Topic of the week: A Living Wage

H0wdy campers. Today's discussion point is the living wage.

Not our current travesty of a "minimum" wage, but a wage a family with a single parent can raise their family on without having to work 96 hours per week.


The current minimum wage needs to be modified, and made uniform across all 50 states.

The current minimum wage would be renamed the entry-level wage. This would be the starting wage for employees, except for a few exceptions, namely students.

A new category of wage would also be created for people under the age of 20, the student wage.

This would reflect the fact that REAL "entry level" wages, should be for those first entering the workforce. employers using student wage employees would not be able to pay this wage for more then three years. After that point, the person would be ready for the entry-level wage.

Quick example:

Type of wage Possible hourly pay
Living wage $15-20 hour
Entry level wage $ 8.00 hour
Student level wage $ 5.00 hour

Additional benefits to employers using student level wages as well as entry level wages would be considered, such as :
No payroll tax deduction requirement for employees on student wage. Limit of 20 hrs per student wage employee.
tax credit for exceeding entry level wage.

etc.

Reasons, and rationale:

One problem affecting our society is that single parent households typically have less disposable income, and lower class status for many future children.

By having a new wage structure, including a lower tier for students (who would still be happy having a job with any wages), it will help to create different categories for
entry level workers, as well as one for more talented, advanced workers.

Payroll taxes that currently stop at a certain level will be re-calculated.

The rate for minimum FICA and associated taxes will fall, depending on income.
As yearly pay reaches what was the FICA limit, tax percentages will increase, to make up for
the fall in the lower stages of the tax charts.

A living wage, in cooperation with the national service/training program will help to ensure our middle class can survive.

Oh, and all these new wages would be indexed to inflation. No more 10 -18 year fights on raising the minimum wage anymore!!!

mark brown at excite dot com

Please discuss among yourselves... and most of all, please comment

suggestions are ALWAYS welcomed