The economic disruptions of the pandemic and the resultant spike in inflation have hit hardest among the working poor, people who live on the very edge of the economy.
That is essential to keep in mind while considering Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s proposal to increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 this fall — more than a year before the current law provides — and to link future increases to the cost of living.
Judging by the reaction to the governor’s ideas in Annapolis, speeding up the increase to this October is more popular than the proposal to index future cost-of-living increases.
The federal government has completely abrogated its responsibility for setting a national minimum wage, leaving the national standard at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Imagine trying to get by on the same paltry salary for 14 years.
The federal minimum wage was first established in 1938 at just 25 cents an hour, but in the 1940s, 1950s and into the 1960s, it was raised several times, essentially keeping pace with inflation.
That ended after 1968, according to the Forbes Advisor website, which reported: “The current federal minimum wage, adjusted in 2020 dollars, has less purchasing power than it did from the mid-1950s to around 1980.”
As the minimum wage issued became mired in partisan politics, it has been left to state and local governments to set a floor for wages for the working poor.
That probably is the better way to address the issue anyway, considering the wide variations in the cost of...
Field Marshal Lord Bramall, one of Britain’s greatest soldiers, was known affectionately to his grandchildren as “Papa”. Alex Bramall, his grandson, a fashion photographer, was particularly close ...