Minimum wage.
Perhaps Chris Rock said it best: minimum wage sends the message that if you could be paid less, you would. The news is full of heartbreaking stories of people working multiple jobs and not being able to support their families.
Sometimes, it can be easy to forget about the outside world in our extended childhood of college. Some of us are here on a scholarship, work study, loans or working to support our educational dreams. Many of us are studying, so working a minimum wage job is not our only option. It is profoundly disappointing if after graduation, minimum wage is still the only option.
There have been nationwide protests and proposed pieces of legislation for a higher minimum wage: $12, $15, a so-called living wage and the like. What is interesting is that, according to the US Department of Labor, Wyoming is one of the few states that has a minimum wage below the federal one. What message do we send if the state wants to pay you $5.15 an hour but the federal government $7.25?
The argument against increasing the minimum wage is an interesting one. If employers are required to pay their workers more, then they may need to cut jobs or outsource them. Better a low paying job than no job at all, is how the thinking goes. As a nation, we are bouncing back from the 2008 recession. However, income inequality continues to grow. The top one percent go on vacations in the Hamptons, while the rest pull an extra shift.
Morally, there is little question that people earning minimum wage should be able to afford the necessities of life, but in reality, the question enters a gray area. The “work harder” mentality and welfare discussions enter here. There would be more money circulating in the economy if minimum wage was increased, but also the risk of job-loss: $7.25 does not mean the same thing nationwide.
The minimum wage debate and protests will continue into this November election cycle and beyond. A simple “yes” to proposed wage increases may be an oversimplification of the issue. At the same time, standing idly by continues to put many working Americans in a catch 22 between paying for rent or paying for food.
Raising the minimum wage will be a complicated affair, but at the very least the state of Wyoming should match the federal $7.25.
