Even with bi-partisan support, it often seems as though support for a minimum wage raise bolsters during election years and wanes during others. .
There is a rather alarming disparity in the average incomes of white and black families. The disparity is often referred to as an income gap. Costing 7.5 million black families $120 billion dollars, the income gap between white and black families rose by five percentage points between 1970 and 1989 (Economic 27). One factor contributing to such a large income gap between average incomes is the minimum wage. There are more black families making minimum wage than there are white families making minimum wage. As a result, a minimum wage increase would serve to raise the average earnings of black families. While a minimum wage increase would not totally wipe out the income gap between black and white households, a small reduction in this $120 billion dollar gap would serve as the first step towards leveling what appears to be an uneven field of pay.
There is currently a push to raise the wages of airline workers in light of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The raise is targeted at baggage handlers and janitors, many of who are paid minimum wage (Murphy and Brinkley). It is clear that the raise has been called for with the presumption that the work performed by minimum wage baggage handlers and janitors is substandard. If this logic were applied to all workers who make minimum wage, then it can be said that the work of childcare technicians and fast-food workers is also substandard. However, there has currently not been much of a push for a raise in the minimum amount that these workers can be paid. Is it not obvious that a childcare technician or a fast-food worker could have just as large an impact on our lives as an airline employee?.
The critics of a minimum wage increase are more often than not adamant in their opposition to a minimum wage increase.
