Issue Position: A Livable Wage

Issue Position

I keep getting the question, "What is a livable wage?" and here is my answer. A person should not be working 2-3 jobs or 50-60 hours per week just to live paycheck to paycheck. There are no more cities in America where a single mom can work a full-time job and be able to afford a 1-bedroom apartment. This wage should not be determined by the federal government but should be determined state to state and county by county. But the current minimum wage is too low. We have seen workers' wages remain near stagnant over the last 20 years while CEO's pay has increased 168%. If we change how we classify business, we can take on this challenge more easily. We can reclassify business as small, medium, and large. Small business will be mom and pop shops that profit under $1,000,000/year. Medium business will be companies that profit under $100,000,000/year. Large corporations will be classified as business that profits more than $1,000,000,000/year. Large corporation should be REQUIRED to pay a minimum of $15.00/hour. We can then tax businesses in a progressive way where small pay around 10%, medium pay around 20%, and large corporations pay 30% in taxes. This will alleviate that tax burden on struggles small business while enforcing corporations that profit billions to pay their fair share.

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