To the Editor:

Recent protests in Raleigh have once again raised the question of whether or not North Carolina should require businesses and corporations to pay their low-wage workers a livable wage, that is, a wage that would allow full-time workers to cover the cost of living for themselves and their children. This is important considering that in North Carolina the majority of minimum wage workers are adults whose families depend upon their ability to earn a livable income. In the past four decades the minimum wage in North Carolina has remained basically stagnant while inflation and the cost of living have continued to rise. A livable wage for full-time workers in 2015, adjusted for these factors and increased worker productivity, would be around fifteen dollars and hour.

The standard argument against raising the minimum wage is that it would be bad for profits. While this may be true on a simplistic level for some companies, raising the minimum wage increases the spending power of low-wage families providing an overall boost for the economy. In a 2013 report the North Carolina Justice Center projected that raising the minimum wage to only nine dollars an hour would create over four thousand new jobs. Moreover, it is well documented that corporations like Wal-Mart that are dependent on low-wage workers often encourage their workers to apply for federal aid programs like welfare, which they often qualify for because they make so little money despite working full-time. In other words, it is more profitable for these corporations to allow your tax dollars to essentially subsidize the living expenses of their employees rather than paying for it themselves. The corporations take all the profits and tax payers end up splitting the bill.

However, there is a more important question that needs to be addressed. Even though raising the minimum wage might not be directly profitable for corporations that rely on low-wage workers does that mean that we should not do it? Should profits really be the “bottom line” for how we, as a society, make decisions? If so, then should we not abolish child-labor laws, safety laws, and all the other safeguards we put in place to protect workers? We all know that the inhumane sweatshops in poor countries, where labor laws are not enforced if they exist at all, are extremely profitable for corporations. It is profitable, but is it ethical?

It is obvious, but worth mentioning, that the way you make a profit is by creating as much surplus value from the labor of the people who work for you as possible. If you can force your workers to produce more for lower wages then you can make more money. In other words, exploiting people is extremely profitable, as the aforementioned sweatshops make abundantly clear. It is precisely because paying people a fair and livable wage is not directly profitable for large corporations, with all of their lobbyists and political sway, that it is our ethical imperative to demand it.

 

Ryne Beddard

Washington