Opinion: The federal minimal wage hasn’t risen in virtually 13 years and US employees are paying the value

By admin Last updated Mar 23, 2022 17

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The federal minimum wage has misplaced at the very least 21% of its worth since Congress final raised it in 2009. This has change into an emergency for the hundreds of thousands of employees who earn lower than $15 an hour and are discovering it not possible to trim different prices sufficient to nonetheless be capable of put meals on the desk and fill the tank.

Based on new research launched by Oxfam, roughly 32% of employees within the US earn lower than $15 an hour. Almost 52 million persons are making an attempt to make it on lower than $31,200 a yr, or $2,600 a month earlier than taxes.

This isn’t proper, neither is it viable — not for working households, for the financial system or for communities. We won’t preserve an financial system going if folks cannot pay the lease and drive to work. That is why Congress should go the Raise the Wage Act of 2021, which might progressively enhance the wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 by 2025 and would tie will increase to median wage progress over time.

In reality, this a civil rights disaster, because the folks most impacted by low wages are traditionally marginalized populations: ladies and other people of coloration. Not solely did these employees get hit more durable, longer and deeper by the pandemic, they have been watching their wages purchase much less every day, as they account for a vastly disproportionate share of the low-wage workforce — 40% of ladies versus 25% of males. Half of all ladies of coloration earn below $15 per hour versus 1 / 4 of all males. And whereas 26% of White employees earn lower than $15 an hour, 46% of Hispanic/Latinx employees and 47% of Black employees earn lower than $15 per hour. These are the folks struggling the worst sticker shock on the grocery retailer and the fuel pump, selecting between lease and utilities.

US jobs are recovering, but women are still being left behind

What’s extra, federal regulation nonetheless permits US employers to pay subminimum wages to almost one million employees. The Increase the Wage Act would repair that, prohibiting anybody from being paid lower than the federal minimal wage.

This can be a resolution that’s lengthy overdue, because it has been virtually 13 years because the wage was elevated. It is also frequent sense: The pandemic stuffed the coffers of firms, which made document earnings, and created many extra millionaires and billionaires. Why are we refusing to mandate that the individuals who do the work, who’re chargeable for productiveness and profitability, get a barely fairer share of the rewards?

Individuals are hurting not as a result of costs are rising, however as a result of we’ve constructed a system that permits employers to use employees so a number of can money in. We ought to be focusing extra on threadbare incomes than on costs. We are able to repair it, and we should.

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Opinion: The federal minimum wage hasn't risen in almost 13 years and US workers are paying the price - CNN perspectives