Quote of the Day: The minimum wage

From David Cay Johnston’s column today at Al Jazeera America:

Driving down pay for low-skilled workers — and cutting labor law enforcement so severely that even brand-name employers such as WalMart and McDonald’s steal from their workers through wage theft — is the path to a future in which public costs must rise as overworked people become disabled or die and children grow up less than whole.

Johnston’s point is simple: The best way to ensure a strong economy for the country is to ensure that all workers have the opportunity to participate. You do that by ensuring that work pays, that parents can be present in their children’s lives — rather than at a second or third low-paying job — and that we stop pretending that the people affected by the minimum-wage debate are high school kids working for pocket change.

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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet