To work is to sell your body. Labor is one of the few currencies with which the average American can barter. If you are selling your body and labor you deserve a livable wage, a wage on which you and your loved ones can live comfortably. Somehow, the richest country in the world will not take care of its workers. A healthy dose of corporate greed and exploitation has tainted the idea of what we view as “livable” to “who is deserving of the right to live.”
Workers will remember how companies treated them, for better or worse.
The COVID-19 pandemic has strained all industries of labor, skyrocketing unemployment to an all-time high. According to JUST Capital, as of Nov. 5, 2020, only 18% of America’s largest employers offered financial assistance to their employees, most of which comes in the form of one time bonuses and hazard pay.
Although helpful, the hazard pay increase is nowhere near the highly debated and sought after $15 federally-regulated minimum wage many progressives and activists demand. JUST Capital’s annual survey emphasizes public support for higher wages as American worker support for paying a fair and living wage grows.
Brands have had to shift both the way their workers are treated and their marketing strategies. According to TIME Magazine’s “Companies are Walking a Tightrope During the Pandemic,” “Americans, particularly younger ones, have increasingly been looking to companies to be moral leaders that reflect their values. That sentiment appears to be, if anything, amplified during the outbreak” (Steinmetz 2020).
COVID-19 has highlighted the need for companies to support their workers, but truthfully, raising the minimum wage is just the beginning of the fight for labor equity. Wage discrimination has plagued the American Industry for the better part of two centuries, setting the stage for the wage gap to widen exponentially.
According to Wage discrimination and the exploitation of workers in the U.S. labor market, “even in normal times, there are obstacles that restrict and prevent workers from finding well-paying, interesting jobs or moving from one job to the next, including, for example, racial disparities in access to wealth building as a result of centuries-long discrimination” (Bahn, et al. 2020).
The history of wage discrimination runs deep and is accented by the myth of “human capital,” which is the idea that the only thing you need to get a better job is to “work, train and study harder.” If the human capital theory is to be believed, then why are there still millions of Americans living in poverty? Companies exploit those that are desperate to work, knowing that they have no choice but to accept less than what they deserve.
Some think of raising the minimum wage as extreme, wondering what repercussions it will have for the economy and small businesses. According to CNBC’s article “Minimum wage: $15 brings benefits, consequences,” “proponents of the wage increase say that raising the federal minimum to $15 per hour will not only benefit workers, it will actually help small businesses by increasing consumer spending, lowering turnover and spurring better productivity and customer satisfaction.”
The CNBC article continues: “In fact, EPI’s research shows that more than half of those who would benefit from a $15 federal minimum wage are workers between 25–54, the majority of whom are women. Over a quarter of those workers have children.”
While price hikes on essential services are a concern, raising the minimum wage will help millions living in poverty provide for their families. Contrary to the popular belief that those living on minimum wage are “teenagers working in grocery stores,” most minimum wage workers are older adults with families and loved ones to provide for.
Students can especially benefit from a minimum wage increase, as juggling their studies and working is a constant struggle. In a community such as West Chester, where the cost of living is unattainable for many full-time students, raising the minimum wage and providing support to students is a must.
A livable wage should be a right available to all Americans. Worker exploitation and corporate greed has plagued this country for too long, and workers will remember how their employers treated them. Workers will remember if they were forced to live to work or work to live. Workers will remember for generations the wage discrimination they have endured. Workers will remember who agreed with their right to live, not just exist in a labor bubble.
Raising the minimum wage is the start of a revolutionary era in which living comfortably is not the American Dream, it is the American Normal.
Bryanna Miller is a fourth-year Media and Culture major with minors in Sociology and Russian. BM942394@wcupa.edu