Raising the Minimum Wage, Yes Please

I know, you’re all like, where is the feminist breakdown of all the things wrong with Valentine’s Day? I actually don’t care very much about Valentine’s Day except the low-wage labor required to pull it together. I know there is a lot wrong with Valentine’s Day like the gender norms it perpetuates, etc. etc. etc. So on that note, let’s talk about Obama’s assertion we’re going raising the minimum wage.

My dream boyfriend, Josh Eidelson, wrote about Obama’s request to raise the minimum wage and index it, which is a first. Everyone let out a sigh of relief when President Obama pulled this one out. I didn’t see it coming which is why “raise the minimum wage” is always one of my phrases for Obama based drinking games; it keeps me sober.

Obama said: “We know our economy is stronger when we reward an honest day’s work with honest wages. But today, a full-time worker making the minimum wage earns $14,500 a year.” Obama urged Congress to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour and “tie the minimum wage to the cost of living so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on.”

Eidelson provides a little background on when the minimum wage was raised and President Obama’s thoughts on the minimum including how full-time workers shouldn’t be living under the poverty line. 19 states have minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage.

So this is good news. A $9 minimum wage isn’t a living wage in DC and certainly isn’t a living wage for a family. A full-time 40 hour a week worker (yeah, thanks Walmart, I have to state 40 hours), brings the annual wage to $18,720. Poverty thresholds can be found here. Now, a $9 wage is above the national poverty threshold, but that doesn’t mean a living wage. Raising the minimum wage just makes sense, and indexing it makes the minimum wage mean something. The indexing will prevent the minimum wage from losing value, which is probably the best we can hope for.

There is broad support for raising the minimum wage, and we already know that the opponents will claim it will kill jobs, which it wrong. It only kills jobs when the owners decide to punish everyone.

Tipped workers left out of Obama’s speech. Their wage has been $2.13 since 1991. Obviously, tipped workers need a wage increase. Congresswoman Donna Edwards will hold a Hill briefing on a bill that would raise the tipped rate to $3.75 within three months.

Obama also had a lot of misses in his speech like the Israel crap and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which endangers labor rights.  All and all I wasn’t impressed with anything but the raising minimum wage and universal pre-K.

Now, I’ve been following all the lefties pointing out that raising the minimum wage won’t do a lot right away and isn’t enough, but I can’t even articulate how great this is going to be for low-wage workers at least immediately following the increase. So, I’m seeing this one as a win.