A · Woman · Against · Feminism

I was reading a Time article by Jon Gerter called “What is a Living Wage.” The author writes about a grass-roots campaign to help those that were homeless, yet still working full time gain better wages. He writes that the solution that Baltimore’s City Council comes up with is to raise the base pay from $4.25 to $6.10. The driving moral force behind raising wages is that no one should have to work full time and still be in poverty. Now- this is related to a few things that have been happening in the news lately. Something that was up for discussion recently was raising the minimum wage. Some people claim it’s a great idea while other strongly oppose. Both groups have a point- it’s the conditions between their arguments that differ and make them both correct.
If everyone that can possibly work does work, it is my understanding that our paychecks may look larger, but so will the price of living to make the paychecks larger for everyone. For example, yesterday I got $6.00/hr to work and the bread in the store down the street is $1.00. The next month, I get a raise to $7.25/hr, a few weeks lat er the bread down the street is now $1.75. not a real life example- just used to make a point Were less people working, but the minimum wage higher, I could see a drop in prices. How am I going to apply this to women and men? If women were not working- then the men could bring home a larger wage. Now, this isn’t to say that families were a woman is single should not be allowed a family wage. If she has children that she needs to support then she needs to support a family just like a man would. (not getting into circumstances for why she is single as there are so many these days)

So how could this be achieved?

Perhaps there could be information gathered by the company accepting applications on how many children a person has and whether they have a spouse. The last application I filled out gave me a chance to claim dependants. I am not really talking about that- I know they have something like that. The way I understand, claiming dependants just gives you a tax break now. (until taxes actually come around) No, what I am talking about is a slightly more comprehensive application that asks people to list spouse, dependents for the sake of determining wage.
There are problems that could be encountered through an application such as this. It’s illegal. Some companies might hire single people just so they would not have to pay them as much as a married man with children. People do not want their employers to be able to discriminate on the basis of family and marriage. This is not irrational, but it deserves some further examination than just brushing it off and saying that it’s wrong.
A married man with a wife at home is more likely to come to work when the children are sick. Why? His wife is at home therefore she can take care of the kids. If he was paid more to compensate for that- wouldn’t it make sense? The same thing goes for single mothers. If a single mother is paid more to care for her family, chances are she could hire a sitter for the kids and if a child is sick she can afford better healthcare to ease a child’s time at a sitters. A mother would still want to be with her children, just as a single father would want to be with his children. Yes, these days men are being found more worthy of custody than in the past- but that is a subject for another day.
Anyway- keep your eyes and ears open for a family wage/ living wage. Before you start getting mad about a man at the office or your place of work making more than you do, consider his situation. Perhaps he has a family and needs the money. Ladies, it has been made increasingly clear to me that we like to do things for higher wages just to have more money- but who are we keeping from making money by doing that? Are we keeping Single parents and families from having the things they need?