It’s interesting how anytime “single mothers with children” comes up in politics, this is the image politicos and activists want you to see.
So they push for laws that they know will ultimately never do enough to help the image they have painted for you. So when an issue such as minimum wage comes up, you are made to feel insensitive to the needs of single mothers everywhere if you do not back a wage hike.
The following is from the Heritage Foundation:
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- Average household income of a minimum wage earner: $49,885
- Proportion of minimum wage earners under 25: 53 percent
- Proportion of all adult hourly workers who are single parents working full time: 6.3 percent
- Proportion of adult minimum wage earners who are single parents working full time: 6.1 percent
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Do a Google image search for the term “American worker” or “worker” and you will be hard pressed to find a picture of a banker, IT professional, doctor, lawyer, etc. Instead, you will see images of half soiled individuals who oftentimes are wearing a construction hat.
Now “worker” isn’t a word those of us outside of the beltway often use. We typically say “employee”. Do a Google image search on that and presto! The miserable images of dirty construction workers are replaced with images of self-confident individuals who apparently are making better money than those in our “worker” search. So why is D.C. so stuck on “worker”?
Once again, “worker” paints the image of a struggling individual with limited options who never makes enough money to make ends meet. In this economy where everybody is feeling the pinch, a mental image like that sells itself. Once you bought into the image, any bit of legislation that suggests helping “workers” becomes an easy sell. But just like in our first example, it is designed to never do enough and have you asking for more “help” from the government.
Now about that tax credit for 95 percent of American workers Obama has been promising throughout much of his campaign.
It includes Obama’s signature “Making Work Pay” tax credit for 95 percent of workers, though negotiators agreed to trim the credit to $400 a year instead of $500 — or $800 for married couples, cut from Obama’s original proposal of $1,000. It would begin showing up in most workers’ paychecks in June as an extra $13 a week in take-home pay, falling to about $8 a week next January. (more…)
$13 a week equates to about $.35 an hour that will be added to your check. That’s right!
But you are just a struggling worker. And you should be grateful for any increase in your paycheck, right?
Don’t spend it all in one place.
UPDATE–
Let’s take a look at what Michelle Obama had to say when $600 tax rebates were being doled out last year. (h/t: MM and The Anchoress)
During her talk in Pontiac, Michigan, she waxed on about how the $600 rebate given to taxpayers this year to offer relief to consumers is a bit of a short-term fix.
“You’re getting $600. What can you do with that? Not to be ungrateful or anything. But maybe it pays down a bill, but it doesn’t pay down every bill every month.
“Barack’s approach is that the short-term quick fix kinda stuff sounds good. And it may even feel good that first month when you get that check. And then you go out and you buy a pair of earrings.” (more from the New York Times)
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