U.S. Senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren descended upon a Boston burrito staple, Boloco, alongside Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the Senate Majority Whip, to continue fighting for an increase in the federal minimum wage. Joined by Boloco founder John Pepper and Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman, the senators heard appeals from local workers & business owners on why the base rate of hourly pay must be more.
“If we raise minimum wage, what does it mean,” began Senator Warren. “It means nobody who works full-time should live in poverty. It means that workers who get out there and do the jobs that keep us fed, who do the jobs that need to be done in this country, can actually raise their families and build some economic security.”
Currently, the federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour while that of tipped-wage employees is a strikingly low $2.13 per hour. Senator Durbin went on to tout a recent New York Times article that debunked minimum wage myths in that the number of workers who would earn more money should it be raised pertains to a vastly larger amount of people than the stereotypical teenager working a summer job.
“More than 1/4th are parents earning minimum wage,” noted Senator Durbin. “And on average earn half of their family’s total income.”
Senator Durbin also opined that the government should reward companies, like Boloco, who put employee satisfaction as a primary concern and sell American-made products.
Pepper, for his part, thought that paying employees a fair income was a “no-brainer.” According to him, Boloco has a four-tiered wage system based on job type. The bare, floor minimum for Boloco employees is $9 per hour with $11 per hour, $13 per hour, and $15 per hour levels based on experience and managerial status. For each of those, however, Pepper and his constituents fought resistance every step of the way.
After Senators Warren and Dubin vowed to keep fighting the good fight in Washington on behalf of all minimum wage earners, a number of local workers shared their stories of struggling to make ends meet. Some of those included a young student who supports her own living expenses while working full-time, a Logan Airport worker laboring to afford law school, and a non-English speaker whose majority pay goes to rent and has trouble affording healthcare.
Senator Warren’s solution to helping all of these people live comfortably without having to worry if their employer truly has their best interests at heart?
“We want $10.10 as the federal minimum wage and it would be phased in over the next three years and have a cost of living adjustment for it,” continued Senator Warren. She also threw her support behind the current battle on Beacon Hill in which lawmakers at the sate level are battling to up the minimum wage of Massachusetts over a similar three-year incremental plan to help Bay Staters account for the enormous cost of living here.
Hoping to garner favor on the matter from both ends of the political spectrum, Senator Durbin stated, “This used to be a bipartisan issue. It used to be that Democrats and Republicans, with frequency, raise the minimum wage. Sadly, whether it’s unemployment benefits or minimum wage it’s become too partisan… Will there be five Republican Senators who will join us to get this done?”
Opposition to a minimum wage increase is headed by small business owners, retailers and the restaurant industry, some of whom consider an increase to be crippling to not only their respective companies but also to their verticals. But with so many people living paycheck to paycheck, both senators aren’t quite ready to buy into that notion.
But what do you think? Is raising the federal and state minimum wages a good thing? Will it be detrimental to small business owners? Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.
