” The term “living wage,” was coined in acknowledgment that no one should have to work more than full time to cover basic costs of living. Everyone deserves the opportunity to survive and thrive and low wages should not be a barrier to achieving that. Studies show that paying people more will benefit everyone “
~Green America
Source: More than the Minimum: Why We Need a Livable Wage | Green America
My proposal:
I think everyone who works 32-40+ hours should have a government/employer subsidized CoL to an extent that covers a set of goods and services such as food, housing, medical, dental, healthcare, retirement, and accurately accounted for work expenditures that are recorded and audited by government employees of some sort. It wouldn't matter if the person makes legal minimum wage or more, everyone gets it. The government/employer must cover these costs.
- Work expenses include things like gas, essential work uniform, etc. If we can audit our taxes with the IRS, we can do this too or make it work.
- I'm not too sure about the 32-40 hours, this is up for debate. But if we're working full time hours, those should be eligible. And we can't increase the definition of “full time” in order for employers or governments to increase profits, it can only be reduced in definition, we also can't introduce more to find loopholes where employers try to work around this.
- Min wage could also match inflation over time, but this is just an addition.
- How can we afford it you ask? We can afford and not afford a lot of things, but it's hard to determine what we truly can afford based the reality created by those in charge. But we can make it somehow, even if we have to change our values or way of life.
- For retirement, we can't increase the age for retirement eligibility either. The government and employers will have to somehow figure out a way to make this possible. Could it be cutting down the cost of military spending on weapons, but focusing more on helping active duty soldiers and helping veterans? Maybe. I'm not too certain on this, but it can be done. Could it through increasing taxes for the more fortunate and top earners, and maybe even change how our entire society and economy functions? Maybe a little, I'm not certain yet.
- Then when minimum costs of living are covered as the ones I had mentioned. Employers and employees can bargain for what they deem a fair trade in pay. I understand some businesses might shut down, but I'm sorry.
- I also think we need more unions or something to help the employee class better negotiation with the employer and government. That way individual employees will be better equipped to receive a potentially more fair trade for there labor.
It's not perfect, but it's a good start. I'm willing for my views to change and I use to think the current system was okay, but I don't know anymore. I am also aware that there are other countries that America does have an advantage over in order to get a better deal in terms of trade. Examples include trade with Mexico, China, Middle East, South America, etc. And I am also aware often times the U.S. must sort of “exploit” trade and economics in order to maximize gains making deals with these countries some would deem unfair, but I don't want to focus on this, because it's possible we may have to change the entire world, so I would rather focus more so on just the United States.