Editor’s Note: This commentary is by Brenda Lynn Siegel, of Newfane. She is executive director of the Southern Vermont Dance Festival, vice chair of the Newfane Democratic Committee and delegate to the Windham County Committee.
[I]magine a Vermont where all of our friends, neighbors and family members have what they need.
Imagine a Vermont where our businesses are patronized and our economy thrives.
This Vermont can only happen if we choose to create policies that lift all of us up; it is not possible in a state where our citizens can’t afford basic needs.
At the State House hearing on raising Vermont’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, a packed room of nearly 100 supporters told their stories of how raising the wage will improve their daily lives, their families’ well-being, and the health of their local economies.
We heard from a wide array of Vermonters, from single moms, to single young adults, to families with and without children, as well as business owners on both sides of the issue. It was clear among the testimonies that we are held back in our state — from our small businesses to our personal lives — from economic growth that is stagnated by a system that rewards the super rich and holds down the poor. The reality is that poverty trickles up, wealth does not trickle down. The negative impacts of poverty contribute to the decline of the middle class. It is true that the wealthy almost never feel those impacts, but all others on the economic spectrum do. Ultimately, decades of wage suppression has created an historic gap in wealth disparity.
It is morally reprehensible that one in three workers in Vermont do not earn enough to afford their basic needs and thousands have to work two or three jobs just to get by. About 80,000 Vermonters are struggling on less than $15 an hour, and of those: 88 percent are adults, 56 percent are women, 59 percent work full time, and one in five are parents.
Our country’s structural racism is evident in low-wage work, too. Almost 60 percent of African Americans in Vermont earn less than $15 an hour, according to a regional study by the Boston Federal Reserve Bank. Inadequate wages are also impacting too many young children in our state – more than 16,000 Vermont children live in poverty.
None of this is necessary, or inevitable. By raising the wage we can undo decades of wage stagnation and growing inequality, and benefit local businesses by building up their customers’ purchasing power. Business owners are rightfully scared because business has been flat or down in the last several years, but continued wage suppression will only further hurt their bottom lines as, each year, their workers’ buying power gets less and less. We can help them by putting more money in the pocket of Vermonters, which will certainly be spent at local businesses and boost our local economy. How many of us would go out to eat far more often and buy far more in our local stores if we had the income to do so? Many Vermonters would sign a pledge to their local businesses that if their wage is increased and they had disposable income, they would buy local. This is Vermont after all, and we treasure our local businesses.
Some have said we shouldn’t raise the minimum wage because of the “benefits cliff”. However, this cliff is already problem today, and keeping a sub-livable wage does not protect those of us who receive benefits, it just prevents us from having a way out. I believe that it is with the best intentions that people are afraid to raise the wage out of fear that people like me will lose our benefits. While that problem is very real, it is real now, today and was real when the wage was lower as well. It is a separate issue that certainly intersects with wage increase, but, it should not prevent any legislators from voting yes as these bills come before them. In fact, the increase in local spending caused by a higher minimum wage, along with a stronger tax base will give our state government the flexibility to address issues just like these.
We should be fixing the problem of the benefits cliff by properly funding our benefits programs so people like me are not held back from taking raises, promotions, or more hours. And, we should bring the minimum wage up to a livable wage. We can, and must, do both.
We owe it to Vermont families and to business owners to create a wage where earners at the bottom of the income scale that can survive, can feed their families, can afford their children’s needs with just one job and can put money back into the local economy. A $15/hour minimum wage would allow Vermonters like myself to have stronger purchasing power, helping build up our small businesses, reduce our burden on taxpayers and ultimately put an estimated 240 million directly into Vermonters pockets. This bill is a win for individuals, a win for businesses and a win for the Vermont economy.
We can not allow our fears to prevent us from doing the right thing morally and economically. I call on our legislative body to join hands with your constituents in leading the nation to lift up the most marginalized among us while truly stimulating healthy economic growth in Vermont. We have the power to be the leaders we once were. Together let us raise the wage!
