Something is simply wrong with the structure of wages when over 50% of all public assistance goes to people who work 38 hours a week and don't earn a living wage.
Decades of cuts in manufacturing to compete with emerging markets labor have pushed people into jobs in food service, home health care, child care (because 2 income families need child care). Now 48% of home care workers get public assistance because their hourly wage is so low. 46% of child care workers get public assistance. The % for food service did not appear in my source document, but 25% of part-time college teachers (a growing phenomenon) get pubic assistance.
I know the Republican arguments that increasing wages will cut employment, but how do we know where the dividing line on that employment is when companies like Wal-mart and McDonalds can game the system and use taxpayer funded assistance to reduce their cost of employment. That subsidy is distorting necessary price discovery in the economy. It is also unfair to Mom & Pop competition when they want to pay a livable wage to their family but cannot due to Megastore competition.
You probably need 3 minimum wages. One for urban areas, one for suburban/small city areas and one for rural areas. This can probably be best done at the state level rather than the Federal level.
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