From Op-Ed News: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Wage-History-and-The-Case-by-Brian-Lynch-121225-974.html
By Brian Lynch
December 26, 2012
A conservative friend of mine was astonished to learn that a couple with two children in his town would need an income of $52,000 per year to live there. “I’m a CPA and I’ve had partners who didn’t make $57,000 some years,” he said.
That sounds about right, yet we have come to the point where a living wage, defined as the minimum hourly income necessary for a worker to afford basic needs, is close to the U.S. median family income. Nearly half of the USworkforce are unable to meet all of their families basic needs without some assistance from relatives or the government.
“Everyone” can’t be above average,” he protested. “If we set the poverty line or living wage standards above the average American income, the government could NEVER provide [enough for the poor].”
First, living wage standards are not set by the government. They are set by the market place where people spend their wages for the goods and services they need. Living wages are calculated based on the cost of food, shelter, clothing, medical care, transportation and other necessities for living. These essential requirements have a free market price tag that varies from place to place. The poverty line, on the other hand, is an arbitrary federal government measure used to determine who may be eligible for government financial subsidy, among other uses. It is a single value that does not take local economies into account.
Second, his response assumes that it is government’s role to subsidize America’s workforce. To the contrary, it is, and ought to be, the responsibility of employers and business owners to maintain strong communities and a stable, well compensated workforce. When families can no longer afford to meet their basic needs in a given location they either migrate to places where their prospects are better or they devolve to survive and the social order breaks down. Either way, businesses suffer when this happens. Ultimately, commerce and markets cannot exist without solid communities and a stable, healthy workforce. When businesses shirk their responsibility to properly compensate employees, governments step in to help stabilize the workforce. This amounts to a hidden business tax subsidy.
Continue reading at: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Wage-History-and-The-Case-by-Brian-Lynch-121225-974.html
