Here's hoping Arkansas' state legislators will summon the courage and compassion to stop dead in its tracks the latest incarnation of Sen. Bob Ballinger's attempt to limit the number of Arkansans to benefit from the gradual raise in our state's minimum wage approved by 68 percent of Arkansas' voters last November.
In an attempt to push it through, Ballinger revised his bill, removing from those exempt from the new wage minimums employees of schools public or private. The revised bill retains the exemption for folks younger than 18, but adds persons convicted of a felony. Also retained is a provision exempting those working for smaller businesses or nonprofits, lowered now to those with 25 or fewer employees.
Exempting felons? Is Ballinger's aim to foster recidivism, increasing the probability that those who have served their time will return to the criminal justice system? Yes, this is "red meat" for constituents yearning for vindictiveness, but also it makes it more difficult for folks sincerely trying to turn their lives around, imprisoning them within the current national minimum hourly wage of $7.25. Try paying rent, or putting food on the table, and paying for other necessities for yourself, or in many cases, also for a family, on the income that wage brings in.
And persons under age 18? Not sure what universe in which Ballinger lives, but does he realize that every teenager in the employment pool is not working to pay for a new car or for upgrading to the latest iPhone, but, instead, is bringing home dollars to pool with the incomes of his or her parents, also working for minimum wages, to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads?
The senator briefly included an amendment exempting individuals with developmental disabilities before pulling it after heavy criticism. Regardless, senator, please know that there are men and women with mental or physical challenges not privileged to be born into middle-class or above families. In these families, the wages of the challenged person are not discretionary income, but essential to keeping the family ship afloat. And have you ever visited with the mom or dad of a child with developmental disabilities, worrying about what will happen to their son or daughter after they, the parents, are gone?
The groups Ballinger has proposed to exempt from the new minimum wage requirements--$9.25 in 2019, $10 in 2020, and $11 in 2021--are among those who most need that additional income.
Coming on the heels of legislation reducing the taxes paid by the wealthiest Arkansans, Ballinger's proposal seems especially heartless, in harmony, lamentably, with how often today those currently in power in our state and nation seem eager to argue all kinds of philosophical rationales for not passing legislation to help reverse the meteoric speed with which the wealth of our society is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
Let's pray our state and national legislators find ways to heed, in their consideration, not just the voices of radio and television talk show hosts, but also the unanimous teaching of our religious traditions, that among those things most desired by and pleasing to our creator is active, concrete concern for "the least of these" in our midst.
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Gordon Garlington III is a retired Presbyterian Church (USA) pastor, served in 1970-1971 as an aide in the Washington, D.C. office of the late U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, and in retirement is on the board of the Arkansas Foodbank.
Editorial on 03/18/2019