5 arguments people use against raising the minimum wage, and one mom's beautiful reasons for it.

Brandon Weber
11.10.15

Life at minimum wage is something that I don't think folks really understand — especially in big cities.

It's hell.

If you have children to support, it's even worse.

So when Chrisanna Capshaw stepped up to the mic at a North Carolina hearing where people wanted to talk about why raising the minimum wage is no longer an option for working people, folks listened.

And they still are.

Millions of Facebook views later, a video of Capshaw's speech continues to make the rounds.

But before we get to the video, I'd like to tackle five big misconceptions folks have about minimum wage.

1. "Minimum-wage jobs are meant for high school students!"

✔ About one-third of minimum wage workers are over 30 years old, and 89% are 20 or older. Womp, womp.

Because everybody who works for starvation wages is this happy, right? Image by David Shankbone/Wikimedia Commons.

2. "Those are just part-time jobs, anyway."

✔ Actually, 35% work full time. (And besides ... what's wrong with making decent money, even as a part-timer?)

How quaintly ancient. Image by Kevin Rutherford/Wikimedia Commons.

3. "They're jobs for people who just need extra spending money."

✔ Low-wage earners make over half of their family's income, and 28% of them have children. ("Low-wage workers" are defined here as making less than $10.10/hour, which is one proposed minimum-wage increase. There are about 30 million of them in the U.S.)

"I sold my plasma the last three weeks to pay bills and ... ZZZzzzzz." Image by Mruk20/Wikimedia Commons.

4. "If they want good jobs, they need to go to school!"

✔ About 37% have at least some college under their belts. Ahem.

"Yay! My diploma says I can make $7.25 an hour and I owe $150,000! Wait ... what?!" Image by Shenandoah University Office of Marketing and Communications, Wikimedia Commons.

5. "Why can't they just figure it out and make ends meet?"

✔ In every state, working for the minimum wage leaves a full-time worker with two kids below the poverty level.


Now if these were actually made of full copper... Image by Roman Oleinik/Wikimedia Commons.

So that brings us to Chrisanna Capshaw.

She will be one of the people who will join the Fight for $15 on Tuesday, Nov. 10, all across the country.

Chrisanna's story is not unique. It is important to hear and ponder deeply. Because a little empathy might just offer a different perspective on life.

While her tale is indeed a bit harrowing, she speaks highly of joining the Fight for $15 movement. Fast food workers recently won $15 in New York City by the end of 2018, and in the entire state by 2021.

fight for 15 minimum wage low wage workers chrisanna capshaw miniumum wage workers
More

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are making a serious push to expunge people's pot convictions

National Expungement Week is Spetember 21 to 28.

Courtesy of Houseplant.

In America, one dumb mistake can hang over your head forever.

Nearly 30% of the American adult population — about 70 million people — have at least one criminal conviction that can prevent them from being treated equally when it comes to everything from job and housing opportunities to child custody.

Twenty million of these Americans have felony convictions that can destroy their chances of making a comfortable living and prevents them from voting out the lawmakers who imprisoned them.

Many of these convictions are drug-related and stem from the War on Drugs that began in the U.S. '80s. This war has unfairly targeted the minority community, especially African-Americans.

Keep Reading Show less
marijuana expungement national expumgement week stoner comedies Seth Rogen Evan Goldberg High Times seth rogen even golldberg national expungement week
Culture

Breaking down the conspiracy theory mindset at the heart of climate change denial

Becker1999/Flickr

Climate change is happening because the earth is warming at an accelerated rate, a significant portion of that acceleration is due to human activity, and not taking measures to mitigate it will have disastrous consequences for life as we know it.

In other words: Earth is heating up, it's kinda our fault, and if we don't fix it, we're screwed.

This is the consensus of the vast majority of the world's scientists who study such things for a living. Case closed. End of story.

How do we know this to be true? Because pretty much every reputable scientific organization on the planet has examined and endorsed these conclusions. Thousands of climate studies have been done, and multiple peer-reviewed studies have been done on those studies, showing that somewhere between 84 and 97 percent of active climate science experts support these conclusions. In fact, the majority of those studies put the consensus well above 90%.

Keep Reading Show less
conspiracy theories climate change
Nature

After going viral for helping a 91-year-old, this humble plumber now exclusively serves the elderly and disabled

via James Anderson

Two years ago, a tweet featuring the invoice for a fixed boiler went viral because the customer, a 91-year-old woman with leukemia, received the services for free.

"No charge for this lady under any circumstances," the invoice read. "We will be available 24 hours to help her and keep her as comfortable as possible."

The repair was done by James Anderson, 52, a father-of-five from Burnley, England. "James is an absolute star, it was overwhelming to see that it cost nothing," the woman's daughter told CNN.

Keep Reading Show less
Heroes

A mother's viral plea for kids with life-or-death food allergies is one we all need to hear

HR Mom/Facebook

I live in a family with various food intolerances. Thankfully, none of them are super serious, but we are familiar with the challenges of finding alternatives to certain foods, constantly checking labels, and asking restaurants about their ingredients.

In our family, if someone accidentally eats something they shouldn't, it's mainly a bit of inconvenient discomfort. For those with truly life-threatening food allergies, the stakes are much higher.

I can't imagine the ongoing stress of deadly allergy, especially for parents trying to keep their little ones safe.

Keep Reading Show less
popular