Where I Stand — Guest columnist: Paul R. Brown: The ‘unlivable wage’

Friday, Aug. 9, 2002 | 5:34 a.m.

Editor's note: In August the Where I Stand column is written by guest writers. Today's columnist, Paul R. Brown, is Southern Nevada director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, an advocacy group.

THE "WORKING POOR." The phrase sounds innocuous. Being poor isn't. Being poor is a toothache with no cash or insurance to see a dentist. Being poor is an old car that breaks down in heavy traffic. Being poor is sweating at a bus stop when it's 110 degrees.

It's been five years since the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour has been raised. In that time, inflation has eroded its buying power by 12 percent.

Congress created the minimum wage in 1938 to ensure a "minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers." Five-fifteen an hour doesn't cut it. Five-fifteen is not a livable wage. Congress needs to raise the minimum wage and then index it to inflation.

Increasing the minimum wage will immediately improve the financial lot of the nearly 50,000 Nevadans who earn the lowly wage. But that's not enough.

The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) has issued two reports on what it takes to get by in Nevada. It ranges from $8.68 an hour for a single adult living in Clark County to $15.78 an hour for a single parent with two young children. That's just to cover the basics such as the cost of housing, child care, food, transportation and health care.

PLAN supports a living wage -- a wage that allows a working family to at least pay for the basics (no frills such as eating out). Our research showed that nearly 60 percent of current Nevada jobs pay less than a living wage. And the trend in Nevada is not good. Poverty wage jobs have increased from 20 percent of total jobs to 25.8 percent in the last three decades.

Nevadans who make less than a living wage survive by scrimping on food, accepting inadequate child care, tolerating substandard housing, and going without health insurance.

It is unacceptable that nearly a quarter of Nevadans lack health insurance (one of the highest rates in the country). If all Nevadans without health insurance -- about 470,000 people -- lived in a single city, it would be the second-largest city in the state.

Many low-wage workers hold two full-time jobs in order to pay basic bills. Some working families rely on public assistance such as Medicaid, food stamps or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. TANF pays a maximum of $348 a month. It's been frozen at that level for more than a decade. Inflation has eaten away one-third of its buying power. TANF payments need to be significantly increased.

There is no silver bullet to solve the problems of the working poor in the Silver State. However, there are steps we can take to make working families' lives better.

We should raise the minimum wage. If the federal government won't do it, then the state of Nevada should. Some will say that raising the minimum wage will lead to job losses. That didn't happen in 1997 the last time it was raised.

Ten states and the District of Columbia have already raised their minimum wages. It is important to keep in mind that 40 percent of the people earning the minimum wage are the sole source of income for their households.

We need to raise wages in general. We can do this by increasing workers' skills through training and education, which leads to greater productivity. We can provide easier access to nontraditional jobs for women, people of color and the disabled. We can pass laws that are union-friendly. Union workers receive better pay and benefits than their non-union counterparts.

Nevada should require businesses that benefit from public money through contracts, tax breaks or subsidies to pay their workers a living wage.

Recently PLAN President Mark Nichols put it succinctly when he said: "We should not be subsidizing businesses that pay their workers a poverty wage. When Nevada does that, we taxpayers get hit with a double whammy. First, we pay for the corporate subsidy. But then we still have to pay for critical social services to those working families because of the low wages they receive."

If we are truly concerned about lifting low-income families out of poverty, we should increase the minimum wage and mandate livable wages from businesses that benefit from government contracts or subsidies.