Friday, March 11, 2005

Minimum Wage

Minimum wage was created to protect the labor worker who through their efforts or through no fault of their own, cannot achieve the education or skills to obtain a position in demand. At that time the federal reserve had thought it wise to maintain the unemployment levels above five %. This has resulted in an attitude that says jobs need not pay any more then is required by the minimum wage law, maintaining an excess of laborers. Now, with the high intelligence levels needed to obtain qualifying jobs, many people are competing for the service jobs and this has continued the oversupply of laborer.
80 years ago,it took one worker to supply the income for a household. It used to be that a gas station attendant job would provide enough income to sustain a family. Today, with our greater standard of living demanded of us through taxes, insurance and licensing, two of these service jobs at minimum wage will not sustain a family.
Service positions are the fastest growing positions of employment we have and these positions are being dubbed as minimum wage positions. Without guilt due to the advent of the minimum wage law, employers have no understanding or desire to share their income with the employees. The attitude of a fair days wage for a fair days work is lost in the jungle of bureaucracy of governed capitalism.
In true capitalism, the system would fluctuate from too many employees available to a shortage of employees available. With the tweaking of our economy by the federal reserve, we have avoided an employee shortage in the labor sector for many years. In response to this, the minimum wage was established but ignored of cost of living increases, thereby allowing labor positions to erode to levels of where it takes three full time minimum wage jobs to support a family.
Where is the justice in this? Either stop messing with the capital system or make it just. In truth, the federal reserve has lately, brought about great results, but we cannot let the continued erosion of the labor positions go on. People in the more rural setting in this nation are being asked to compete with foreign markets where the standard of living is much lower or their currency has much more power to create jobs through it's weakness.
We must move the minimum wage up to where a full time job would meet the minimum of above poverty. This in turn will go further in stabilizing our nation and eliminating some of our need for the entitlements of the governments. Simply remove our payroll taxes and make our minimum wage enough to support a household and there will be propriety. If we don't, the book "The Good Earth" will find it's reality in our Land.