Attention minimum wage workers, the government is here to help you—or is it?
The U.S. census estimates that the median household income in Lompoc was $66,947 in 2023 and that 17 percent of the population was living in poverty. In Santa Maria the median income was $81,237 and 13.5 percent of the population lives in poverty. These facts cause the political class to convene panels and small working groups to “have conversations” about the issue; the result is always bad policy.
California has been governed by one political party for generations, and the divide between low, medium, and high income has become wider every year because of their shortsighted policy decisions. This year is no different; even though voters were convinced to approve a minimum wage increase to “help the poor” a few years ago, the politicians are at it again.
It didn’t work then and won’t work now. Why? State-level politicians, whose primary source of income comes from the fact that they can talk a good game but produce nothing tangible, can’t understand that when you raise the minimum wage the cost of everything low-income earners buy goes up.
Folks who earn minimum wage are hardworking people, but the jobs they do don’t command large sums of money. These are usually jobs that don’t require special skills or advanced degrees but still need to be accomplished to provide needed services. Many people start at a minimum wage job and work their way up the wage ladder by seeking more challenging jobs.
In November, voters will be asked to approve Proposition 32 which proposes to increase the minimum wage to $18 per hour. That sounds nice, but will it help low-income workers and their families? Not really. In a recent Noozhawk report, CalMatters reported that in California “MIT researchers estimate the average single, childless adult needs $27 an hour to be ‘self-sufficient.’”
I am not an economist, but it looks like it’s a fool’s folly to think that continuously raising the lowest wage will ever elevate people out of poverty. Just look at your weekly household budget; it doesn’t matter what income bracket you are in, your cost of living has increased dramatically during the last couple of years, and even though you spend more you are getting less bang for the buck.
It may only be coincidental, but cost increases seem to track with minimum wage increases, thus for the low-income worker the wage increase has always been nullified by increased costs to survive.
If raising the minimum wage isn’t the answer, what is? One way to improve family wealth is to reduce the cost to produce what people need. Mounds of regulations designed to save whatever the current concern activists champion just raises the cost of everything from broccoli to a home to live in.
Stopping fossil fuel production and mandating limited-range electric vehicles adds more cost to everything we use. Green energy requirements raise the cost of everything from electricity to the cost to construct new buildings or replacing your water heater.
The politicians who voters have elected have really messed this one up. Sacramento can’t mandate a living wage to help ease poverty; they have tried, and it didn’t work. Fixing it at this point by trying to stem the upward spiral of the cost of necessities may be impossible.
Here locally, a recent report said that Peter Rupert, director of the UCSB Economic Forecast Project, is concerned that “middle-age residents are leaving the area and taking their children with them” (Noozhawk, “Officials Outline Potential Threats to Santa Barbara County’s Economy,” Aug. 23). This, he says, among other things will have “an effect on the county long-term.”
Why are they leaving? Well, they can’t afford to live here, and in many cases their employers have packed up and moved because of high costs and they simply followed their job out of state.
Wouldn’t it be nice if politicians stopped trying to fix things they don’t understand.
Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send a letter for publication to [email protected].
