Labor workers in the U.S. are receiving low and unfair wages, even though economic expansion has been occurring for about ten years. These workers have been making stagnant wages for the past ten years. Although unemployment rates have dropped recently, the wages have remained the same. Lower unemployment rates should produce higher wages, but very little to no progress has been recorded. These middle-wage workers have not seen an increase in the wages since early 2017. Previous situations similar to the one the labor workers are facing today have happened in the past; however, solutions were made which lead to reasonable amounts of income for these workers. In this situation, the government has yet to act on the crisis and these workers are making low-grade income. Even a short term solution would not help this problem because then wages would shoot down again in the coming years. A long term solution needs to be thought upon by the government to positively affect the pay of these workers.
A potential solution could be raising minimum wage. Once the minimum wage is raised, more attention will have to be focused on this problem. Furthermore, larger amounts of money will need to be devoted to these workers and the labor market. Once this trend becomes constant the labor market could have many job opportunities, along with higher wages for each worker. The government could also establish a universal basic income where all citizens are provided a certain amount of income. This system is enforced to prevent lower poverty rates. This would ultimately help lower poverty rates and support working class families for the time being. If the government institutes plans to help increase the wages of people working in the labor market, this will satisfy the labor workers and decrease poverty rates.
Trey Leuchter is an Aleph from Hudson Valley Region and has been in BBYO for a year. He currently serves as the S'gan of his chapter.
All views expressed on content written for The Shofar represent the opinions and thoughts of the individual authors. The author biography represents the author at the time in which they were in BBYO.