[Reply]

David F. Prenatt, Jr. Reply:
July 13th, 2006 at 10:52 am

Advanced EITC benefits can be distributed on a monthly basis if a worker files an IRS Form W-5 with his or her employer, although few people choose this option. However, as an anti-poverty measure, the EITC is particularly effective at helping the working poor, as it is designed to give a single working parent with two children benefits of up to $4,400.00, resulting in a wage subsidy above and beyond any taxes owed that currently lifts millions of families above the federal poverty line. In striking contrast, [url=http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/lwlm99/turner.htm]a paper[/url] published by the Department of Health and Human Services concludes that minimum wage laws do *NOT* decrease poverty, as the number of people lifted out of poverty by an increase in the minimum wage is offset by the number of uneducated and unskilled workers who lose their jobs when the minimum wage is increased.

[Reply]

July 2nd, 2006 at 12:41 am
 2 
mr-trudo:

The minimum wage should be a level about half the average wage as it used to be a decade ago and what it is in most democracies. For example, I live in Ontario Canada and every job under $10/hr ($9 US) is a retail or fast food job that can’t be outsourced or eliminated as people still want their groceries, coffee and tube socks.

The UK has raised their minimum wage almost 50% over the last 7 years to £5.35/hr come October, which is about $10-$11/hr, without any problems with inflation, unemployment, interest rates or the economy.

[Reply]

August 9th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
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