Minimum Wage

Minimum wage at any number is not meant to be a livable wage. I intentionally use the phrase meant to be, meaning that regardless of what it was when it was first enacted by Congress in 1938, it is what it is today, by necessity.

Originally, the national minimum wage was enacted under the Fair Labor Standards Act to stabilize our economy after the Great Depression and, "...to create a minimum standard of living to protect the health and well-being of employees... from overreaching employers" (law.cornell.edu).

Is a living wage implied from the phrase that Congress used, "minimum standard?" It might have been, four score and three years ago when the first minimum wage was $.25/hour. Back then, the average income was $1731/year. The average minimum wage income was 42% of that, at $730/year.

By comparison, today the average income is $62,000/year. The average minimum wage income calculated at $7.25/hour is 36% of that, at $22,000/year. If you factor in $15/hour, it rises to 69% of that, at $43,000/year (US Dept. of Labor).

So, the average professional in 2020 who has the education and experience to earn $62,000/year would be making roughly 30% more than someone with no education or experience earning minimum wage at $15/hour. You decide-- what is education and experience worth?

When I first started teaching after I got my bachelors degree, the salary was bad (relative to a college grad in industry), so I had to get a second job. I ended up teaching high school from 7:00am-3:00pm, went home to change and eat, and then taught from 6:00pm-10:00pm as an adjunct prof at college three or four nights a week to make up the difference. After almost a decade of this, I was finally able to cut it down to one job, which for me was because I got more training and experience in the form of my masters degree, which I completed during that period “in my spare time,” and then ultimately my PhD.

During that time, I supplemented my "supplemental" income with my writing, having written several novels through those years, also in my “spare time.”

None of that is taking into account having a personal life as well, I which did, including family, friends, being in bands, theater, writing, births, deaths, divorce, the Eagles, Flyers, etc. I worked assiduously to get where I am today (which is still ridiculously low paid compared to the same education and experience in industry), but I became an educator for the outcome, not the income, and I’m damned proud of my education, my efforts, and my students.

Hard work cannot be circumvented with a politician’s pen. That's just life.

© Ray Cattie