But with that aside...it's not so much that I think we should raise the minimum wage, but rather that we should ask ourselves this important question: "Who are we to decide who 'deserves' to be paid a livable wage and who is not?" I mean, what are our criteria for deciding who should be able to pay their rent and utilities and car payments and any other bills that come their way? Is it only the college educated people, who probably already had the money to begin with, as evidenced by the fact that they were able to get in to college, pay for college, or even receive a loan to pay for college? Is it just the people with "important" jobs like doctors and dentists and teachers and lawyers? How about people with office jobs? Do they deserve a higher minimum wage? Or people with sales jobs? Nonprofit jobs? Retail jobs? Government jobs? What is our determining factor here? Where do we draw the line? Because honestly, the only criteria seems to be an education, and a person's work ethic seems to have absolutely no bearing whatsoever, even though we like to assume that minimum wage workers are lazy. For example, you could have a completely uneducated worker in the office who makes $9.00/hr and works harder than anyone else, and then you could have a man with a bachelor's degree making $20.00/hr who does virtually nothing, but according to most people the uneducated man doesn't deserve higher pay because, well, he doesn't have an education. Sure, he probably has tons of work experience, a good work ethic, and on-the-job training, but he doesn't have that degree, so he's just not as important. He doesn't deserve to be better able to care for his family.
And when it comes to fast food workers, who are we to say that they don't deserve to earn more money? Who are we to assume that they don't work hard? I have a sister-in-law who's spent the last 20 years working her butt off at Arby's just so she can care for her two kids. She's worked her way into a management position, but does she make as much money as she deserves? Absolutely not.
I think a year ago I would be right there with the Conservatives on this, shaking my head and talking about how utterly ridiculous it would be to raise the minimum wage, how undeserving minimum wage workers are. I probably would have kept on believing this had I not ended up working at Target this past summer after we first moved to Colorado, down one car, unable to find a job in my field, and desperate for money. At first, I considered myself entitled. "I have a Master's degree," I kept telling myself. "I deserve so much more than this." But you know what? I don't deserve more than a Target job. My education doesn't make me a better or more valuable worker to anyone, and I found that out real fast. Working at Target was one of the most difficult and physically exhausting jobs I've ever had, and the majority of people I worked with were really hard workers. They didn't get paid well and they didn't get the recognition they deserved, but they still did their job and did it well. The people who were the laziest....were the managers. Yup, that's right: the people with the college degrees. I found myself shocked when Target employees would do their grocery shopping after they got off work and then pay with their SNAP cards. I didn't understand how they could work so hard and still need government assistance, but I came to understand real fast once I figured out what my yearly salary would technically be, and what it would be like for me if I had to live off of that alone. It would have been virtually impossible to even pay our rent.
For the short time that I worked at Target I absolutely hated it. It was a crappy company to work for and they didn't really care about their employees, but looking back, I'm still thankful for my time there. Working retail while I was in college was one thing, but as an adult who was dependent on that tiny little paycheck it was an entirely different experience, a humbling experience, an eye-opening experience.
Maybe raising the minimum wage to $15.00 will really change the face of poverty, maybe it won't. Maybe $15.00 is too high and we need to compromise for less. Maybe it needs to stay the same. I don't know. But here's what I do know: We've got to stop telling people that they're livelihoods don't matter and that their jobs are unimportant. We've got to stop assuming that minimum wage workers don't care about their jobs and don't work hard at them. We've got to stop treating people like they're less because they don't have an education. We've got to stop telling people that they don't deserve a life free of the stress of living paycheck to paycheck, just trying to make ends meet, just because they haven't ever had the opportunity or advantage of a higher education. And we've got to stop pretending like the fast food workers and retail workers of the world are the only ones who think they're entitled to higher pay, because I think if those of us with a higher education and higher-paying jobs take a good long look in the mirror we'll realize that we too have that same entitlement. If you don't think so, try working at Target for a couple months. That entitlement will rear it's ugly head reeeeeaaaal fast.
I think the thing that frustrates me the most about the whole battle over minimum wage is that the very people who complain about their tax dollars going to assist people on welfare are the same ones dead set against those people dependent on government assistance receiving higher pay, which would actually wean them OFF of government assistance. So what exactly, then, is the solution that you propose? That the poor get a job? Because guess what, most of them have jobs. They just unfortunately don't pay enough money for them to afford the basic costs of living. So what, then? Should we just forever have food drives and never give them the dignity of being able to pay for food themselves? What, exactly, is your alternative solution? Or I guess the real question is, do you even care about a solution? Do you care about the poor, or would you prefer for them to be out of sight, out of mind? Would you prefer to go on believing that the poor deserve to be poor? That seems to be what most people prefer. After all, what could be more true than the welfare queen who uses her welfare money on TVs and expensive jewelry, who doesn't work even though she's perfectly capable, who is overwhelmingly lazy and the perfect example of someone who deserves to be poor. Never mind that this picture doesn't even remotely represent the majority of welfare recipients.
I won't pretend that I know what the perfect solution to poverty is, but I do know that the best way to find a solution is to stop making assumptions about the poor and start listening to those who are actually in poverty. Listen to their stories, their hardships, their successes. Try to understand the factors that are preventing them from success, and be willing to admit that perhaps sometimes we, the educated, middle-class, and rich are part of the problem. Be willing to serve them in ways that give them dignity, honor, and respect and to be a voice on their behalf when so many others are trying to silence them. This is what Jesus would do. He would not make his allegiance to a certain political or economic doctrine determine how he would treat people, but he would instead seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. Our love for God and for our neighbors should shape our politics, not the other way around. And just as He would act on behalf of the poor, love them, listen to them, and serve them, so should we.
And when it comes to fast food workers, who are we to say that they don't deserve to earn more money? Who are we to assume that they don't work hard? I have a sister-in-law who's spent the last 20 years working her butt off at Arby's just so she can care for her two kids. She's worked her way into a management position, but does she make as much money as she deserves? Absolutely not.
I think a year ago I would be right there with the Conservatives on this, shaking my head and talking about how utterly ridiculous it would be to raise the minimum wage, how undeserving minimum wage workers are. I probably would have kept on believing this had I not ended up working at Target this past summer after we first moved to Colorado, down one car, unable to find a job in my field, and desperate for money. At first, I considered myself entitled. "I have a Master's degree," I kept telling myself. "I deserve so much more than this." But you know what? I don't deserve more than a Target job. My education doesn't make me a better or more valuable worker to anyone, and I found that out real fast. Working at Target was one of the most difficult and physically exhausting jobs I've ever had, and the majority of people I worked with were really hard workers. They didn't get paid well and they didn't get the recognition they deserved, but they still did their job and did it well. The people who were the laziest....were the managers. Yup, that's right: the people with the college degrees. I found myself shocked when Target employees would do their grocery shopping after they got off work and then pay with their SNAP cards. I didn't understand how they could work so hard and still need government assistance, but I came to understand real fast once I figured out what my yearly salary would technically be, and what it would be like for me if I had to live off of that alone. It would have been virtually impossible to even pay our rent.
For the short time that I worked at Target I absolutely hated it. It was a crappy company to work for and they didn't really care about their employees, but looking back, I'm still thankful for my time there. Working retail while I was in college was one thing, but as an adult who was dependent on that tiny little paycheck it was an entirely different experience, a humbling experience, an eye-opening experience.
Maybe raising the minimum wage to $15.00 will really change the face of poverty, maybe it won't. Maybe $15.00 is too high and we need to compromise for less. Maybe it needs to stay the same. I don't know. But here's what I do know: We've got to stop telling people that they're livelihoods don't matter and that their jobs are unimportant. We've got to stop assuming that minimum wage workers don't care about their jobs and don't work hard at them. We've got to stop treating people like they're less because they don't have an education. We've got to stop telling people that they don't deserve a life free of the stress of living paycheck to paycheck, just trying to make ends meet, just because they haven't ever had the opportunity or advantage of a higher education. And we've got to stop pretending like the fast food workers and retail workers of the world are the only ones who think they're entitled to higher pay, because I think if those of us with a higher education and higher-paying jobs take a good long look in the mirror we'll realize that we too have that same entitlement. If you don't think so, try working at Target for a couple months. That entitlement will rear it's ugly head reeeeeaaaal fast.
I think the thing that frustrates me the most about the whole battle over minimum wage is that the very people who complain about their tax dollars going to assist people on welfare are the same ones dead set against those people dependent on government assistance receiving higher pay, which would actually wean them OFF of government assistance. So what exactly, then, is the solution that you propose? That the poor get a job? Because guess what, most of them have jobs. They just unfortunately don't pay enough money for them to afford the basic costs of living. So what, then? Should we just forever have food drives and never give them the dignity of being able to pay for food themselves? What, exactly, is your alternative solution? Or I guess the real question is, do you even care about a solution? Do you care about the poor, or would you prefer for them to be out of sight, out of mind? Would you prefer to go on believing that the poor deserve to be poor? That seems to be what most people prefer. After all, what could be more true than the welfare queen who uses her welfare money on TVs and expensive jewelry, who doesn't work even though she's perfectly capable, who is overwhelmingly lazy and the perfect example of someone who deserves to be poor. Never mind that this picture doesn't even remotely represent the majority of welfare recipients.
I won't pretend that I know what the perfect solution to poverty is, but I do know that the best way to find a solution is to stop making assumptions about the poor and start listening to those who are actually in poverty. Listen to their stories, their hardships, their successes. Try to understand the factors that are preventing them from success, and be willing to admit that perhaps sometimes we, the educated, middle-class, and rich are part of the problem. Be willing to serve them in ways that give them dignity, honor, and respect and to be a voice on their behalf when so many others are trying to silence them. This is what Jesus would do. He would not make his allegiance to a certain political or economic doctrine determine how he would treat people, but he would instead seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. Our love for God and for our neighbors should shape our politics, not the other way around. And just as He would act on behalf of the poor, love them, listen to them, and serve them, so should we.
If you were to stop a homeless man on the street or a single mom in the grocery line paying with her SNAP card and ask them "how have Christians helped you?", let us hope that their answer is more than "they gave me a four year-old can of garbanzo beans in a food drive." Because if that's all we're doing for the poor, it's just not enough. We actually live in a country where we can use our voices and our positions to help protect the poor and give them a better life. So by God, let's stop blaming the poor and use what we've been given to give to others.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:3-8 ESV)
