Working poor

As stated in the Fair Labor Standards Act, the primary purpose of minimum wage is the ‘maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency and general well-being of workers.’ The important point to note is the phrase ‘minimum standard of living’ which pertains to annual income not the wage rate. Much like other government tax and transfer programs (for example, AFDC and Social Security) the minimum wage is an attempt to put a floor under the income of a particular subgroup of the population in this case the ‘working poor’ people with jobs who receive very low wages. Can we say with the raising prices, the rising cost of living that we the TWU Local 100 members are the working poor - yes we can say that.

Who are the working poor and how many are affected by the wages? Three recent studies have analyzed these questions with data from the current population survey (2010) - about 31 percent of workers who were paid hourly wages reported earning less than or equal to the minimum wages. This group of workers was comprised largely of young people and women, the majority worked part-time, and most were employed in service and sale occupations. This is a significant group of people who receive wages sufficiently low that they might still have annual incomes below the government’s official poverty line. We can say that TWU Local 100 members deserve a wage raise.