Minimum Wage, Maximum Shame

Remember the days when your school teacher would list items on your report card that needed improvement. For me it was always “needs to avoid unnecessary talking”, which seems a little outdated considering that I ended up earning my college degree in Communication. If I was going to apply this same method of suggestion to our government, perhaps the report card comment would read, “needs to concentrate less on keeping the citizens who do all the work poor” followed by “needs to pander less to the special interest” and maybe ending with “must not vote oneself a huge pay raise then refuse to give the lowest paid workers an extra $2 an hour.”

Score one for the top one percent that owns this country, this last week, as Anderson Cooper and CNN desperately tried to distract you with 24 hour coverage of the shit going on in the Middle East, our lawmakers decided to deny a minimum wage increase. This is on the heels of voting themselves one hell of a sweet pay raise just a couple of months ago. While unskilled workers try to eek out a living making $5.15 per hour, it’s nice to know that our Senate doesn’t have to give up their Starbucks fix (which most likely totals up to about $5.15 per visit), because they are now making around $160,000 per year.

Maybe I’m being too harsh and should cut them some slack, because kissing King George’s ass 24/7 and accepting non-stop corporate payoffs in the form of campaign contributions is tough work. After all, it takes millions and millions of dollars to convince the average person, who may or may not have healthcare, that you feel their pain, and empathize with their situation.

To give some props where needed, CNN did take time to interview some minimum wage workers to stress how difficult it was to try and make a living on the pittance the government requires companies to pay. Most of the workers they talked with were immigrants and worked 12-14 hours per day, six to seven days a week. Yet for their hard work, our esteemed lawmakers bowed to their own employers, the corporate interest, and told these people who break their backs for the little bit that they earn, that a couple more bucks isn’t in their cards.

There hasn’t been a minimum wage increase in this country since 1997, yet Congress has voted itself $30,000 in wage increases. When Jeff and I were both working full-time for companies, our combined salaries didn’t come close to $160,000 per year, yet these schmucks have the nerve to rake it in, then turn around and tell the single mom busting her ass with two jobs that she doesn’t deserve a lousy $2 extra per hour!

The CNN report pointed out that someone who works for minimum wage makes about $41 per day before taxes, which isn’t enough to fill a gas tank at the current fuel prices. Lawmakers should hold their heads in shame every time they enter an establishment where minimum wage workers greet them with a smile as they bring them their double soy mocha latte. I am proud to live in a country where the majority of us are willing to work hard and take pride in our jobs. However, I am embarrassed that we’ve let a bunch of elitist assholes run the show. C’mon people, we can do better than six-figure per year congressmen who sit around all day in golf clubs schmoozing with corporate robber barons.

My sister is a school teacher with a Master’s degree in Education. She has several years of teaching experience under her belt, and is not a stranger to putting in 12 hour days. Her students’ parents call her at home, she spends extra time with kids who need help, and her future goals include a position in the administrative end running a school, so she can make a larger contribution to improving the education for children. For all of this, my sister makes 1/3 of the salary of the idiot Congressman from Washington who let the Green River killer run amuck for years and murder 70+ women. Then when the killer was captured, he took all the credit, and got himself elected to a Congressional seat where he has done the same level of work that he did while tracking the killer…nothing!

I’m not trying to throw a hissy fit, and I’m well aware that life isn’t fair, but the fact that our lawmakers are bringing in over $160,000 per year and get special treatment and perks galore, and the guy at the fast food counter has his entire family living in a lousy, one-bedroom apartment near the airport is just too much of a discrepancy for me.

I propose that we take a decent, nationwide sampling of mid-management level salaries and pay our lawmakers accordingly. Then we bar them from voting themselves a raise (because, duh, who wouldn’t vote themselves a raise if they could), and use the national average, once again. In fact, we make all raises based on merit instead of cost of living, so they only get their 4-7% if they can prove that they’ve done something more than pander to the administration and corporate interests. I think we would all go to bed at night feeling a little better, except the lawmakers who wouldn’t be pleased with the pay cut, because they’d probably have to wake up in the morning, forego their Starbucks fix, and in order to stretch their budget, make their own coffee.