The low minimum wage is screwing us all

A new report out of the US has shown that if their minimum wage kept pace with productivity, it would be at $24 per hour today. Their current federal minimum wage is $7.25. That works out to be about $9.50 in Canadian dollars today.

Here in Saskatchewan, we have the distinction of having the lowest minimum wage at $11.32 per hour. Forgetting that someone working a full-time job should be able to afford to live in modest housing and pay for an education to try and better their lives (good luck doing that making $24k per year), how about those of us who don’t make minimum wage? How much higher would our own wages and salaries be if capitalists weren’t able to take advantage of the underprivileged with weak labour regulations? Would there be as much homeless and working-poor as there is today? Would our personal debt be rising as high as it is today? Would economic inequality be as great as it is today, leaving many of us without a dream of ever retiring?

Don’t be fooled into thinking we all aren’t being screwed over by a low minimum wage. Us skilled and unskilled workers alike continue to work hard as our wages barely move above inflation, while the wealth we generate flies up and into the hands of the few privileged at the top of the ladder. Keeping the minimum wage low isn’t going to help any of us climb that ladder any faster. A higher minimum wage, however, will cut the bottom of that ladder out, helping all of us at the same time.