Nearly 8 million Americans go to work every day and yet still live below the poverty line.


As the gap between the wealthy and the poor in America widens, some policy makers are trying to work to "stop the bleeding" and one of the hottest issues, recently, is the Fair Minimum Wage Act.

Nearly 8 million Americans go to work every day and yet still live below the poverty line. The wealth disparities have soared since the 1970s with a CEO's pay at 273 times that of an average worker and the richest people in our nation have 288 times the wealth of the median household. Large corporations are profiting off of the backs of their underpaid workers while avoiding paying taxes and even shipping some of their work overseas. They hire the workers for poverty pay as they make profits that have reached an all-time record of $1.97 trillion in 2011. The president, in a speech last year, called the income equality issue a bigger threat to the United States economy than the federal budget deficit and referred to the income inequality as a "deficit of opportunity." Currently, minimum wage is $15,000 a year for a full-time worker.

Lamentably, so many of us have been taught that to have a job is to prosper, which is entirely untrue. The large focus on job creation in our country has diverted our attention from some of the other very important aspects of economic power. It was true, historically, because labor provided 95 percent of input where capital now provides that amount of the input, making full time employment not a way to achieve income. This shift has changed the market for young people who are desperately trying to find work and cannot, even with advanced college degrees. This will further dim the economic hopes of America's youth. Education in American society has always been thought to lift children's chances for success, but the gap in income equality is diluting our educational system's leveling effects.

The main stakeholders in raising the minimum wage are all taxpaying citizens because if workers cannot afford to live based on their wages, we end up paying for them through our welfare system and so we all stand to lose if they lose. Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would reduce federal food stamp spending by $4.6 billion a year and reduce enrollment in the food stamp program by as much as 9.2 percent. It also works to close the gender wage gap because women make up two-thirds of the minimum wage earners in this country and it would work to address some racial inequalities as well. Three and a half million people of color would be lifted out of poverty.

The time to make the change is now. Call your representatives and put the pressure on to have H.R. 1010 put on the House floor.

The pressure is on. We need to pass this bill if we want to make a change in our economy. When people make less money, they spend less money, thereby harming the overall economy for everyone.

The writer is a Congers resident.


The Fair Minimum Wage Act. (H.R. 1010) — an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 — would increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10.

Read the bill. Go to and click on "Legislation & Records." Enter the bill number, H.R. 1010, in the window.

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