Over the past few months, thousands have joined the "Fight for $15," a protest initiated by fast-food employees demanding a $15-per-hour wage. Last December, Little Rock joined the 230 other cities where people supported what several media outlets dubbed "the largest low-wage protest ever."
It seems to be working.
In the past year, 20 states, including Arkansas, decided to raise their minimum wage. In May, the Los Angeles City Council voted to meet the $15/hour demands.
I'm not arguing for or against the minimum wage. Decide what you want.
Instead, I'm showing how the mandate thousands are arguing for might harm the very people it's set out to help.
Take Seattle, for example, where the minimum wage was recently raised to $15 an hour. Protesters claimed victory. But should they have?
The wage increase that sounded so good didn't feel too great to the hotel workers who reportedly lost their health insurance, 401(k), and paid vacations. Nor did it for the waitresses that saw their work hours cut and tips reduced. Not to mention, an impressive list of Seattle restaurants were reported to have shut down altogether.
The real issue is not the wage, but the way many Americans view their work, skills, and abilities. Instead of letting the market valuate one's skill-set, too many look to the government to do it for them.
As seen in Seattle, the pie is only so big and somebody has got to give. Most employers can't, the government won't, so workers and consumers must.
The solution is getting American workers to a place where they view their skills as a benefit that employers must pay for to get. The focus must be on possessing a skill that is worth more.
For example, when I was 14, I became a lifeguard and got paid just over $7 an hour. I didn't find that unfair, but rather what my lifeguarding skills were worth.
If I wanted to get paid more, I needed to get a better skill, and that's hopefully what I'm doing as a law student.
In short, it's dangerous to allow the government to put a value to work because it will never be "enough."
Those "fighting for $15" are saying that someone flipping burgers deserves the same salary as an emergency medical technician, a TSA officer, or a dental hygienist ($29,000 a year). Can you imagine the influx of workers wishing to make Frostys at Wendy's instead of taking on needed professions?
That's exactly what happens when politicians, instead of the market, valuate work.
Workers must get in the driver's seat on the wage debate. They can do it by way of protest, hurting themselves and consumers alike, or by improving their individual proficiencies, making our work force all the more skillful. The latter would allow workers to demand that employers pay rates based on the market and workers' valuation of their skills, not the government's.
This is the kind of power that is good for the consumer, the country, and the worker.
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Bo Renner lives in Fayetteville.
Editorial on 06/18/2015