Upon reading Will Ashenmacher's Jan. 20 article, "Proposed minimum wage raise debated," I grew concerned over how the state of Wisconsin's leadership views its citizen's worth. Coming from Washington state I suppose I grew accustom to living a life of luxury with $7.15/hour minimum wage (now $7.35 due to a January 2005 increase). When I came to Wisconsin I was shocked to see that Wisconsin's minimum wage was merely $5.15/hour. I was more shocked to learn that the minimum wage has not been raised in over seven years. Seven years! How could a state care so little about its own citizens? Sure I had heard that the cost of living was lower here, but I have yet to see that for myself.
The average rent for a one bedroom apartment in Seattle is between $500 and 1300/month. Oddly that is also the average rent for a one bedroom in Milwaukee. Gas in Washington averages $1.81/gallon. In Wisconsin gas is actually more expensive averaging $1.90/gallon (regular) according to AAA. In fact Wisconsin is the fifth highest in the nation. Milwaukee's current price for a gallon of regular gas is $1.97 while Seattle is $1.87. Finally, food prices are no different here than any other place.
Given the above I'm further perplexed how the state of Wisconsin can justify not raising the minimum wage since 1997. The states excuse for this- It's afraid of scaring jobs away? What is more frightening is that people buy that sorry excuse. Speaker John Gard claims that raising the minimum wage by $1.35 instead of $0.85 "would put Wisconsin at an 'economic disadvantage' by decreasing the state's ability to compete for jobs."
I'm sorry but I don't buy this excuse. Gard's spokesman Steve Baas said that "when a company looks at Wisconsin, they look at a lot of factors. Our wage is one of those factors, and so everything you do to increase that makes Wisconsin a less attractive place to put those jobs." This is one of the most ignorant and uncaring comments I have ever heard from a public official. Maybe Wisconsin looks unattractive because many of its citizens lack the funds to clean the cities and neighborhoods up; because they are too busy working one or two $5.15/hour part-time jobs.
There is, however, another side to this story. Viewing the Bureau of Labor Statistics information, I found that indeed the lowest paying sectors are the food services and retail sales industry, both with mean and median pay averages less than $9.50/hour. It doesn't make sense that Abercrombie or any other of the thousands of retail stores located in shopping malls or McDonalds or any of the other eating establishments would think too long about the state's wage rate in making a decision to come here. Because there is a market for retail and food, a higher minimum wage is not likely to scare these sectors off, contrary to what economists and public officials say. True, there may be some businesses that would choose not to come to Wisconsin, but most businesses that pay minimum wage or close to it do not hire full-time employees at that level. I would challenge anyone to show me a company that hires full-time employees and pays them anything near Wisconsin's minimum wage. There are of course the small businesses; can't leave them out. Small businesses are the only one's who truly stand to lose with a wage increase, but they also do not employ the numbers of employees that companies coming from out of state employ. Furthermore, small businesses are unlikely to get many people willing to work at $5.15/hour. Wisconsin is among the worst when it comes to paying its citizens a living wage.
No one can claim that a person can survive on such low wages. Minimal living expenses cannot be covered if a person works 40 hours a week at the current minimum wage level. This is especially true for us job-seeking students. I wonder who truly makes up the bulk of the unskilled labor in this state; students? Or, is a lower wage based more on the color of one's skin, but that's another problem I've noticed.
English is a graduate student in the political science department.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Jan. 25 2005.