The call for a raised minimum wage has been argued over and over again, and yet we are still faced with people who think that working a full-time job should NOT earn a person comfortable living, food, and utilities. People will argue that the poor or homeless (or middle-class, for that matter) should get multiple jobs rather than rely on government assistance. Those who don’t work, in their minds, do not deserve to live. The fact of the matter is, however, that the minimum wage is not a livable wage. Employees will work two or three jobs in order to survive. When they ask for more pay, they will be told to get a better job or go to college or quit. These are no feasible or reasonable outcomes, and the suggestions stem from a harsh and cruel root ideal that poor people should not be allowed to live. Big business CEOs want cheap labor and will oppress their employees to get it. People will seriously ask if impoverished or disabled people deserve to eat, but will not ask if CEOs deserve three cars or two houses.
People will argue that paying workers higher wages will break the economy or break capitalism. They will argue that the system needs to stay in place. However, if paying a livable minimum wage where a person can work one full-time job and support themselves and their families will break the system, then the system needs to be broken. These arguments stem from the idea that you need to “pick yourself up by the bootstraps” and “carry your own weight,” but carrying your own weight shouldn’t mean working three jobs just to be able to afford heating and food. People defend CEOs by saying that a business’s only job is to make money, but when a minimum wage worker asks for more money, they are told that money does not matter.
I have heard people say that those who work minimum wage jobs, such as being a cashier at McDonald’s, are there only because they are uneducated when in reality many minimum wage jobs require at least a bachelor’s degree. Waiters and waitresses rely on tip money that does not even level out to minimum wage a lot of the time. Business owners who say that paying workers at least $14 an hour will dramatically affect their bottom line are admitting that they have made all of their profit so far by paying workers wages that they cannot live on. The title of this article says that we want to live, not just survive, but the fact of the matter is, many of us can barely survive on minimum wage.
People are people, and they deserve to be paid wages that they can live on. When I say “live on,” I do not mean breaking even after paying for rent or food or utilities. I mean being able to afford all three while still being able to save money for children or disabilities or disasters. People deserve to live, not just survive.
