English prof pens article about value of minimum wage

English professor Christopher Fee wrote an article for MarketWatch, published on March 13. This article examined the value of the minimum wage and addressed national discussions calling for it to be raised.

From MarketWatch:

Isn’t it more moral to pay a fair wage to somewhat fewer employees than to allow millions of hard-working folks to struggle on starvation wages?

According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, a single adult working full-time in my rural Pennsylvania county would need to earn at least $8.25 an hour to get by; the minimum wage is $7.25. For a family of four with one adult working full-time, $16.83 an hour would be a livable wage. In an urban center such as Philadelphia, the livable wages would of course be higher: $10.09 for a single adult and $19.64 for a family of four.

Paying a livable wage is simple justice.

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