This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 13, 2013 - In 2011, the St. Louis Beacon presented "Class: the Great Divide,” a year-long project that focused on the issue of class, including the toll the economic downturn was taking on middle-class St. Louisans.
The reporting our staff did for that series has come to mind in light of recent protests by area fast food workers who are demanding a major increase in the minimum wage.
The local efforts, organized here by the group STL735, are part of the national push for a $15 an hour wage for fast food workers who comprise a sizable segment of the service industry. The temporary walkouts have made headlines and provoked discussion. In that respect, the strikes have been successful in raising awareness for the struggles of thousands of St. Louisans who are working for what they describe as "poverty wages.”
In Missouri, the minimum wage is $7.35 an hour, a dime higher than the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, but 90 cents an hour lower than the $8.25 mandated in Illinois. A full-time fast food worker paid minimum wage in Missouri would earn $294 a week, before taxes, about $15,000 a year.
The workers argue that while their employers meet federal and state regulations, the minimum wage is far below the "livable” or "living” wage they need to pay for the basic needs of life: housing, utilities, food, clothing and health care.
But what is a livable wage? Is it $15 an hour? So far, I have found varying answers to that question by analysts who have developed formulas, taking into account such factors as family sizes and regional differences in the cost of living.
One of the more specific formulas is a table done by a Masschusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor that breaks down by county the hourly wage that an individual, who is the sole provider, must earn to support his or her family if working full-time. According to the MIT table, the living wage for a St. Louis resident would be $8.69 an hour for an adult and $17.45 for an adult with one child. For a family of four — two adults and two children — the living wage would be $18.05 an hour.
On the flip side, there is debate over the impact on the economy if the minimum wage were to double. Would consumers be willing to pay higher prices? Would companies respond to increased labor costs by reducing their workforce — by installing, for example, automated touch screens so customers could input their own orders? Or, would increasing the minimum wage serve as a boost to the general economy because workers would have more money to spend?
It is a complicated issue that was exacerbated by the loss of millions of good-paying jobs during the Great Recession and a widening earnings gap between the economic classes.
As I delve deeper into this topic, I am open to suggestions from Beacon readers. Is there a specific question you would like to see answered? Do you have a concern about this issue that you believe is not being considered in the national dialogue?
