Sherrod
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is the “Senator for the working person” (no longer the outdated term “working man”). He built his entire career on the concept of the “dignity of work”. He believes that Americans want to work, and that having a job that provides for their lives and their families is, beyond the money alone, an essential part of the American Ethos.
It doesn’t matter whether, as the Senator says, “…you shower before work or after”. It’s not about the type of work, it’s the respect that “working” and “providing” creates. That’s part of the American being, more so than in other nations. Right or wrong, Americans often “become” our work.
We can argue whether being a teacher, a salesman, a plumber, or a sanitation worker should become an identity, rather than “just” a job – but here in America, it is fact. We are what we do. And if we don’t have a job, short of retirement or disability, our culture sees us as somehow falling far short of “expectations”.
Myths and Promises
Americans want to work. There is the right-wing “myth” of the freeloaders, looking for a government handout. They have to be coerced to work, forced to do their part in the “great American pageant”. Of course everyone has a story of that “freeloader”. But when you call the story-teller out, and demand actual names and situations – the tales tend to vaporize.
Much of the “living on handouts” myth goes back to America’s ugly history of slavery. Not surprisingly, humans owned by other humans didn’t want to work particularly hard. They did only what they had to do to get by, the sole incentive being to avoid punishment. So the “lazy Black man” is a relic, a racial memory that still rings through American thought – even though it’s based in our ugly original national sin.
But the promise of “work” in America has to be a “quid pro quo”. Sure Americans are willing to work, even far beyond the forty hours a week that should be a healthy norm. That’s the “quid”, the something given. But there has to be a “quo”, the something “gotten” for the given. And that needs to be a living wage, a wage that can “provide” for the worker and her/his family.
Living Wage
Americans shouldn’t have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. That was the promise of the labor reformers of the 1930’s, that if we work 25% of our weekly lives, we could support our families. If we wanted to work more, we could, to get the extras. But that 25% was supposed to cover the basics: rent and food, transportation, children and health care.
And that is the next “promise”: a living wage. Americans working fulltime, 2000 hours a year (two weeks’ vacation) should make a minimum of $40,000. That’s simple math – $20/hour. We can argue whether “it can happen tomorrow”, but that should be the goal. The proposed Federal minimum of $15/hour, $30,000/year, leaves the fulltime worker still at the edge of poverty. A reasonable apartment is $9,000 a year. Food for a year is minimally $6000. Clothes, transportation, childcare, healthcare all could quickly eat the rest of the budget, leaving workers where they are now: one missed check short of financial catastrophe.
And many workers aren’t even making $15/hour. Right now, many are working more than 40 hours a week, more than one job, and still can’t make ends meet. They seek the American dream, but find only a financial nightmare.
Shortage
As we come out of the “pandemic world” some industries are experiencing worker shortages. Restaurants and fast food places are finding it hard to re-staff after the COVID pause. They have been under incredible financial strain: it’s hard to find fault that owners don’t want to pay “big bucks” to their workers. But it’s also hard to find fault with former restaurant workers who have found more lucrative employment – working at Amazon instead of behind the lunch counter, or working online from home instead of paying for hugely expensive child care.
In an era when the rich are richer and the gap between the wealthy and the poor is greater than ever before, we need to examine America’s priorities. Americans want to work, and they want to advance. It is the “American Way”. And Americans are willing to pay for service as well. So it’s up to us to set our priorities. And paying a living wage to take care of all our workers needs to be on top. That way there is dignity in work.