Minimum wage needs to be $15

Democrats in the House and Senate are attempting to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. Republicans in the Senate have so far blocked their effort to lift hundreds of thousands of Americans out of poverty and to allow millions more to feed and house themselves and their families with some degree of dignity and security.

Consider: According to Dean Baker of the Economic Policy Institute, CEO salaries, between 1978 and 2019 increased by 1,007 percent. During that same time the average workers pay grew by only 12 percent.

If the minimum wage had kept pace with American productivity growth since 1980, it would now be $24 per hour.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development the United States — the wealthiest country in the World — ranks 13th out of its 32 member countries in the amount of its minimum wage.

The federal minimum wage was last increased, to $7.25 per hour, in 2009. While some states and cities have raised their minimum wage since that time, 17 states have not and continue to have a minimum wage of only $7.25 per hour. Only a few cities and no states have a $15 per hour minimum wage.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week shows 59% of Americans supporting a $15 per hour minimum wage with only 34% opposed.

An increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour is only fair. It will stimulate the economy. Americans want it. Americans need it. It is long overdue. And only the Republican Party prevents us from having it. You may want to think about this next election.

— Tom Reed, Chico