Congressional Pay Raise is a Slap in the American Worker’s Face

As the federal government baulks at a minimum wage increase Leona, a Video Store clerk in Fort Pierce, Florida struggles to survive in a world where housing costs have sky rocketed, while her earning power has stalled. A single mother with a thirteen-year-old still home, Leona heads off every day to the same job she has held since 1996. She has seen the tumbling fall of the VHS tape and the rocket rise of the DVD, but what she hasn’t seen is a raise to reflect the increases of the costs of living. She is only making a mere 40 cents more an hour then 10 years ago and she can thank the Florida voters for passing a state minimum wage law for that. Still, it doesn’t amount to much at the end of the week. Her employer offers no health or retirement benefits and she is dependent on the Federal government to fill the gaps her place of employment leaves wide open.

Some may argue that Leona’s predicament is of her own choosing. She lacks a high school diploma and thus sentenced herself to a harsh embracement of impoverishment. Before you jump on the band wagon for that argument, take a look at the bleak condition that is the reality for the work force in Saint Lucie County, Florida. It’s a place where a $10.00 per hour job is considered good pay and most jobs start at the state minimum of $6.40 an hour. Take into account that the local housing market has exploded. It is growing harder to find a two bedroom apartment to lease for under nine hundred dollars a month in Fort Pierce and it’s considered to be the bad part of town by the local residents in the county. For the full time worker making the state minimum wage, their monthly income before taxes is $1109.33. After deductions, they are looking at less then $900 per month. Their monthly income does not afford them enough to rent an apartment, let alone afford them to cover the day to day basics. The American dream of home ownership is far out of Leona and her daughter’s reach. More alarming, it is out of the reach of families that are not classified by the government as living in poverty. The median price for a home in Saint Lucie County has exploded to $240,800 and the county now holds the dubious title of 3rd most over valued housing market in the country. It is estimated that homes are inflated by almost eighty percent taking into account population density and family income.

Congress slapped American workers across the face this month as they graciously accepted an automatic cost of living pay raise of 2.2 % that boosted their yearly earnings to $168, 500. Meanwhile, the American worker struggles to get by and is not afforded the luxury of an automatic cost of living pay raise. The minimum wage was designed to protect the American workforce. It was suppose to insure that workers would not be exploited and was meant to insure that low wage earner would be able to afford the basic necessities of life. Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts sponsored a bill that would have increased the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour. It was defeated by the Republican Party. In its place, the GOP offered an alterative bill that would have raised the federal minimum wage by an insulting dollar and fifteen cents an hour. It was defeated as well. The question remains, why should government officials be blessed with the financial protection of automatic yearly cost of living increases in pay, while the rest of the American working population must fend for themselves?

Many workers in Saint Lucie County, Florida are facing stagnant wages. The private sector is hard pressed to bless their workers with a guaranteed yearly raise to cover the increased cost of living. While I would ardently defend the right of all employers to dole out raises dependent on productivity and performance, safe guards must be in place to protect the long term employee. Does big business actually expect us to believe that Leona has kept her job for ten years and has not exhibited any productivity or performance that would warrant a non-mandated increase of her pay? Is Leona’s employment a testament of the video store’s charitable works? No company would keep an employee that is not beneficial to the company that long. Perhaps, it is time that the American worker is a mandated a yearly cost of living adjustment raise to force employers to maintain the purchasing power of their employees yearly salaries and not a new minimum wage law.

Of course, the same reaction will rumble through the business world that echoes during an increase of minimum wage proposal. Forcing employers to pay more will cause massive lay offs and hurt small business owners. The facts show that American companies are enjoying large and stately profits every year. While some smaller companies will feel the pain from smaller profits, the benefits to the workers out weigh the cost. Maintaining the purchasing power of American workers improves their purchasing power; insures a steady standard of living; and prevents added stress to under funded public welfare programs. When every worker’s wage keeps up with the cost of living, inflation is no longer a looming threat to diminish the value of the pay raise. Employees should break even. Past the annual cost of living raise, the employer would still have the freedom to only reward a real raise based on productivity and performance. Each year Leona worked at the video store for the same pay, her wage actually decreased in real world application. While in 1996, $6.00 per hour was almost a dollar more then the minimum wage by the time 2006 rolled around after inflation, she was only making around $4.75 per hour. In reality, Leona’s took a pay cut without knowing it.

It is time for all American workers to stand up and tell the politicians that we want the same financial security that they afford to themselves. Demand a federally mandated yearly cost of living adjustment raise to all American workers to preserve their purchasing power. American workers should not be bullied into poverty due to stagnant wages to protect Corporate America’s every growing huge profits. Since a federal law for an automatic pay raise has been mandated for your congressman or senator, there should be a law to mandate the same for every worker in America. It’s the right and fair thing to do.