Post by ck4829 on Dec 8, 2016 5:39:51 GMT -6
Ashley introduced me to Kelsey, 22, a minimum wage worker at the same Sonic. Kelsey is a Knoxville native who works to support herself and her son. Of her paychecks, Kelsey says, “Without help from my dad in the beginning and now government housing and food stamps, I would be homeless.” Sadly, this is the reality of many minimum wage workers who are living paycheck to paycheck in the wealthiest country in the world.
Almost every day for low-wage workers consists of the struggle and anxiety of making decisions about which bills to pay, which meals to skip and whether to buy a gallon of gas or a gallon of milk. The minimum wage in America has remained stagnant at $7.25 an hour for almost five years now, but in that time prices for food, gas, utilities, etc. have continued to rise. This results in millions of members of the working class relying on federal government welfare programs, paid for by taxpayers, to provide food and other necessities for their families. Raising the federal minimum wage would allow almost 4 million workers to come off welfare program support, and in turn American taxpayers would no longer have to pay for corporations to build wealth for shareholders on the backs of their workers.
Fortunately for minimum wage workers, many businesses, interest groups, politicians and legislators are seeing the benefits of raising the minimum wage. In order for businesses to make a profit, and the economy to grow, their customers must have more disposable income. In addition, businesses are seeing that increasing wages raises employee productivity and overall commitment. Henry Ford understood these concepts more than a century ago, saying, “If we can distribute high wages, then that money is going to be spent and it will serve to make storekeepers and distributors and manufacturers and workers in other lines more prosperous. … Countrywide high wages spell countrywide prosperity.”
While too many of our hardest-working Americans, people who clean our buildings and stock our grocery shelves and serve our food, are working harder than ever to earn a living wage, they are falling further and further behind because their paychecks fail to meet rising prices. Minimum wage workers are joining together to bring to light the fact that workers’ real wages are failing to cover the costs of living. These working-class Americans are hopeful that policymakers will see the need for a federal minimum wage increase for these full-time workers to be able to feed their children.
www.knoxnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/2016/12/08/kiley-mccoy-working-poor-desperate-increase-minimum-wage/95054942/
Read more: burnoatus.freeforums.net/thread/295/working-poor-desperate-increase-minimum#ixzz4SFIc2klU
Almost every day for low-wage workers consists of the struggle and anxiety of making decisions about which bills to pay, which meals to skip and whether to buy a gallon of gas or a gallon of milk. The minimum wage in America has remained stagnant at $7.25 an hour for almost five years now, but in that time prices for food, gas, utilities, etc. have continued to rise. This results in millions of members of the working class relying on federal government welfare programs, paid for by taxpayers, to provide food and other necessities for their families. Raising the federal minimum wage would allow almost 4 million workers to come off welfare program support, and in turn American taxpayers would no longer have to pay for corporations to build wealth for shareholders on the backs of their workers.
Fortunately for minimum wage workers, many businesses, interest groups, politicians and legislators are seeing the benefits of raising the minimum wage. In order for businesses to make a profit, and the economy to grow, their customers must have more disposable income. In addition, businesses are seeing that increasing wages raises employee productivity and overall commitment. Henry Ford understood these concepts more than a century ago, saying, “If we can distribute high wages, then that money is going to be spent and it will serve to make storekeepers and distributors and manufacturers and workers in other lines more prosperous. … Countrywide high wages spell countrywide prosperity.”
While too many of our hardest-working Americans, people who clean our buildings and stock our grocery shelves and serve our food, are working harder than ever to earn a living wage, they are falling further and further behind because their paychecks fail to meet rising prices. Minimum wage workers are joining together to bring to light the fact that workers’ real wages are failing to cover the costs of living. These working-class Americans are hopeful that policymakers will see the need for a federal minimum wage increase for these full-time workers to be able to feed their children.
www.knoxnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/2016/12/08/kiley-mccoy-working-poor-desperate-increase-minimum-wage/95054942/
Read more: burnoatus.freeforums.net/thread/295/working-poor-desperate-increase-minimum#ixzz4SFIc2klU
