There is a lot of misinformation being spread around regarding the campaign for a $15-an-hour minimum wage in the United States. Much of this is coming from the same folks who incorrectly predicted that Obamacare would collapse the economy and that the 2003 invasion of Iraq would spread democracy in the Middle East, and it’s easy to write these people off as being out of touch with reality.
But more than a few people that I actually want to respect are sharing snarky, even mean-spirited things on social media regarding the minimum wage and the rights of low-income workers, and I think this is all rooted in misconceptions among conservatives and Republicans regarding the reality of low-income employment in the United States.
In an effort to dispel misinformation — and hopefully create some grounded dialogue— I’d like to address a few specific misconceptions that are going around:
(1) Fast food workers are fighting for $15 an hour but EMTs only make $13 an hour. Do you really think fast food labor is more valuable than the work of an EMT?
No. I don’t think anyone believes an EMT deserves to make the same or less than a McDonald’s worker. The people fighting for $15 an hour believe that $15 an hour is the minimum, baseline amount of money that a capable adult should make in this country for any work. EMTs, teacher aides and other hourly paraprofessionals deserve significantly above-minimum wages that are commensurate to the skill and significance of their jobs.
The reason why fast food jobs — and McDonalds jobs in particular — are at the forefront of this conversation is that the primary $15-an-hour advocacy campaign, Fight for 15, began as a series of independent strikes and protests among fast food workers across the country, many of whom were McDonalds employees. These were the first $15-an-hour actions to capture national attention and they are still the most vocal group out there fighting for a living wage for low-income workers; therefore much of the issue is framed around the wages of fast-food employees. (Edit: At this point the official Fight for 15 campaign is geared towards union rights for all service industry employees and securing a $15 an hour baseline minimum wage for everyone. At least that’s how I read it. I am not involved with it directly.)
If there seems to be an undue focus from $15-an-hour advocates on the wages of fast food workers at the expense of other low-earning professions, keep in mind that focusing on one issue at a time is generally the best way to tackle a larger project. I just assembled an exercise bike. When I was attaching the pedal to the body of the bike, I wasn’t doing it at the expense of the rest of the bike. Focusing on the pedal was an integral part of assembling the bike. This is not just about McDonalds workers or Walmart workers but that is currently where the momentum is, and because of this it’s where the attention is going. In most cities a single parent of one needs to be making at least $20 an hour in order to afford food, healthcare, childcare, housing, and transportation for themselves and their child. Despite this, many professional office workers, medical paraprofessionals and even managerial-level folks don’t make $20 an hour. Fighting for an increase in the minimum wage is fighting for a new baseline for everyone.
(2) But minimum-wage work is not supposed to be a career.
People frequently argue that minimum wage jobs are intended for high school students living with their parents and working for spending money. There are a lot of ways to correctly frame the statistics regarding minimum wage employment but it’s undeniable that over 75% of people making the federal minimum wage are 20 years old or older and 30% of minimum wage workers are at their jobs at least 35 hours a week. And this is the just federal minimum wage that we’re talking about here; when you look at the nation as a whole you learn that 30% of all hourly workers over the age of 18 are making under $10.10 an hour, which is below the living wage in most places that people live.
I can’t imagine most people in low-wage jobs see it as their career. Minimum-wage jobs almost never offer medical benefits and almost always penalize people for being sick or for having emergencies. There is no vacation time or family leave when you’re working 35 hours a week at a McDonalds and there is certainly no retirement plan or long-term job security helming the checkout line at Rite Aid. Yet the reality is that millions of hard-working adults take minimum and near-minimum wage jobs to support their family, and many people believe that anyone who works hard deserves a wage they can at the very least live off of.
(3) Raising the minimum wage will hurt businesses and lead to higher unemployment.
There have been a lot of studies done regarding the effect that raising the minimum wage has and will have on American businesses and the economy, and the firm consensus is that raising the minimum wage tends to boost the economy and while having no negative effect on jobs. This may seem counterintuitive at first, but remember: the economy works when people spend money, and more people with more money in their pocket means more people spending money. Voluntarily increased wages have also been shown to sharply reduce employee turnover and increase worker productivity, and many companies that have raised their minimum wage report that things are generally better overall.
But we don’t have to look at studies, we can look at other countries. In Australia, a nation that is considered more business-friendly than the United States, the minimum wage translates to about $16 USD before taxes. Despite this, their unemployment rate is significantly better than ours, proving that a high minimum wage does not necessarily lead to higher unemployment. In Norway and Denmark, fast food workers earn a $20 hourly wage with full benefits. Norway’s economy is stronger than ours per capita and is the strongest among the larger Western democracies, proving that a higher minimum wage does not necessarily lead to a stifled economy.
Please also remember that literally every other Western democracy offers deeply subsidized health care, entitlements like paid maternity leave and paid sick time, and many offer free tuition to universities. Most people who earn minimum wage in the United States are paying for their health insurance out of pocket and many are saddled with huge student loan debt. So if people look at $15 and say “that’s higher than even some of the more socialist European countries” you have to remember that in America the burden of securing health care and paying for education falls on the individual; $15 doesn’t seem so high from that perspective.
(4a) But I’m the owner of a successful small business and I don’t think I could stay open if the minimum wage were increased to $15 an hour.
It’s clear that businesses can thrive while still paying employees a baseline living wage, and an increased minimum wage will mean more consumer spending, so more people will have more money to be able to support your business. We just talked about this.
This being said, if your business model is such that you cannot both make a profit and pay workers what their time is worth then I would argue that you are not running a successful business.
(4b) But I’d have to raise my prices!
People are probably okay paying a little more for your hamburgers.
Edit:
(5) You want $15 an hour? A machine can do your job.
This is a common theme, and it is true; automation is inevitable in many service industry jobs and also a lot of other jobs including paralegals, baseball umpires, garbage collectors, insurance salespeople and jewelers. Because this is all inevitable, the topic of automation it is its own conversation, and it does nothing to challenge the argument that people deserve to be paid enough to live on.
