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Raise the Minimum Wage, Save the Planet?
Some corporations exploit low labor standards in emerging nations and also exploit lax environmental standards.
“We must raise the minimum wage to a living wage,” wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders in a recent op-ed for The Guardian. “In the richest country on earth, if you work 40 hours a week you shouldn’t have to live in poverty.”
The U.K. news outlet frequently publishes opinion columns for Sen. Sanders and other top progressives on a variety of social and political topics. Sanders wasted no time getting to the heart of his argument.
“Congress can no longer ignore the needs of the working class of this country,” he began. “At a time of massive and growing income and wealth inequality and record-breaking company profits, we must stand up for working families — many of whom are struggling every day to provide a minimal standard of living for their families.”
“When over 60% of American workers are now living paycheck to paycheck, when the life expectancy of low-income Americans is in decline, when we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country, we can no longer tolerate a federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, a wage that has lost over 27% of its purchasing power since it was last raised 14 years ago,” Sen. Sanders argued.