Thursday, February 14, 2013

Clueless Rubio

English: Official portrait of US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"I support people making more than $9. I want people to make as much as they can. I don't think the minimum wage law works," Rubio said. "We all support -- I certainly do -- having more taxpayers, having more people who are employed. I want people to make a lot more than $9 - $9 is not enough. The problem is you can't do that by mandating minimum wage laws. Minimum wage laws have never worked in terms of having the middle class have more prosperity ... let's have a debate about growth and what generates growth because a minimum wage law ... is not the way to do it."

Working full time, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year an employee making the federal minimum wage will earn $15,080 a year. There are many estimates for middle class income, but absolutely none of them include $15,080. Lower middle class income is commonly referenced at 32,500-60,000. While coming way closer than Mitt Romney who placed middle class income at 200,000 dollars a year, republican senator Marco Rubio demonstrates not only his complete ignorance of the middle class in this country but also the working poor. A single mother with one child working full time at minimum wage is below the poverty line, meaning she does not earn enough money to satisfy the basic needs of her family. Senator your opposition to raising the minimum wage is that it won't help the middle class? We agree, but we were discussing the working poor not the middle class. Raising the minimum wage won't help the middle class, the rich or climate change but would improve the lives of millions of hardworking poor Americans who can't afford a bottle of water when they are thirsty.

My niece Linda sent me this link to the Living Wage Calculator which lists expenses and typical wages including the living wage for each geographical location in the United States.