Work to raise minimum wage

To the editor:

The minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is insufficient to make ends meet for many working families in this community.

Low wage and minimum wage workers don't earn enough to meet their basic needs. This means that they are forced to rely on outside assistance. If profitable corporate employers pay wages so low that their employees need food or housing assistance then the community is subsidizing the employer. Local food banks are under strong and increasing pressure.

As for housing, in a market with less than a 1 percent vacancy rate, try and find affordable housing for a small family that won't require a 60-70 hour workweek.

A low wage economy reduces the tax revenue that provides for a social safety net. This increases the problems with funding schools, city and county governments, and all the necessary work they do for the community.

Raising the wage will strengthen the local economy because low income consumers will spend more. Studies have shown that raising the minimum wage does not increase unemployment, and a locally stimulated economy may actually increase employment. Better paid workers will stay with their jobs and this reduces turnover. When low wage workers do better, we all do better.

The minimum wage was implemented to keep working people out of poverty and to stimulate the economy. Those goals are still worth fighting for. The fight for $15 is what Johnson County needs.

Joe Marron

Iowa City