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Printer-Friendly ModeIt is time to raise Michigan's minimum wage
July 19, 2005 —
What do you call a person who earns the minimum wage? Are they lazy and unwilling to get the education needed to make a decent income? Are they deviants, people who cannot hold a steady job and thus require the most basic of wages? The fact that the federal minimum wage has not been raised in eight years is of little importance, because people do not stay at minimum wage levels for long, some say.
Should earning the minimum wage have a stigma attached to it, marking a person as a miscreant, a problem in society? If you believe this, you aren't too different from the Republican-controlled Michigan Legislature, which is kowtowing to business interests (as usual), and preventing a long overdue increase at the state level. With the federal government's reluctance towards raising the minimum wage (even as Congress has given itself seven pay raises since the last minimum wage increase), it is becoming up to the states - and in some instances, local municipalities to raise their minimum wages.
But even as the Democratic caucus in Lansing is trying to push a tiered system of progressive minimum wage increases, business groups allied with the GOP are trying to block legislation that would improve the quality of life for many Michigan residents. Saying that a minimum wage hike would cause employers to cuts costs (i.e., jobs) and raise prices for consumers, a coalition led by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce is fighting a minimum wage increase.
Never mind that in terms of real dollars (adjusted for inflation), the minimum wage would be $8.90 if it were at its 1968 wage. Never mind that someone who works full-time year round in a minimum wage job is still $5,000 below the federal poverty level – as true of a sign of the working poor as can exist. Never mind that as good paying manufacturing jobs leave the state, they are often replaced by low-level, low paying positions that offer little room for advancement and little hope for struggling families. As rising inflation and higher energy costs take a larger chunk out of incomes, it is becoming more difficult for someone to work their way out of poverty with a menial job, which used to be a gateway to higher employment. Shouldn't someone be rewarded for their hard work – even if it requires little or no education – with a livable wage?
Raising the minimum wage will not just affect people earning $5.15 an hour. The many SVSU students who work may earn more than $5.15 an hour, but it may not be much more, especially if they work in the retail sector. Michigan's legislators are missing an important opportunity to support higher education, since Michigan's number of college graduates is mediocre (28th) compared to other states. It would be one thing to have a low minimum wage if college costs were very low, but Michigan's average tuition costs (for public universities) are among the highest in the nation. A higher minimum wage would give more people the means to attend college, get an education, and escape a life of poverty.
With Democratic efforts to increase the minimum wage being bottled up in the legislature, groups are now trying to circumvent the usual process and place a proposed minimum wage increase on the ballot. Placing the measure before Michigan voters will likely prove to be successful, as it proved to be in Florida, a state that voted for President Bush in 2004, but nonetheless voted to raise the minimum wage a dollar by an astounding 71 percent majority. If a red state like Florida is giving its minimum wage an increase, then Michigan, a blue state with a long history of union activism, should not be trailing behind.
Minimum wage earners are victims of our "race to the bottom" society that ostensibly believes everyone should earn a livable wage, yet supports Wal-Mart and other companies that keep salaries low for huge profits. Some say the marketplace will correct itself over time, which may occur eventually, but shows no signs of improving any time soon. Fiscal conservatives railed against the New Deal, yet it was only the timely intervention of the federal government that kept American society intact.
Raising the minimum wage will help to get families off public assistance, which will reduce the state's high deficits and budget shortfalls. The tug-of-war that exists in the United States as the rich continue to get richer, and the poor continue to get poorer will eventually strangle our nation, unless we act now.