We want everyone to have a home, be able to go to college (if they want to), and be able to access medical care. However, while it makes us feel good, raising the min wage doesn't actually help meet these goals. Here's why.
HOUSING If the minimum wage earner gets a raise to $15, his boss isn't going to be willing to keep working for $15. So Boss will get a raise to $18. The store bookkeeper won't be willing to work for $17.50 and will get a raise to $21. This will continue up the pipeline with everyone getting a raise.
Everyone is making more money; that's good, right? The problem is that the min wage earner is still making the same amount relative to how much everyone else is making.
So, when he goes to get an apartment or house, he's still competing with the boss, the bookkeeper & up the line. Because they make more money than the min wage earner, the boss & bookkeeper both have the ability to pay more for housing than the min wage earner. So, they get the housing & the min wage earner is stuck with no housing, sub-par housing, living with parents, doubling up, or getting roommates. He gets what's left over.
Part of the solution is to build more housing. With more housing available, landlords have to compete to keep their units filled. That means that housing has to be kept in decent condition or no one, not even the minimum wage earner, will live there.
Yes, we want everyone to be housed. But raising the min wage doesn't solve that problem. There has to be enough quality housing for everyone first. By the way, most min wage earners are single, under the age of 25, and 62% of them still live at home with their parents (or another relative.)
EDUCATION As for college, if you are making min wage, your child should qualify for grants to pay for college. This means you don't have to save money to pay for his college. Although, I do hope that no one who is old enough to have college aged kids is working a min wage job unless it's just temporary between jobs. Hopefully, anyone old enough to have college aged kids has some job experience & has moved up into better paying positions.
(The cost of college is a whole 'nother discussion that has next to nothing to do with min wage. We have two kids in college right now. One pays for her schooling using grants and money earned through work. The other pays by using grants and scholarships earned by working her behind off to get good grades & apply for every scholarship she can. We also have two in high school who will be in college soon. They save a large portion of their babysitting money to help pay for college expenses. It's a drop in the bucket, but they'll go to community college first so that'll help. We help all of them by letting them live at home & paying their living expenses, food, etc. The two older ones are headed away from home in the fall since they can't go any further in their degrees at our local schools. With four kids in or soon to be in college, college expenses are a hot topic around here.)
MEDICAL CARE Finally, as far as insurance is concerned, the majority of min wage workers are between the ages of 16-25 and thus able to be on their parents insurance. In addition, most (65%) are single and have never been married, so they don't have dependents who need insurance. If a person does have a child & works full time earning min wage ($1256.67 a month) their income qualifies them for Medicaid.
*Statistics are from 2019 Bureau of Labor Statistics https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2019/home.htm
