Minimum wage and lived reality

In 1973, at age 18, I worked two jobs and paid my way through college. It wasn’t easy, but it was possible. Tuition, rent and basic living costs were low enough that hard work could realistically move you forward.

That is much harder to do today.

Today’s minimum wage, even at Illinois’ current level, does not stretch the way it once did relative to housing, education and health care costs. We can debate how high wages should rise and how quickly. Small businesses do operate on thin margins. But it is also fair to acknowledge that the bottom of the wage scale has not kept pace with the cost of building a life.

If full-time work no longer provides a realistic foothold, the problem is larger than partisan rhetoric.

Dan Doviddio

Wheaton