The Working Poor

    It shouldn't shock readers here that people are struggling to just keep their heads above water, pay the bills and feed their families and themselves. Despite the attempt by the Administration to paint the economy as doing just fine, it's getting nastier by the day for millions.

    Check this out: our friends at the Economic Policy Institute tell us that some years back...

Raising the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 in 1996-97 directly improved the wages of 9% of the workforce—almost 10 million workers—and indirectly raised the wages of millions more low-wage workers. Improvements in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and a new refundable Child Tax Credit also rewarded work and supplemented wages. After the minimum wage increase, the combination of full-time, year-round work and the above-mentioned federal tax credits resulted in a net income for a parent with two children equal to 105% of the poverty line in 1997.

    But all that has broken down:

Nine years later, however, the system has broken down. The minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation and thus has lost 20% of its previous purchasing power. To exacerbate the problem, the EITC levels are linked to inflation, so for the last two years a person can work full-time, year-round at the minimum wage but still not be eligible for the maximum EITC. The combination of an out-of-date minimum wage and the existing federal tax credits mean that this same parent of two now only earns 89% of the poverty line.

    If the minimum wage was pushed up from the pathetic 5.15 an hour to 7.25 an hour people earning that minimal wage would be at least what it was in 1997--even though it's sad that so many more people are falling into minimum wage jobs.

 

Comments

[anon]

I think a reasonable and modest minimum wage for a single person with no kids should be $30,000/year ($16.48/hr, 35 hr work week, 5 weeks paid vacation).

Just get rid of unearned incomes, which in my book are unAmerican.

[Tom Romano]

I work in a human services job, caring for autistic and emotionally challenged adults. When I started 21years ago, my pay was $9.00 per hour. 21 years later I now make $13.40 an hr, with the government taking nearly one third of my check.
21 years ago a house my parents bought for $40,000 sold last month for $290,000. That is 7 times as much, yet my wages have not doubled or even gone up 50%. A car 21 years ago that cost $6,000 new is now $36,000, 6 times as much. Rents are 3-4 times as much. Utilities have at lease doubled.
Thus it is easy to see that only through crime, cheating and cutting back to living worse than a person on welfare. I have been turned down for benefits and govt. programs BECAUSE I WORK!! My job;s insurance does not cover dental or glasses and fight every claim put in. So my credit is awful, yet that actually helps me. When I can talk a corporation into sending me a product or sevive, I take whatever I can and laugh at the bill collectors that threaten "ruining" my credit. My workcheck is already tapped to the max by law for not paying taxes. They cannot put you in jail for not filing, ONLY LYING ON YOUR TAX FORMS! Most people do not realize this. I say to all DONOT MAKE OUT A TAX FORM BECAUSE THE LAST 2 ELECTIONS WERE WON BY AL GORE, but a fix by the BUSH CRIME FAMILY overthrew the elected government. So we should not pay taxes to an illegal regime. FUCK BUSH AND HIS COPORATE NAZIS. I would say more extreme things, but I would be killed by a black ops project of the CIA that is now HAVING A GENERAL as head of the CIA for the FIRST TIME!!!!!WAKE UP AMERIKA!!!