Even with an increase, the poor are still poor

In May 2007, leaders in Congress crowed that, for the first time in a decade, they finally had passed a bill to raise the federal minimum wage. Politicians congratulated one another and were joyous in their achievement. One might have concluded that they had discovered the cure to AIDS or cancer.

In fact, once all expenses are figured in, this much-ballyhooed hike will keep the average working poor person - one of the working poor.

As of last Thursday, the federal minimum wage increased 70 cents, from $5.85 to $6.55 an hour. It's the second of three bump-ups for the minimum wage: On July 24, 2009, it will increase to $7.25 an hour, the target set by the Democratic Congress when, after a decade of wrangling, it finally got a minimum-wage bill passed. States are not required to observe the minimum wage; all but three states set their minimum rates at or higher than the federal minimum.

To see how much of an impact this hike would have on the economics of a family of four living on the federal minimum wage of a single person, I asked adult students in my accelerated degree program classes at Chestnut Hill College to estimate ballpark expenditures. In fact, let's raise the minimum wage to $10 per hour with no deductions. Get your pencil and paper and do the math.

Ten dollars per hour @ 8 hours per day = $80 per day x 5 days per week = $400 per week. That times 4 weeks per month = $1,600 per month (without deductions).

Now let's figure basic survival expenditures. Let's assume, for a family of four, that the average monthly mortgage/rent is $600; monthly utilities (gas, water, electricity) might be $300, food $350, clothing (laundry and cleaning), $100, and insurance (health, prescriptions, etc.) $250.

"Wait," you say. "We're already at $1,600." Yes, we may be. But the expenses aren't.

An average monthly car note is $450; car insurance is $300, gas/fuel (to get to work and earn $7.25 per hour) $250, phone bill (cell and home) $200, child care $350, education (college, adult basic education, textbooks) $450.

Even if some of these expenditures were much lower, or were nonexistent, clearly the working American earning the federal minimum wage would be hard pressed to support a family. He or she had better have at least one other very hard worker in the house to make it work at all.

The members of Congress must be proud of their role in spending money throughout the world for war and reconstruction efforts in foreign lands - while the working poor are getting so little help as they try to meet their minimum human needs in today's society. If political leaders would stop the waste of taxpayer money, perhaps survival would not be so difficult for so many.

To Congress: When you finally do something truly honorable, save the cheers and jubilation. Let Congress and the executive branch do the math - or, even better, resign and make way for leaders who understand what the working poor really need.