The national minimum wage rose from $6.55 per hour to $7.25—and critics complain that increasing minimum wage increases layoffs. However, according to Holly Sklar, claims that states that raise their minimum wage above the federal level showed increased employment.
Children are completely dependent upon the wages their parents receive. In 2006, the average rent in Kenosha for a one-bedroom unit was $596 per month, which requires a full time worker to earn $12.42 per hour. Kenosha provides low income housing, but the waiting list is at least two years long and is generally located in unsafe and violent neighborhoods, putting children at an increased risk of being injured or joining a gang to obtain protection.
States must also invest in the parent’s education so that they can be raised indefinitely above the minimum wage. Investment in their education today will increase the chances of children furthering their education, which will eliminate the cycle of poverty. More money will be saved by investing in education now than to pay for incarceration rates and supplemental programs later.
Poverty initially was attacked with fervor, but temporary solutions have been implemented since. Kenosha was just the named the sixth most impoverished county in Wisconsin. Let us be the first county that stands for an increase in minimum wage so that jobs keep families out of poverty, instead of in it.
© 2009 Daily Kenoshan
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