Op-Ed By Cary Brunswick
Daily Star (Oneonta, NY), August 17, 2015
Fifty years ago, when I got my first summer job, the minimum wage was $1.50 an hour. ... It is hard to believe that it has risen only to today’s federal level of $7.25 with the way the cost of living has gone up. Back then gasoline was about 25 cents a gallon; bread was about 25 cents a loaf. Think about it. ...
That’s why many workers earning minimum wage, the working poor, qualify for public assistance despite having full-time jobs. That’s why nearly half the students in this region qualify for free- or reduced-price school meals. That’s why the United States has the second highest child-poverty rate among 35 industrialized countries, despite having the largest economy in the world. ...
On the federal level, a Raise the Wage Act recently introduced in the House and Senate would boost the minimum wage in steps to $12 an hour by 2020. ...
"Businesses need customers who can afford what they are selling, but today’s minimum wage has less buying power than it had in 1950," said Holly Sklar, CEO of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. "We can’t build a strong economy on a weak wage foundation." ...
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