Like so many other first-time employees, I remember the shock of opening my paycheck and seeing how much of my earnings were whittled away by multiple federal and state deductions. I thought I was prepared, but seeing the shrunken number on the pay stub was jarring. More jarring after I got my first career job as a reporter — making what I thought was a decent salary — and realized that the deductions put my take-home pay at only a few thousand dollars more than the minimum wage, and that many other employees were trying to feed whole families on minimum wage alone. I realized I would have to earn quite a bit more to get to a paycheck that would allow me some breathing room.
Minimum wage workers in Massachusetts have long been fighting for the breathing room an increase in the set rate would bring. Fighting in recent years for what was thought to be the holy grail of $15 an hour. Five years ago, when Gov. Baker signed a bill to raise the state’s $11 an hour minimum to $15, it was considered a major victory. The law mandated incremental yearly increases for the past five years, reaching the full $15 a week ago on New Year’s Day.
But the new minimum wage is no match for rising inflation, which has been going up 7% annually over the last two years. This has left minimum wage workers with less in their pockets despite the higher pay rate.
Congress originally approved the federal minimum wage in 1938 to protect workers and stabilize the economy after the Great Depression. Maybe early on it was possible for minimum wage workers to pay for food and shelter. But the current federal minimum wage of just $7.25 an hour forces many Americans to find ways to supplement that income.
During the height of the Fight for 15 national movement, I was gob smacked by the 2020 study conducted by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office revealing full-time workers at Walmart and McDonald’s qualified for food stamps and Medicaid. The story of employees struggling to keep food on the table at two of the most profitable corporations in the country made a strong case for the wage boost.
But a number of economists oppose raising the federal wage to $15, claiming it depresses worker productivity, hurts small businesses and worsens inflation.
Massachusetts boasts one of the highest minimum wages in the country, but with a high cost of living that quickly absorbs what might have been a comfortable raise someplace else. Which is why Raise Up Massachusetts — the local advocacy group which pushed for the $15 state minimum — has announced plans to push for another wage bump. Raise Up community organizer Lewis Finfer told WBZ that probably something close to $30 an hour is the goal because “ The solution is really to move toward a living wage.”
Given the current uncertain state of the economy, I’m certain that will be a hard sell.
