The Raise Ain't Enough
Why We Need More Than a Minimum Wage Increase
By Elizabeth González

Last year attempts to raise the national minimum wage failed to pass in Congress, but now House democrats will be voting on a wage increase this week as part of their “100 hour agenda” to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 over the next two years. The Senate is also expected to debate and vote on a minimum wage increase this year.   

The prospect of raising the national minimum wage would seem like a good idea because most people claim to be overworked and underpaid. But raising the minimum wage doesn't address the problem of poverty in this country or create any real solution to those most in need of a pay raise. Instead of stopping at increasing the hourly wage of the lowest paid workers of our society, we should be thinking about completely transforming jobs.

Since 1998 the national minimum wage has been at $5.15. A majority of the states have a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum, but nothing over $8 and a couple of states have no minimum wage law at all. People can't be expected to live well on minimum wage in the richest country in the world.

President Bush has announced that he does want to sign a bill to increase the minimum wage this year, but he wants it to include tax cuts so as not to punish small business. Once again he is proving who he is looking out for— the wealthy because his plan doesn't help the overall economy.

The problems, though, go well beyond the pay of a job. Because two checks into the new pay scale, people are still going to be living check to check, struggling to pay all their bills, buy food, send their kids to school looking decent, and deciding whether or not they can afford a visit to the doctor for that pain. They'll just have a bit more money to struggle with.

People deserve jobs that allow them to care for not only themselves, but for their families as well. The rising and uncontrolled cost of living only sets people up to be in perpetual debt because wages are not adjusted so that people are able to make a decent living and be able to easily afford some of the necessities like places to live, food, education, and health care.

Life isn't about being a slave to work. It shouldn't be that way, but that's how it's become, always keeping some people at the bottom of the pile so that the rest of us can live in some imagined convenience. Work should be something we do in order to make a living; it should not be just our way of living. Raising the minimum wage is an illusionary gain because a dollar or two is not going to pull anyone out of debt. With more money you get the illusion that you have more to buy with. We have to work on breaking down the idea that we have to buy, buy, buy, and spend every cent that we make every two weeks.  

A real solution would be to make jobs respectable and give workers a sense of pride. We have to start looking at the actual jobs everyday people have here, see how they are treated and what it feels like to be them at the end of their day going home. Not sending people to work in a place where they are treated badly and made to feel less by the boss and those above them, but places where they as people along with their work are valued.

Everything from working conditions, to working hours, to what is expected of workers and how they are treated for the jobs that they accomplish should be altered because the current way leaves most people feeling empty and deprived of spirit. They don't feel like they are accomplishing anything with their lives because we have believed that our jobs should be our greatest source of pride, but jobs have lost their value and workers have lost respect. So now with a job that is just a way to pay the bills it doesn't give us a sense of fulfillment and we feel we have failed at life.

We have to allow everyone the luxury of not working themselves to death, the rich shouldn't be the only ones who get the time to relax their bodies and minds. Those people are no better than the ones who work hunched over all day and sweat to make their living. We should all have the same opportunities to enjoy a life that allows us to develop ourselves in all areas of life and not just be trapped into a cycle of worry over working enough to make ends meet.

Post a Comment:
(De-Bug will publish e-mails on this page as soon as possible.)