Living Wage by AC, JF, TS
From Dickinson College Wiki
What Is The Living Wage?
The living wage is the minimum hourly wage necessary for a person to achieve some specific standard of living. The living wage comes from the basic premise that anyone in this country who works for a living should not have to raise a family in poverty. Unions, community groups and religious groups are all huge advocators of the new living wage movement.
Statistics
- In 1997, there were 3.7 million families living in poverty.
- 65% of these families had 1 or more members who maintained a job.
- 22% of the families living in poverty in the United States have at least 1 member with a full time job.
- 65% of these families had 1 or more members who maintained a job.
- In 1997, with the minimum wage at $5.15/hour (which it still is today) the real buying power of the wage a full-time worker would earn in a year was $10,300.
- This wage is below the poverty threshold considered to be $11,235/year for a family of 2: Thus, a person working full-time at minimum wage is earning an annual amount that technically puts them below the poverty line.
Costs
- An estimated $40-$60 million a year would be spent by firms on costs of raised wages.
- For most small companies however, the loss that their specific firm would incur will be around 1% or less in production costs, which can easily be absorbed.
- One way of absorbing these costs would be to pay the CEOs and top management officials less exorbant salaries.
- Another way of absorbing these costs would be to raise prices slightly.
- For most small companies however, the loss that their specific firm would incur will be around 1% or less in production costs, which can easily be absorbed.
