The Minimum Wage Is A Poverty Wage

 (This map is from the website Daily Kos.)

The Republicans don't wage to raise the minimum wage -- and some would like to eliminate the minimum wage altogether. That shows they simply don't care about the working poor in this country -- because the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a poverty wage. A wage that keeps millions of working people in poverty.

Note the map above. It shows the wage that would be necessary in each state to rent a two-bedroom apartment using 30% of income (the accepted percentage that allows a family to afford other necessities (food, clothing, transportation, etc.). It ranges from $12.95 an hour in Arkansas to $26.67 an hour in California. In no state does $7.25 an hour even come close to being adequate.

Now the Republicans will try to tell you that doesn't matter, because the minimum wage is mostly paid to teenagers living at home with their parents. That's a lie. About 89% of minimum wage workers are over 20 years old, and the average age is 36 years old. These are people trying to make a living on their own by working full-time -- and many of them are trying to support a family on that pitiful wage -- a wage that insures they will continue to live in poverty.

It is simply immoral to refuse to raise the minimum wage to a livable wage. These are not freeloaders. They are hard-working Americans, and anyone will to work hard should be paid a livable wage. Personally, I think a raise to $15.00 an hour is easily justifiable, but we must raise it to at least $10,00 an hour (and tie future raises to the rate of inflation). Anything else will not be adequate.

We are supposed to be a nation that orders equal opportunity to all -- but the current minimum wage offers no opportunity at all except to continue living in poverty.