3.
"People Have to Have a Livable Wage"
One call for an increase in the minimum wage is based on the need to provide a "livable wage." But as explained above, increasing the minimum payment for hourly labor prices some low-skilled workers right out of a job -- not exactly a great way to accomplish the goal of a livable wage! But there is a way to provide a higher standard of living for low-skilled workers: De-taxing them. Currently, even a minimum wage worker must pay, as a deduction to his take-home pay, the 7.65% combined Social Security and Medicare tax ($.39 an hour) on every dollar earned -- a total of $819.47 per year. Additionally, the federal government actually has the audacity to tax even this minimal income at the rate of 15% for a further burden of $564.30. Relieving workers of this tax expense of $1,375.50 would allow these people a degree of proud self-sufficiency and is equivalent to an increase in their earnings of 12.9% -- vastly more than the average worker raise per year. These figures are based on an annual income of $10,712.00 -- 52 weeks at 40 hours per week at $5.15 per hour, minus the single standard deduction of $4,250 and personal exemption of $2,700 for a taxable income of $3,762. This does not consider any applicable state or city income taxes.
To do otherwise is to literally tax some workers into poverty by depriving them of more than six weeks' worth of their earnings. And this principle of sympathy for the low-income in the form of de-taxation can be extended to ending other taxes on life's necessities: food, clothing, and shelter. (One would think that taxing life's necessities out of some people's reach would be the last thing anyone would have dared propose, but it is the standard practice of politicians!) Surely, anyone genuinely concerned with the plight of those in need of a livable wage can support such policies. Until a policy of de-taxing the lowest income earners is implemented, the call for an increase in the minimum wage will indeed ring pitifully hollow and uncaring.
|