Serfdom, American Style

The worst thing about the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the minimum wage is that it is not definitive. Raising the minimum wage will neither decimate jobs as its opponents contend, nor will it be the panacea for poverty that its supporters had hoped, leaving plenty for both sides to argue about. If the minimum wage was raised to $10.10 and indexed to inflation, it would likely lift 900,000 workers above the poverty threshold while eliminating about 500,000 jobs. An alternative proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9.00 without indexing would have a smaller impact. The key effects of the alternative proposals are summarized below.

You can read the CBO summary here and the full report here.

What is all too clear is that wages for far too many works are abysmally low. The chart below from the CBO report shows that 25% of workers receive $12 per hour or less, essentially a poverty wage. 

The question we as a nation must ask ourselves is whether this state of affairs is acceptable. Is it morally justifiable to leave so many people hovering around the poverty level? If we don’t compensate workers through fair wages, then we’ll be forever committed to redistributing wealth through the tax code and social welfare system, making many workers little more than modern day serfs, dependent upon government for survival. 
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