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George W. Bush, along with most of the Republicans in the U.S. Congress, only supports a slight increase in the minimum wage, $1 dollar per hour, if it is spread out over three or more years and only if billions of dollars in tax cuts are passed along with it. Many of these same Republicans support a total repeal of the minimum wage.
I support the minimum wage and I would like to see a $3 an hour increase in the minimum wage. Following are my reasons why I support an increase in the minimum wage:
The current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, $10,700 per year, is below the poverty level.
If the minimum had keep up with inflation it would be around $7.90 per hour.
One of the flaws of a capitalist free market system is that it naturally creates a large underclass of workers and the minimum wages provides a safety net so that we don't have millions of people living in the streets, or on government welfare programs.
Free trade agreements like NAFTA provide incentives for U.S. companies to move their high wage labor intensive operations to other countries where labor is cheap and labor unions and workers rights are weak. Without a minimum wage our unskilled workers wages would quickly drop to match those of countries like Mexico where the average worker earn about $.70 per hour.
The minimum wage should be equal to a liveable wage so that people can afford rent, food, transportation, utilities, and basic health care. The current $5.15 per hour is not enough to live on in most U.S. cities.
During the past ten years corporations have been experiencing record profits, record productivity, and executives have been earning record compensation and yet Americans are working longer hours and bringing home less inflation adjusted incomes. An increase in the minimum wage would force these companies to share some of this wealth with its lowest level employees.
New developments in the computer and robotics fields will reduce the need for lower level employees and this reduction in demand for workers will cause a downward pressure on wages and a minimum wage will protect lower level employees from poverty level wages.
A living wage is a boost for business because workers have more money to spend and fewer workers are in need of government assistance, thus lower taxes.
A decent wage reduces employee turnover, increases productivity, lower training cost, and lower supervision cost.
A minimum wage prevents businesses from trying to under-cut each other by lowering wages.
Inflation is always on the rise regardless of whether or not low wage workers are making enough to live on.
Rising the minimum wage does not hurt those it is intended to help, the young and minorities, despite the Republican's claims to the contrary. Since the last increase in the minimum wage in 1996 unemployment has actually gone down.
The minimum wage is not a big issue right now because the economy is booming, unemployment is at a 40 year low, and most employers are paying entry level workers wages above the minimum wage. However, a significant down turn in the economy could quickly result in a very large number of workers earning the minimum wage. When this happens, and it will happen soon rather then later, especially if Republican hold on to their majority positions in the House and Senate, it would be a great benefit to our country if the minimum wage was increased to a liveable wage.
The information on the GWB Right House web site is for issue advocacy only.
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