Wages are always a battle between people that do the work and people that pay the wages. The people doing the work always think they deserve more money for what they do, even if they are not doing that much. The people that pay the wages are always looking for ways to make sure the wages are low enough to not hurt their business. With all of these battles, will a solution for a livable wage ever become reality?
Is a livable wage enough money to buy clothes, house, food, etc? Would a car be classified as a basic need if you have to go to work? Would a cell phone be defined as a basic in today's society? If you worked and were able to afford all of this, would your wages be considered livable? If you were able to only afford clothes, house and food but not a car or other needs, does that mean it is not a livable wage?
Minimum wage is the argument that people use about a livable wage. America is unique, and sometimes complicated, in that we have 50 states that are almost like little countries. They all have their own economy, their own rules, their own problems. So what may be a livable wage in one state would not be a livable wage in another. If this is true, then how do we think that we can come up with one standard minimum wage that every state can adhere to? Do politicians that are 'fighting' for the people understand this or are they just using $15 to manipulate us to agreeing with them?
It is amazing to me that in today's world we have access to so much information yet we still let people manipulate us into giving them what they want. One example of this is the $15 discussion. Almost every legislation or 'agreement' to raise the minimum wage to $15 is not the reality that people think it is. Most of the agreements are phased in over what is usually 5 years. So they raise the current minimum wage to around $12 and then it goes up a certain percentage over the 5 years until it is $15. So how many people know this versus thinking that the $15 would be immediate? How is this not manipulating us to giving people what they want versus what is best for us? What is $15 going to be worth five years from now versus today?
Only about 2% of hourly workers are making current minimum wage or below. Now that is around 1.8 million people but it is still a small sample. Out of the 98% that are making above minimum wage we do not know what the average wage is for those people, including how many already make the $12 or above. Is this the reason why people don't talk about people making minimum wage anymore they talk about a livable wage instead?
Do politicians actually think that raising the minimum wage will cause the company to raise other people's wages that are already making the new minimum wage? Do unions agree with this so that they can get more money for their employees? If the new minimum wage is implemented, will companies respond by cutting people's hours or getting rid of people which will put more demand on other employees?
Will raising the minimum wage actually raise prices on product? In normal business, if the business wants to make a profit then they have to raise prices if costs rise. If a business doesn't raise prices then either they are okay with less profit or their prices were so high before that the cost increase is okay? If raising the minimum wage causes small businesses to close, is the government going to help these people?
Why hasn't anyone ever asked politicians if they are only wanting to raise the minimum wage because they want more taxes for their programs? Why is $15 the wage that is acceptable? This is only $31,200 a year which is about $7,000 higher than the poverty rate. We are told that most people making minimum wage can't afford a $400 surprise bill but why is $400 the number? Does that mean they will be able to afford all these additional costs after $15? Every number is given to us by the government and we are asked to believe it.
Why have we not put some responsibility on ourselves? Minimum wage was not meant to be a career wage, if anything it should be a temporary wage until getting a career that we want. If we are making minimum wage as a career, then maybe we need to reevaluate what needs to happen to change that part of our life. If we are not making enough money to provide for ourselves or our family, then maybe we need to look at why that is. We still have to take responsibility for our lives.
People's wages should be something we take seriously because we are dealing with people's livelihood. It shouldn't be a political ploy, it shouldn't be corporations looking at people as numbers instead of human beings and it shouldn't be people looking at others as if they are less than human beings.
There are still a lot of questions out there related to the $15 minimum wage. Who is responsible for giving us the answers, government, corporations, people? Until everyone comes together to try to help those that need it, these questions will continue to pile up without answers or with answers that only are there to manipulate us.