McDonalds says“[they] believe some of the best people in the world work [there]”. I’m not sure what you think but if I thought someone was one of the best people in the world I would treat them with respect. I would pay them enough money to actually be able to live on. McDonalds isn’t alone though. Most other business chains don’t pay a livable wage either. Minimum wage is not sufficient to live on, and employees are being taken advantage of. If employees were being paid fairly there would be less people on social welfare programs. That being said-even families with government assistance are still struggling to live normally. Parents making minimum wage work hard to barely get by, while company CEO’s make billions off the hard labor of their employees.

According to CBS, fast food CEOs make 1000 times more than their workers. 1000 times! Some say that if minimum wage were raised there would be less available opportunities for employment. However there is no evidence to support that. In fact, studies have shown that previously when minimum wage was raised it made no difference in the opportunities. Since the 70’s the economy has grown immensely, but “Real Wages” for workers have stayed the same or even dropped while CEO incomes are steadily on the rise.

Minimum wage doesn't pay enough for a family to live on. Living wage is defined as a wage that is high enough to maintain a normal style of living. A family of four is living in poverty if they make less than $22,811 a year. Minimum wage workers typically make $15,000 a year, so minimum wage workers wouldn’t even make this much. This amount is just the government-stated brink of poverty for a four person family working full time. That’s $1900 a month. Just how far will that take you? Take housing. At the poverty line basic housing will cost about $565 a month. Heating and electricity? $250 a month. You have to get to childcare, your job, the store. A used car, gas, and maintenance cost about $345 a month. Just barely scraping by for food would cost $356 a month. For childcare even with government assistance you have to pay at least $220 a month. Healthcare? On average $280 a month. Of course, a surprise illness can be devastating. Many low wage jobs don’t provide sick leave. If you miss work, you’ll lose those days wages, or worse-your job. Now it’s the end of the month and you’re out of money. But the expenses keep on coming. Clothing, shoes, school supplies. There is no money left over for other things. What do working poor parents have left to give to their children when they come home exhausted from working and still have nothing to show for it. Johnny Cash has a song: Another day older and deeper in debt…

Employees being paid fairly would keep more people off social welfare programs such as food stamps.If employees were being paid a fair amount to live on, then taxpayers wouldn’t have to spend so much on public benefit programs. 52% of fast food workers are getting help from public assistance programs.

According to the National Employment Law Project, “Low wages and lack of benefits at the 10 largest fast-food companies in the United States cost taxpayers an estimated $3.8 billion per year. Donald Trump likes to say that workers are being paid too much. According to him, workers being paid too much is the reason our country isn’t “winning” economically. If workers being paid the bare minimum is keeping America behind in the race to “win” economically, then there needs to be bigger priorities than an imaginary economic race. It’s ridiculous to think this supposed “economic race” would be more important than the 3 million Americans who are working for this little. According to Trump with “wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world.” That isn’t the problem though. The problem is that we can’t make competition a priority above fair treatment of people.

We have made so much progress in the advancement of technology, so why have we not made progress in a concept that is really so simple-If someone was to work as hard as they possibly could on minimum wage, then they should make enough money for their family to be able to live independent of the government. Companies that are making billions a year, with workers making nothing-are abusing their employees’ rights. Working families should not have to rely on the government for assistance, and if they were being paid fairly they wouldn’t have to. If companies truly “respect” their employees-then they should show them that by paying them fairly.