Not surprisingly, it's not a popular idea with Huntsman's Republican colleagues in government. Business-friendly lawmakers are more attuned to tax breaks for business than increasing an employer's personnel expenses. But the fact is that when workers don't make enough money to support their families - even when working more than one job - employers and everybody else eventually pay the cost in welfare, medical care, education programs, and, sadly, in law enforcement and more prison beds.
Keeping the minimum wage low in order to attract business is a wrongheaded approach that only encourages the proliferation of low-wage employers that don't do much to improve life for Utahns.
The statistics on poverty in Utah gathered by Utah Issues, Center for Poverty Research and Action, are alarming, and their implications should be a call to state officials to act. Utah's poverty rate climbed more than 1 percent to 10.6 percent from 2000 to 2004, and child poverty increased 3 percent to 11.8 percent. Utah's median wage is $12.20 per hour. Factoring in inflation, that is a decrease of nearly 3 percent since 1979, while the cost of living continues to rise, jumping 1.3 percent in April.
A "living wage" is estimated to be more than $9 per hour, and an individual has to earn $13.36 an hour just to afford a two-bedroom apartment. Still, Utah's minimum hourly wage remains just $5.15, and 43 percent of renters cannot afford that two-bedroom apartment.
Utahns hardest hit by poverty are children and families where at least one adult is employed but working at low-wage jobs without benefits, including health insurance. Utah has 80,000 children who are uninsured.
Often both parents in a low-income family work, and child-care options are inadequate. In 2004 the number of regulated child-care slots was about 42,000, while children under 6 years old with working parents numbered 126,183.
The Utah Issues report says better wages and benefits for workers is the only way to end poverty in Utah. We agree.
Increasing the minimum wage is a first shot in what must become a significant battle against poverty. Allowing incentives for higher-paying employers is another. Retreating from this fight is not a viable option.
