It's time to raise the minimum wage

AFL-CIO American Federationist, The, March 21, 1987 by Jay Mazur

Why has this been happening? The simple answer is that the powerless are powerless. Senior citizens living on social security represent a respected political force in America. Hence, their pensions have a cost-of-living adjustment clause. Many wage and salaried people also work under negotiated contracts with a COLA clause. Unionized workers without COLAs are able to engage in collective bargaining at stipulated periods. Sellers of commodities raise prices in line with inflation. But those at the bottom of the economy--the "working poor"--have no protection except the minimum wage.

Why have not compassionate citizens cried out to Congress more loudly to protect our most vulnerable wage earners? Partly, it is due to a stereotype of those working for the minimum. The common perception is that they are few, teenagers, and part of the minority elements who have not yet found their place in the American mainstream. Put vulgarly, they are seen as a handful of stray outsiders. The facts, however, belie the belief. The victims of the descending floor are not few. In 1986, about 6.7 million salaried and hourly workers earned the minimum wage--or less. An additional six million received wages that were just above the minimum, usually employed in establishments where the pay is customarily set somewhere near the minimum. The wages of these latter range from $3.36 an hour to $3.99.

All in all, the number of workers whose wages revolve around the federal minimum is 12.5 million. This adds up to about 13 percent of wage and salaried employees.

Contrary to the myth, most of those working at the minimum wage are white: three out of four, according to Earl F. Mellon and Steven E. Haughen in a piece on "Hourly paid workers," appearing in the Monthly Labor Review (February 1986, p. 25). While it is true that there is a disproportionately high number of blacks who work at the minimum, they are actually only one out of five in that unhappy level. If it were true that most of those employed at the minimum were black, that would be an added reason to lift the minimum, to avoid further polarization of American society along economic and racial lines.

Finally, most of those who work in the minimum world are not teenagers. The largest number--20 years or older--make up more than two-thirds of those at the minimum. Only 31 percent are teenagers. In short, adults--age 20 or older--make up nearly 70 percent of those earning the minimum. (These were the findings of a Minimum Wage Study Commission in 1981 and prevail in 1986 Current Population Survey statistics.) Twenty-eight percent are the heads of households and another 28 percent are spouses.

In sum, those who depend on the minimum wage for their living are not few, not kids, and not predominantly black. They are mainly adults of all races and ethnic strains--and they are many.

To lift the floor, however, would mean much more than to bring a measure of economic justice to this significant portion of the American people. Although they would be the direct and immediate beneficiaries, many others would also benefit, because the American market would be vitalized by the increased earnings of the nation's working poor.