There’s so much I want to write about this month, and maybe there’s more you hope I write about. It just so happens to be Women’s History Month, and I am particularly excited about the modern history making happening now. Have you noticed how many women are being confirmed to the President’s cabinet?
Following the historic Presidential bid with Madam Vice President Kamala Harris, this administration is making history and breaking the glass ceiling in visible ways. The world is watching. Global leaders are influenced by these appointments. And women leaders, at many levels of the U.S. government right now, are pushing the conversation on critical social and economic issues.
Women are leading with urgency — powerful examples of leadership abound on the economic front. I’ll focus today on one: Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who recently recovered from COVID she contracted during the Capitol insurrection. I can only imagine what it takes to recover and focus from having your life threatened, twice, in one month.
Representative Jayapal, from Seattle, successfully led a push for the inclusion of an amendment to the American Rescue Plan for a national $15 minimum wage. This weekend the House passed the $1.9 trillion dollar spending bill in a party-line vote to get the economy back to pre-pandemic levels, which included the measure. This amendment will not make it to the Senate floor for a vote, however, following this ruling. It’s technically invalid. What the amendment has done is renew a national conversation about what a full, equitable economic recovery looks like, while closing the wage gap, supported by millions of workers.
We know that many businesses are still reeling from revenue losses over the past year, including many closures, disproportionately impacting small business. So, you might be asking yourself: how could we afford to raise the minimum wage right now? What we know is that there is great debate on the wage growth trends.
One study indicates a range between a 23% increase in wages, to an overall 13% decrease, since the 1990s. We’re talking early internet days. No matter which way you look at it, the rising cost of living has eroded the value of the minimum wage by more than 17% since then. Pre-COVID, we knew there was a huge problem in the wage gap. We must address the impact on the quality of life for millions of Americans who do not earn a living wage, if we are to expect a full, economic recovery.
Fundamental to the economic recovery is leading with a mindset of abundance. It requires an understanding of how what we pay workers impacts the broader economy. Although I am not an economist, I am a humanist. Perhaps, it’s time we frame economic arguments in more human terms. Here’s the study I recommend you read (authored by a woman), noting these powerful conclusions:
Quite simply, employees that make a fair wage are able and willing to work harder. When workers experience less economic anxiety, they are better able to focus on their tasks. Moreover, better pay is related to better health outcomes, meaning workers take fewer sick days. It also means that employees are more invested in their work and are less likely to be late, miss a shift, or have other disciplinary problems.
The bottom line is that increased demand, boosted worker productivity, and reduced employee turnover balance out the increased labor costs for businesses of raising the minimum wage. The way to help struggling small businesses is not suppressing wages—it is speedily handling the pandemic and increasing federal assistance for distressed small enterprises. By raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, Congress would ensure a faster, more equitable, and more sustainable economic recovery for all.
Small businesses are net, new job creators in our economy, and that comes with a responsibility. In cities like New York, we provide more than half the jobs. I’ve said this before — the future of entrepreneurship depends on policy and direct investments. We need public policy and business investments to work together. That’s what women like Representative Jayapal see from firsthand experience. In her own words:
“As a longtime organizer for working people who helped draft the resolution that made Seattle the first major city to enact a $15 minimum wage, I know that raising the wage is good for workers, families, businesses and the economy.”
What’s good for workers, extends to the family, society and business. If only we could find the right moment to act, or the right lever to pull. But, there’s something here for us to learn from what women leadership have attempted to do. Women are leading by example, navigating us through a period where economic uncertainty abounds.
Maybe it’s not this fight for the minimum wage that succeeds. But there are women in power who see beyond the uncertainty. They see the war on living wages coming to an end, so that we can create equity for all. That’s the future I want to live in.