The following is from an editorial in the Kansas City Star:
Hundreds of low-paid fast-food workers and their supporters boisterously demanded improved wages last week with rallies and marches in numerous cities. Cheers to them. Let's hope their employers, state legislators and congressional representatives take notice.
America's expanding low-wage economy is shameful and foolish. It is wishful thinking to expect a robust economic rebound when one in seven Americans lives in poverty and about 15 million Americans work at or near the minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour at the federal level.
Wages at that level shrink buying power and require more government spending. Republicans in Congress who gripe about too many Americans receiving food stamps and other aid should look at increasing people's earning power. The median income for households of working age fell more than 10 percent from 2000 to 2010. One in four private-sector workers makes less than $10 an hour.
Front-line workers earn a median wage of $8.94 an hour, according to the National Employment Law Project.
Contrary to what defenders of the status quo erroneously claim, fast-food restaurants aren't a clubby hangout for teenagers who live at home and need gas money. The median age of the person who takes the order or cooks the fries is over 29. Many of them have families to support.
A group of more than 100 economists, who signed a petition in support of an effort in Congress to lift the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour, estimated that the raise would increase business costs in the fast-food industry by about 2.7 percent. Half of the increase could be paid for by raising the price of a Big Mac by a nickel, the economists calculated. That is not a lot to ask.