By Kay Monaco, Executive
Director
New Mexico Voices for Children
In America, a core value
has always been that people willing to work hard should have a shot at the American
dream. Work has been the path to prosperity and a better future for our children.
Not any more. Now, you can work full-time and still not be able to provide the
basics for your family.
Wages in New Mexico are among the lowest in the
country. Almost one-third (30%) of all working New Mexicans earn less than $8
per hour - less than what is needed for even the most minimal standard of living.
We have among the highest rate of child poverty. Get it?
The economy is
not giving hard-working New Mexicans a chance to work their way out of poverty.
It is not creating the kinds of job opportunities that offer a path to prosperity.
Instead, the quality of jobs being created in the last few years is worse. Wages
are not increasing. But expenses - such as health insurance - are.
There
is a low-wage trend all across the country. Even college graduates are facing
fewer opportunities. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the hourly wages
of young college graduates is falling, and fewer of their employers provide health
insurance.
Our expectation that more education is the ladder to a better
job and prosperity may no longer be realistic. Because if the economy fails to
produce good jobs, the door slams shut in everyone's face.
So how does New
Mexico get out of this low-wage rut? We have to invest in economic development
strategies that create good jobs, not just poverty-wage jobs. And, we have to
set a standard - as a matter of public policy - of a fair day's pay for a fair
day's work.
That's where the living wage movement comes in. If people work
hard, they should be paid at least a subsistence-level wage. In Albuquerque, according
to a 2002 study by New Mexico Voices for Children, that would be between $12 and
$16 per hour. Of course, with sky-high gasoline prices now, the subsistence-level
wage would be higher. A subsistence-level wage would cover housing, basic food,
basic medical expenses, childcare, basic clothing, transportation, gasoline and
utilities. Nothing more. No family pet, no meals out, no car emergency, no vacations,
no savings for the future.
The living wage proposal now before the City
Council would set the minimum wage in Albuquerque, for employers with more than
ten employees, at $7.15 - far below the real subsistence-wage level. Increasing
the wage floor to $7.15 is an extremely modest step in the right direction. But,
while it will make a huge difference in the lives of thousands of families and
children, it won't lift anyone out of poverty.
To make a real dent in poverty
- to working New Mexicans an opportunity to work towards prosperity - the economy
has to kick in in a much bigger way to at least produce subsistence-level wage
jobs. Is that too much to ask a so-called strong economy to do?
And employers
must keep up their end of the bargain: a fair day's wage. Low-wage jobs are subsidized
by all of us, the taxpayers, when low-wage employers force working families to
rely on Food Stamps, Medicaid or child care subsidies just to make ends meet.
That's not fair.
We should not, through the public coffer, enable employers
to pay poverty wages. Instead, we should insist that employers make work pay.
We should value our working families in the time-honored tradition of giving them
the opportunity to build a better future. We should support a living wage.
