I see a lot of I've done well through my own efforts and those who don't can live on whatever they can get in this thread. I reject that false premise.
I'll be honest in that I've been very fortunate. Yes, I do have a degree, but they were a whole lot cheaper to earn back then. We own our house, but they were also a whole lot cheaper back then. The house next to us just sold for roughly 4X what we paid for our house back in the eighties and it isn't as nice as ours.
I'll be sixty seven this year and have been able to retire any day of the week with full benefits any day I want for nearly two years now. Not sure when I will. I get six weeks of vacation each year, another four days of personal time and eighty hours of sick time. I rarely use either sick or personal since I enjoy flex time. My job is now quite easy since I've done it for years and my three direct reports can usually do what they need to without much direction or many screw-ups. I am well compensated for what I do.
OTOH, there are many jobs that we all need done that are truly underpaid. I'm thinking about those who police our streets, those who pick and process the fresh fruits and vegetables we all want, the meat processing facilities that keep us all supplied with the cuts we all want as well as the people who clean the hotel rooms we stay in and the guys who handle our luggage when we travel, just to give a few examples.
When we talk about a living wage, we aren't talking about a high school kid making a little fun money taking tickets at the local cineplex. We're talking about adults doing jobs we need to have done for wages that don't correspond to the work they do. It also isn't about some illusory market but rather market power. Employers have it and low wage workers don't. This is what we should seek to change, since people working forty hours a week should be able to earn enough money not to feel financial stress. Not saying they should be able to buy the latest phone or a Caribbean vacation each winter, only that we should see that they get paid enough of what they really earn to live without constant worry.
I'll be honest in that I've been very fortunate. Yes, I do have a degree, but they were a whole lot cheaper to earn back then. We own our house, but they were also a whole lot cheaper back then. The house next to us just sold for roughly 4X what we paid for our house back in the eighties and it isn't as nice as ours.
I'll be sixty seven this year and have been able to retire any day of the week with full benefits any day I want for nearly two years now. Not sure when I will. I get six weeks of vacation each year, another four days of personal time and eighty hours of sick time. I rarely use either sick or personal since I enjoy flex time. My job is now quite easy since I've done it for years and my three direct reports can usually do what they need to without much direction or many screw-ups. I am well compensated for what I do.
OTOH, there are many jobs that we all need done that are truly underpaid. I'm thinking about those who police our streets, those who pick and process the fresh fruits and vegetables we all want, the meat processing facilities that keep us all supplied with the cuts we all want as well as the people who clean the hotel rooms we stay in and the guys who handle our luggage when we travel, just to give a few examples.
When we talk about a living wage, we aren't talking about a high school kid making a little fun money taking tickets at the local cineplex. We're talking about adults doing jobs we need to have done for wages that don't correspond to the work they do. It also isn't about some illusory market but rather market power. Employers have it and low wage workers don't. This is what we should seek to change, since people working forty hours a week should be able to earn enough money not to feel financial stress. Not saying they should be able to buy the latest phone or a Caribbean vacation each winter, only that we should see that they get paid enough of what they really earn to live without constant worry.
