Raising the minimum wage

is fair and just and I cannot BELIEVE there's even a debate about this. I hardly ever yell at the radio DJs anymore (and it wasn't the morning morons, either), but seriously, it was SO STUPID.

"I lived on minimum wage when it was $4.25!! And these jerks want $15 an hour?!"

Hey, guess what you're leaving out? That your rent was $325 and gas was $1.10 a gallon. Apartments now are $1000 a month and gas is $3.50 a gallon. Let me do some quick math on my fingers… OH.

"If these losers want a better wage, go get a better job!"

10% unemployment rate in this town, suckers. There IS no better job.

"They can work their way up like everyone else does. If you want better pay, work your way up to manager!"

Because obviously those positions are plentiful and everyone is equally able to get those jobs!

"I can't believe MacDonald's regional managers make more than I do!"

Is that right, Mr. 23-hours-a-week* and dropped out of school in 7th grade? (Yes, really.) Did you consider that they probably supervise a couple hundred people?

"If a single person with a kid can't raise a kid on one income, they shouldn't have had a kid!"

I suspect you didn't MEAN to be a misogynist when this popped out of your face hole, but 72% of single parents are mothers, and many of them have little choice in the matter.

"Why can't they live on what they make?"

Could you live on $10,000 a year? That's what most "crew members" make. Even if you're full time (and ask yourself how many McDonalds' employees are getting 40 hours), the company itself suggests that you take on a second job of about 32 hours to make ends meet.  Here's what a living wage looks like: In my city in California, a single parent (of one child) would need about $54k to get by with a modest living. That's about twice the poverty level. It's about five times as much as a shift manager at McDonald's makes.

"If you can't make it, then get a second job!"

Many people do. But should you have to work 72 hours a week to have shelter and food? Really?

"If they raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, that's double. The price of a Big Mac will double like THAT."

Well… McDonald's may use that as an excuse to raise prices, but obviously not all of their budget goes to salaries, and if they charged $8 for a burger, no one would buy it. Something between five cents and 68 cents is more likely.

A caller actually called in and said, "I was making a lot of money in my field living in San Francisco. Then I got laid off and divorced, and now I'm a highly skilled worker making $9 an hour." I THOUGHT the next thing she was going to say was how absolutely ridiculous that is, and how impossible it is to live on that wage… "And if I'm only making $9, why should fast food workers make $10 an hour? That's ridiculous!"

Oh, honey. First of all, if the minimum wage was raised, and your pay was below it, yours would be raised, too. Second, why is human nature so prone to thinking, "If I don't have something, no one else should have it either!" instead of "hey, they deserve that, and so do I"? I've seen this so many times in the debate about public employee retirement or health benefits. People scream, "I work in the private sector and I don't get a retirement!" I always want to say, "You're right, that's totally unfair. Go demand a retirement! Hell, unionize! " What impulse makes you wish everyone were as miserable as you rather than wishing you were as happy as others?

Anyway, off my soapbox. I hope it happens soon, and I am thankful for Obama (with reservations), Elizabeth Warren, and the Occupy movement, which has kind of died down, but which did bring attention to income inequality in this country.



*I don't know the ins and outs of radio DJ contracts. This guy is ON the radio 23 hours a week, but I suspect he also has to prepare, go to meetings, and do publicity stuff.