Op-Ed By State Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood
Detroit News, April 15, 2014
Last week, I tried living on just $42 worth of groceries. The endeavor was part of the “Minimum Wage Grocery Challenge,” where state legislators across the country are learning what it’s like to face the hardships working families face every day. ...
The more I learn about what it truly means to survive on the scarce resources that the minimum wage permits, the more wholeheartedly I understand that it is simply not enough. While I believe that allowing people the opportunity to cross the poverty line into a manageable lifestyle is reason enough to raise the minimum wage, doing so also benefits our society far beyond the individual level. Extra dollars in the pockets of our hardworking families means an investment in local economies and the small businesses where they’re likely to spend those dollars. The businesses that employ workers at a livable wage benefit too. Paul Saginaw, co-owner of Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Ann Arbor has stated that “paying entry wages our employees can live on has contributed to our profitability and our annual compounded growth rate of 10 percent.”
Minimum wage has proven to be an increasingly inadequate stipend for any individual or family to live on. Raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do on a human, social and economic level, and it’s time that the U.S. Congress acted swiftly to make it happen.
State Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, represents Michigan’s 8th District.