Health & Fitness
Raise the Minimum Wage
The State Legislature should raise the minimum wage now. This is about much more than $8.75 per hour for workers, it is a moral obligation and the only thing that stands in the way is corporate greed.
The minimum wage is a just and needed law. Raising the minimum wage to reflect economic reality is badly needed NOW!
Currently, a massive amount of our tax dollars go to subsidize irresponsible corporate citizens such as Walmart, Sodexho and others who employ about 60 percent of the 106,000 Connecticut citizens who receive minimum wage. We taxpayers subsidize these corporations when we are forced to meet the basic human needs of the workforce. All of these corporations are vastly profitable and should pay the true cost for their workforce instead of foisting it on taxpayers.
On the very top of the Forbes Wealthiest Americans are Christy Walton worth $24.5 Billion, Jim Walton worth $21.1 Billion, Alice Walton worth 20.9 Billion and S. Robson Walton worth $20.5 Billion. How can anyone argue that the Walton’s can’t afford another $.25 per hour this year and again next year so that the average employee earns $8.75 per hour to support their families?
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Taxpayers provide the workforce for corporations like Walmart with HUSKY healthcare, food stamps, the earned income tax credit and fuel assistance. If these corporations pay their workers a quarter an hour more it is like giving the taxpayers back a quarter and forcing these corporations to pay more of the true cost of their workforce, rather than foisting the cost on to middle class working families.
I thank Representatives Geoff Luxenberg, Jason Rojas and Jack Thompson for doing the morally correct thing and standing up for the poorest of Manchester’s residents. I hope that Senator Steve Cassano votes for a higher minimum wage in the State Senate as well.
Let’s stop the forcing of our fellow Manchester residents onto welfare and show them all that work pays. The same people that argue against raising the minimum wage also argue against welfare, food stamps, providing basic healthcare and fuel assistance. You can’t have it both ways – let people earn a decent minimum wage.
