Quote:I'd left my job in automotive to start taking full time college classes after 10 years of working and hitting dead ends. 3 years ago I moved my family of 6 into a 2 bedroom duplex, shut off the cable, sold everything we owned except the beds the washing machine and some clothes. We hung dry clothing to keep the electric bill down, I rode a bicycle to work 4 miles each way and to get to class I bought a motorcycle to limit gas. took a job from 2am-10am unloading semi trucks for $10 an hour so I could double up on classes from 12pm-8pm.


I finished my AA in 3 semesters and went back to work in automotive where I'm making twice what I made before I left. I'm about 10 credits from finishing my BA where I then plan on jumping to a dealership for more money.


My point was that I know what it's like to make ends meet on $10 an hour and without help (for us it was the form of student loans and savings) it's not possible. If people really expect a minimum wage that can be a living wage you'd have to pay somewhere around $15 an hour but everyone admits that's to much, why because the jobs paying $7 an hour won't exist if we make them pay $15 an hour.

And my point was this:

 

There has to be a floor to wages, mandated by the government, because some employers are not interested in fairness. They are interested in their bottom line.  Therefore, if they can keep you poor, and more important, uneducated, they can have you as a cheap employee for life.  If they keep you poor enough, you'll never get educated.

 

I'm glad you did get that education, and a higher market value, but while you  think that the minimum wage is made for entry-level only, it can also set the market value for what is essentially slave labor  At $10/hour you can't feed a family - unless both members work, and now you're making 20 bucks an hour.  You can now feed your family, and there's just enough left over to save for that education.

 

If anything, your story is evidence that how just a little extra can make a huge difference.

 

The reason I'm in favor of a small bump in the minimum wage is because of my own experience.  In my own lifetime, my most successful year was in 1993 when I made about 35% of what I do now.  Why?  Because everything cost 30% of what it does now.  In 30 years, I've actually gone slightly backwards.  So it is today, when folks make twice as much as when I was paid minimum wage, yet things cost three times as much.  It just hasn't kept pace with inflation.

 

It's time to bump it a bit, not necessarily make it a "living" wage.  As you have mentioned, that's never been the point of setting the minimum wage anyway.

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