Hourly Workers: the Millennial Dawning
“Unlike presidential administrations, problems rarely have terminal dates,” spoke Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Before Covid-19 infected America, hourly employees, e.g, waitresses,waiters, food servers in franchises, delivery workers, and home health aids were not given benefits and paid enough to meet minimum financial living standards for the 21st Century. Unlike salaried employees, most hourly workers do not have the options of company provided healthcare, retirement packages, vacation days, sick days, employee care resources, or other essential resources to lessen the effects of economic hardship.
According to the Department of Labor, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 in 2020. The historical significance of such low wages means that people in these lines of work have been grossly underpaid for decades. The compound effect of lost earnings puts undue financial and psychological stress on hourly wage workers. Many of these workers have portions of their incomes supplemented by family, friends, non-profits, or government social services.
With Covid-19 sweeping across the globe and affecting how people live, it is those very underpaid hourly workers that are called to provide drive-thru services for comfort, hot curbside take-out orders in driving cold rain for hungry families, services at grocery and drug store to the potentially sick; and, last but not least, health aids tending to the elderly and sick without health benefits themselves. Set aside from being underpaid, there are a plethora of ethical issues that are highlighted by government and corporate responses to the issues of minimum wage earners during this pandemic.
Few employers have increased hourly pay or added other benefits during this pandemic to entice employees to continue to risk their health and the health of others by coming to work. However, one could argue that employees’ wages, adjustment for inflation, should have already been $15 per hour. Therein lies the issue. Corporations are still doing the bare minimum to provide equitable opportunity.
There is no doubt companies, small and large, are doing their best to meet expectations. However, poor planning and execution is putting so many workers’ lives at risk for such depreciated return.
