Out of Egypt:

Life (Near) Minimum Wage: An End-of-Summer Temp Agency Retrospective

Though usually at work I take batteries out of toy motorbikes, the other day I was asked to spend a few hours scanning and sorting mail instead. When the woman who trained me returned, she asked me how I liked her job. I said I didn't. "At least it's better than taking out batteries, though, right?" she asked. I said no - I like the silence, the slow pace of unscrewing. I can sit down in the corner of the warehouse, hidden behind rows of disassembled bikes, and think.

I didn't intend to write this tonight. In fact, it would be better if I wrote it at another time, when I was more awake. However, the ideas have been knocking around in my head for weeks now and I had to let them out sometime. In my currently computerless life, this was the only time I could find.

I used to be suspicious of the living wage movement, thinking that it was impractical and an unnecessary hindrance to the economy, but now I'm not so sure. I know the minimum wage is too low in any case. Watching my paychecks I find it hard to believe that one can live even on seven dollars an hour, which is what I make. Certainly one can't support a family of four in an urban area on that wage. It's different for me, since while living at home I have basically no expenses other than my car. Without health insurance, however, I would literally be in the red due to the cost of my medication.

I wish universal health care was a workable system. Our current system is obviously broken even if there isn't an easy governmental solution. Beyond that, however, other necessary expenses, such as transportation, housing, food, and clothing can't, to my knowledge, be met on the budget of someone making $5.15 an hour. Now would be a difficult time to raise minimum wage, with the economy shaky from elevated gas prices (the main reason why I will always support drilling in Alaska), but I think it's the only decent thing to do. I won't hear the "freedom of contract" argument libertarians make against minimum wage laws. Marx wasn't totally insane - then as now, the relationship between employer and employee is highly unequal. Why else would unions (which seem to be in trouble lately) exist?

I don't think everyone should have the "middle-class lifestyle" by government mandate. That's unrealistic, especially since what is considered essential to such a lifestyle is always being defined upward. How many people had cell phones ten years ago? How many had flat-screen TVs? However, I don't think people should work a full 40-hour workweek, often at incredibly draining, mind-numbing jobs (like most of the ones I've done while temping), and still be below the poverty line. That's not a just reward for one's labor. I've heard that some Wal-Mart employees have been encouraged by their supervisors to apply for welfare to supplement their income. That sort of corporate behavior should be punished, by the government even if consumers refuse to do so. It's not that their profit margins couldn't stand to take the hit. I doubt a minimum wage increase would harm the country overall - although it might send more jobs overseas. And think of all the people it would help.

My temporary boss at the rug store was angry when he heard that the temp agency, which was charging him twelve dollars an hour was paying its workers eight or less. When I told him that was still around three dollars over minimum wage, he was shocked. "People can't live on that," he said. After a few weeks of seeing the rapid turnover and low morale among my eight-dollar-an-hour co-workers at the warehouse, I'm inclined to agree with him.

One of my fellow temps, who said he had been laid off from a job as cook at Boston Market, said to me, "I don't mind this job, but I do mind the seven dollars an hour. That's what I was making when I was your age, but now that I'm in my 50s..." He was there a day. I wonder what he's doing now.