Democrats Take the Minimum Wage Challenge For Fifth Anniversary of Last Minimum Wage Increase

Don't Miss Sarah Jones's Essay On Kristi Noem Titled Predatory Is The Point On The Daily.

Thursday will be the fifth anniversary of the last time minimum wage workers got a raise.  To mark that occasion several members of the House of Representatives are taking a five-day minimum wage challenge, which started on Sunday.    The challenge limits participants (and their families) to a budget of $77 per person to pay for all expenses except housing and average taxes for five days.

Participants will remain in their own homes, which are undoubtedly more expensive than the housing that people living on the minimum wage can afford.  Unlike people who live on the minimum wage, congressional members know that this brief encounter with a simulation of life in poverty will end on Thursday.

Still politicians like Jan Schakowsky (D- IL), Keith Ellison (D-MN) Tim Ryan (D-OH)  and former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland deserve congratulations for making the effort.  They will learn something about the realities of way too many Americans who know the meaning of hard work, who know what it means to have to fight for more work hours and who know that life on minimum wage is not a life style choice.

They also recognize that this challenge is far from giving a full and complete insight into the realities of life on poverty wages, as noted by Tim Ryan.  ”We will still be a long way from living the reality that many of these families face,”

In fact, Ryan and his wife stocked up on diapers for their newborn baby before they started the challenge.  It’s a luxury that people who live on minimum wage don’t have.

As Think Progress reports, Ted Strickland points to the reality that people living on minimum wage have to forgo many things – be it eating at a restaurant or buying cold medicine.

I never think about what medicine costs if i need it… But some people have to think constantly about how they spend their money, and their quality of life is quite different than mine.

The point is these lawmakers are least trying to gain some understanding of what life is like when you wages are minimum and your options are limited.

Ironically, these politicians favor increasing the minimum wage because it does benefit the workers, but they also have the insight to recognize that an increase in the minimum wage benefits our economy.  Simply put, more income for people earning the least means they will put that money back into our economy and therefore create more jobs.

Some may mock the minimum wage challenge as a stunt, which even its participants acknowledge only provides a limited insight into the realities of life on the minimum wage.  The intent of this challenge is to show the humanitarian reasons we need to increase the minimum wage.

By taking the challenge, these lawmakers can highlight the life realities for people who do not have dark money groups to advance their interests.  They do not have the means to hire lobbyists to promote an increase in the minimum wage or to kill bills that seek to disenfranchise the working poor.

This challenge would provide some sorely needed insights to Republican lawmakers who oppose increasing the minimum wage or oppose the existence of a minimum wage.  However, taking the challenge would mean Republicans might learn something.  It would discredit their perceptions about the working poor. Odds are against Republicans taking this challenge because it would mean learning to do without conveniences and luxuries they believe are their birthright.

Still, I would pay money to see Republicans like Michele Bachmann and Darrell Issa try to live on poverty wages even if only for five days.

Image: Women’s Foundation of California

Adalia Woodbury

Former contributor.