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Representative Wayne Gilchrest recently dismayed me
and others who admire his stands on vital issues
against the wild-eyed right. He was quoted in a local newspaper saying that "raising the price of labor" will "hurt those we seek to help." "We can't raise the minimum wage without destroying jobs," he said. Clearly, the economists the Congressman heard have not looked back very far to see what actually happened in the past. Some employers will fire people to prove a point, of course. It makes them feel powerful. They like that. The fact remains that present-day minimum wage is below the poverty line. The figures are clear. This is why two-parent households must have two wage-earners. This is why single-parent (read, mother-parent) families may have to hold two jobs and still may not be able to afford child care. This is why kids go to school without breakfast; why sick parents and kids don't get medication; why homes are not heated. The typical minimum-wage family has to make the choice: food, rent, heat, medicine. I'm working on a story about this situation and have had some horrifying interviews with Dr. John Cook, research director for the Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy at Tufts University. When I called his office seeking help for my Congressman, they referred me to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington. The Center has experts in the field of working-poor economy who will be getting in touch with Gilchrest, along with representatives of Food Links in Annapolis. The latter can tell him that the folks receiving food help are the working poor, working at jobs many of which are too menial and non-productive to be exported; too menial and non-productive to be well-paid. It is time for a Capitol Hill reality check. Some small businesses will fire people rather than pay them. Maybe they need help with management practices. Some big businesses will lay off rather than pay up. They are thinking mainly of their high-level executives and their stockholders. Workers and consumers are last on their priority list. The system must deal with these people. It is time to stop putting the whole burden on the backs of the struggling-to-make-it.
Copyright 1996 Jo Campbell Ecotopics International |