Minimum Wage vs. Cost of Living in Rhode Island
As the minimum wage increases, the cost of living increases. However, living costs continue to go up more rapidly, leaving people making minimum wage with few if any ways to survive in this economy. The world is seeing the highest inflation rate in over forty years. Sadly, the American working class gets punished instead of rewarded.
A livable wage in Rhode Island for an adult with no children is $17.52. The minimum wage is thirteen dollars and the poverty wage is six dollars and fifty-three cents. According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, the median household income in Rhode Island is $63,296. The poverty line for a family of four is $24,860. Unfortunately, 12.9% of Rhode Island residents live in poverty.
In Rhode Island, the minimum wage is increasing up to a dollar each year with a goal of reaching fifteen dollars an hour in 2025, two years from now. However, the living wage has skyrocketed so much that this increase in minimum wage will not be enough to support working-class families. Most recently, The Providence Journal claimed that “a two-parent family with two kids needs to make $85,914 a year to make ends meet.” Childcare costs are a huge burden on parents. In order to qualify for assistance in paying for child care you must be making The Journal states that “$46,060 for a family of three or $55,500 for a family of four” according to the Journal. These numbers are incredibly concerning and make it almost impossible for families to live a comfortable life. While most Americans agree that the working class should be rewarded for helping to support the economy, instead, they are paid an amount that is not even close to sufficient.
Many states in America enforce lower minimum wages than Rhode Island. Georgia and Wyoming, for example, have the lowest minimum wages right now at $5.15 an hour. If these states were to increase their minimum wage it would be extremely beneficial to struggling families and their children. In the states with the lowest minimum wages, however, the economy is only benefiting those that are already wealthy yet and an increase in the minimum wage would have a positive impact on both the economy and low-wage earners and their families. With additional pay, workers would be spending more money because they would be getting paid more, and therefore, benefiting other businesses and contributing more to the local economy.
Although many argue that raising the minimum wage would harm the economy, this point has time and again been proven incorrect. According to The Monthly Labor Review “, “an increase in the minimum wage motivates more people to enter the labor market because they will earn more money. Although some economists believe this explanation, several studies have found that an increase in the minimum wage changes employment little, if at all.” Many workers are currently being exploited for the work that they are doing and simply have to deal with it because no one is looking to pay them more. Employers should want to reward their employees for quality work, yet as history demonstrates, labor strikes and mandated wage increases often become necessary to help working families and improve the economy.
The increasing of the minimum wage has a positive impact on the economy and although some argue it has a negative effect on employment rates, this point is not proven and therefore should not be taken into consideration when raising the minimum wage.
