Minimum Wage Debate: Are BOTH Sides Wrong?


The minimum wage debate has come to a tipping point in the US, with low-wage worker walkouts reported all summer at chains and fast food joints in several locations.

When the minimum wage comes to issue, there seems to be little agreement among party lines. Conservative folk tend to argue that raising the minimum wage would destroy the economy, while liberals counter that millions of Americans below the poverty line and not earning living wages is equally if not more destructive.

The UK’s Guardian looked at the American minimum wage debate from the safe shores of a country with single-payer healthcare — observing that what companies don’t pay in wages, poverty-stricken workers are forced to collect in welfare services to make ends meet. Writer Heidi Moore explains:

“The low minimum wage is also as costly for the government as it is cheap for companies. While McDonald’s or other fast food companies save pennies and boost their profitability by paying a low wage, their workers cannot survive on that amount and often end up taking welfare benefits. In 2012, 4.3 million people received welfare benefits and 47 million received food stamps. The number of Americans getting food stamps – a national hunger crisis – has risen in tandem with the number of people unemployed or out of the workforce.”

Moore’s piece refers to the “minimum wage scam,” but it’s worth noting that her critique touches on an important difference between American service and low-wage workers and their first-world peers working the same jobs in different countries.

Business Insider looked at a new global comparison of minimum wage jobs and their international equivalent — finding that while US worker wages were not immediately as terrible as it would seem, a lack of total compensation support made the playing field far less level for Americans:

” ‘After taking a more in-depth look at the ILC, it became clear that the minimum wage debate is misdirected – among both the workers demanding higher wages and the politicians struggling to determine the minimum wage,’ write the strategists in the report. ‘Simply put, the problem is not wages: it’s total compensation – that is, wages and benefits.’ ”

The full minimum wage analysis, with charts, is viewable here. What do you think America should do to address the issue of minimum wage poverty?

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