Wage Debate Fate

Why is doing the right thing in this informational era, such a lengthy barbaric bullfight? Among the politics of confrontation rather than of compromise, the age of turning every piece of legislation into an encyclopedia of contradictions and privacy being a doubled edged sword, is the importance of the great living wage debate, a forgotten afterthought.

There is a much more important issue about real workers with real needs. Fast food workers have been walking off their jobs by the thousands to demand a “living wage” of $15 an hour. They are demonstrating and suing their employers. The lower tier salary scale includes our janitors, waiters, hotel and fast food employees living below the federal poverty level, employed and being fully qualified for all ranges of federal entitlements. Why not just pay a ‘living wage’ and stop the foolishness behind the purported consequences?

A known clear fact is that corporations make profits by paying unlivable wages. But I feel corporation and their greed shareholders have a responsibility to pay workers a “living” wage. Sharing my thoughts are a rising tide of multi-million dollar executives. A colleague sent me a rewarding article printed in the Fort Worth Star Telegram last week, “Paying living wage is good business”. It basically acknowledges “Scrooge-ish” feeling to continue current practices of more millions, knowing their employees are using food stamps to feed their children. The answer was to “raise the salaries to living wage levels, which put them way beyond market salaries for these employee categories”. And they responded without ‘devil-in-thedetails’. What a breath of fresh air from the top! The article continues with increased productivity, loyalty and less turnover among the workers, thus creating a win win situation for all.

“If a business won’t pay a living wage, it shouldn’t exist”, is another powerful article depicting the reality of economics 101. A job that pays a living wage is not just good for the worker who get to take home a livable wage, it’s good for other business owners and the community’s survival. So, the good news is that the great wage debate fate is looking up.