The Tufts Labor Coalition is co-sponsoring a rally on Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. in Davis Square to support a campaign called Raise Up Massachusetts which intends to raise the minimum wage and ensure earned sick time for workers. Raise Up MA is part of a national grassroots movement to ensure a livable minimum wage for Americans.
The minimum wage in Massachusetts has been held at $8.00 since 2008. However, the cost of living and inflation have increased since then, leading to a steady decline in the real wage and quality of living for workers at all income levels in Massachusetts but especially minimum wage workers. This conveys a trend, namely the long-term and continuous decline in the earning power of the minimum wage in America since the 1960s. In 1968, Massachusetts minimum wage was $1.60. Adjusted for inflation, it would be $10.83 today. Instead, we have a dangerously low and stagnant $8.00 hourly wage.
To put this in perspective, the Department of Labor sets the poverty line of a three-member household at $19,530. However, a full-time minimum wage worker working 40 hours a week only makes $16,696, well below that threshold, so that a single mother or father with two children cannot reasonably provide for their family. This cannot stand in the worlds richest country.
Most arguments against raising the minimum wage focus on the health of the economy, citing that an increase would harm business owners and take jobs and money out of the market. But this obviates the economic logic that putting more money into the hands of the working poor is the surest way to sustain a recovering economy. Otherwise, the failure to raise the minimum wage continues the allocation of government assistance to make up for the shortfall in wages in the form of food stamps, income tax credits, Medicaid, etc. A higher minimum wage would put less strain on the public sector while facilitating increased consumption and thus a healthier economy.
It is true that, for small business owners, a raise in minimum wage could amount to a significant business expense, but one that could likely be counteracted by an increase in customers with more money to spend. A livable minimum wage is vital to restoring the strength of a waning lower-middle and working-poor class, and in many ways, keeping the American dream alive.
However, the reasons we fight to raise the minimum wage are not primarily economic. They are human.
While there are aspects of our government that we disagree on and argue over, we can all look back to the Declaration of Independence to find a few rights that we agree on. We all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and it is our governments role to protect these rights. But todays minimum wage is not livable for a family with one breadwinner. These principles lead us to the conclusion that full-time workers have the right to earn a wage that allows ones family to live safely and healthily.
It is our job to demand that our poorest neighbors still make enough to eat and provide for their children. A livable minimum wage above $10.00 helps ensure this.
Furthermore, earned sick time is a completely logical requirement for all workers. A system in which workers earn an hour of sick time per 40 hours worked, for example, is beneficial to both employers and employees. Not only are sick employees not nearly as efficient and jeopardizing their health (as well as that of their coworkers), but allowing them to take a day off will enable them to recover and be more productive.
We demand an end to politicians who enjoy fantastic benefits (including sick time) while these are denied to so many working people.
Just as Tufts is an integral part of the Medford and Somerville communities, minimum wage workers are a vibrant part of our community, on and off campus. Many of the people that keep our campus running smoothly, as well as small businesses around Tufts that employ low-wage workers, and benefit massively from our patronage, would see part of the earnings from such a symbiotic relationship. If Somerville prospers, all of its citizens should do well, because each of us plays a role in this thriving community.
When there is more than enough to go around in Massachusetts, we ought to ensure that all of us have at least enough. We cannot allow ourselves to overlook the poorest people among us for what they are: people.
If people have the right to life and the pursuit of happiness, they have the right to a decent minimum wage and earned sick time.
For these reasons we are co-sponsoring the rally on November 9th in Davis, along with Tufts Democrats and United for Immigrant Justice, in support of the Raise Up Massachusetts campaign.
David Westby is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at David.Westby@tufts.edu.
