A tight labor market for service jobs in the Roanoke Valley might keep hourly wages above the meager federal minimum wage of $5.15, as detailed in a story in Sunday's Roanoke Times, but that's little cause to celebrate. Try getting by on $6.15 an hour.
Employers and state employment officials ought to experience living on such low wages.
Imagine what labor competition could yield if lawmakers passed a long overdue hike in the minimum wage. The working poor would still be poor but might be able to work one job instead of three.
This year, political maneuvers by Republicans in Congress killed a bill that would have raised the minimum wage to $7.25.
Two living-wage calculators, one based on 2002 data, suggest $6.55 an hour is a "self-sufficiency" wage for a single adult in Roanoke.
The Economic Policy Institute calculates that a single parent with one child in Roanoke must make $30,576 a year just to scrape by -- that's $14.70 an hour, with not one penny of disposable income.
Many state legislatures, understandably fed up with congressional foot-dragging, have mandated a higher minimum wage than required by federal law. To date, 23 states and the District of Columbia have done so and similar measures will be on November ballots in six more states.
Not Virginia. Related bills died this year in Virginia's General Assembly. Sen. Charles Colgan, D-Manassas, believes national debate about the stagnant federal minimum wage could help his bill pass next session. Unfortunately, that outcome seems unlikely in a state lauded for low business costs.
Since 1997, the last year of a minimum wage hike, members of Congress have voted themselves pay raises totaling $31,600 -- enough to support a working mother with one child in Roanoke.
Had the minimum wage gone up at the same rate as congressional pay the past nine years, it would be $6.30 an hour. Instead, the purchasing power of the minimum wage is at its lowest value since 1955.
Many Virginians, including their representatives, have either forgotten what it's like to just scrape by or have never known.
For them, $6.15 an hour might sound like a living wage. It's not.
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