By The Editorial Board
Last year, President Biden raised the minimum wage for federal workers, federal contractors and their employees to $15 per hour, reasoning that a job is more than just a paycheck. Rather, a job is about dignity.
Nationwide, the minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour, where it has been since July of 2009.
Since then, we’ve experienced inflation — lots of it. What was worth $7.25 in July of 2009 is equivalent to $10.07 in January of this year, according to the Department of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index inflation calculator.
Meanwhile, the cost of living has also risen, meaning one dollar buys less while products have simultaneously become more expensive, but people are not getting paid more to make up for this incongruity.
In McLennan County, it’s not hard to see the effects of a minimum wage that has failed to adjust to the rising cost of living and worsening inflation.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a minimum wage worker in McLennan County would have to work 76 hours a week in order to afford a modest, one-bedroom rental home at fair market rent. That’s far more than a full-time 40-hour work week, and it doesn’t even include other expenses like bills, food and daily comforts.
So, it’s no wonder then that data presented at a Waco city council meeting in 2022 showed that in 2021, there were 143 people experiencing homelessness in the city. In fact, rent in Waco is one of the biggest contributors to poverty and homelessness.
However, poverty takes many forms and doesn’t only mean being without housing. It can mean struggling to put food on the table, stretching to make ends meet with each paycheck and not being able to afford the things that make life comfortable, like sturdy shoes and new clothes.
Unfortunately, that’s the reality for the 24% of McLennan County residents, who currently live below the poverty line, measured by an income of $30,000 per year. Working at minimum wage 40 hours a week for 52 weeks only earns you a little more than $15,000 every year.
That’s very, very far below the poverty line.
Minimum wage must be made more livable. Here in McLennan County, a livable wage amounts to $15.38 for a single, childless adult, according to the MIT Living Wage calculator. At 40 hours, you’d still be just above the poverty line making $31,990.40 a year.
People should be able to get by while making minimum wage. Is the person flipping your burger or keeping shopping carts organized at the grocery store any less deserving of being able to eat than a lawyer or a corporate worker?
No matter the job, everyone should be able to put food on the table and pay rent. It’s a matter of dignity and humanity.
