Upon their original conception, the federal minimum wage was intended to be a living wage, and the 40-hour work week was established to ensure a life outside of the workplace. In the intervening generations, the minimum wage has been treated instead as a level of maximum tolerable cruelty for many in the working class, while the 40-hour work week has become an arbitrary threshold that allows corporations to avoid responsibility for the well-being of workers.

More than 40% of Americans work a job which fails to pay a living wage – enough to pay for basic necessities like housing, food, schooling, and a retirement contribution. The vast majority of this over-exploited, under-compensated workforce is employed by companies that post ever-growing profits for wealthy shareholders, while their employees turn to public assistance simply to survive.

I support the increase of the federal minimum wage to once again be a viable living wage, with automatic increases tied to the rate of inflation, ensuring that we never again backslide into poverty wages.