Our state’s economy works best for everyone when all working people are able to meet their basic needs. This economic security depends on access to good-paying jobs. Currently in Massachusetts, a full-time worker earning the minimum wage makes only $20,800 a year.
Many workers earning the minimum wage are forced to work three or more jobs to piece together enough money to pay their bills. No one who works full time for a large, profitable corporation should be paid so little that they cannot make ends meet.
A bill before the Legislature would require big-box retail and quick service fast-food corporations to pay their employees at least $15 an hour. Passing this bill would be an important step to meeting the needs of these workers while also helping the economy.
Lawmakers should similarly support separate legislation requiring $15-an-hour pay for aviation service workers at Logan Airport, a place where allegations of poor pay, understaffing, and rampant wage and labor abuses threaten to undermine the city’s claim to world-class status before international visitors and business executives can even exit their terminals.
McDonalds, Walmart, and other retail and fast-food corporations make billions of dollars in profits each year. Globally, airlines have quadrupled their profits in the past five years. It’s abundantly clear that large, profitable corporations can afford to pay their employees a living wage, and the Legislature should pass these bills immediately.
But, of course, we shouldn’t stop at McDonalds or at Logan. A living wage for retail, fast-food, and airport workers should be the beginning of a real push toward $15 an hour for all workers, as is now the law in California, New York, and cities across the country.
A living wage will provide stability to low-wage employees. This will allow these employees, many of whom are parents, to support their families.
For employers, higher wages mean more efficient workers and less employee turnover, helping their bottom line. When workers have more money in their pockets, they spend it at small businesses in their neighborhoods — helping those local businesses grow and create more jobs. When workers are paid a living wage, we all benefit.
