Toward a Fairer Future: Recognizing the Dignity of Work Through a Just Minimum Wage Policy

Dignity belongs to the worker, and that a just society rewards labor with respect, security, and opportunity.

Toward a Fairer Future: Recognizing the Dignity of Work Through a Just Minimum Wage Policy

Reclaiming the American Promise

The United States has long prided itself on being a land of opportunity, where anyone who works hard can build a better life. But that ideal is slipping further out of reach for millions of Americans, especially those earning at or near the minimum wage. While corporate profits soar and billionaires accumulate unimaginable wealth, too many full-time workers are forced to survive on poverty wages, relying on public programs for food, housing, and healthcare—not because they don’t work hard enough, but because their labor is systemically undervalued.

Raising the minimum wage and indexing it to both productivity and inflation is not only a moral obligation but a long-overdue economic reform. It is a cornerstone of a more just, sustainable, and fiscally responsible future. As outlined in recent discussions on fair fiscal policy and structural inequality, this reform can correct policy choices that have for decades funneled wealth upward, hollowed out the middle class, and left too many workers behind.

The Broken Link: Productivity Gains Without Wage Growth

Between 1948 and 1973, worker productivity in America rose by 97%, and hourly compensation increased by 91%—a near one-to-one ratio that honored the value of labor. But beginning in the mid-1970s, this link was severed. From 1973 to 2022, productivity grew by over 60%, while inflation-adjusted hourly wages for most workers rose by less than 17%. For minimum-wage workers, the gap is even starker. The federal minimum wage, last raised in 2009, stands at $7.25 per hour—worth substantially less in real dollars than it was in 1968.

If the minimum wage had kept pace with productivity growth since the 1960s, it would today exceed $20 per hour. This failure to reward rising worker output has allowed the owners of capital to extract ever-larger shares of national income, while laborers—who power the economy—struggle to meet basic needs. The result is both economic dysfunction and a betrayal of the principle that those who contribute should share fairly in the gains.

Economic Inequality: Engineered, Not Inevitable

As detailed in my “Economic Inequality” Thinking Deeply essay published on June 20, 2025¹, the staggering inequality in today’s America is not a natural outcome of market forces—it is the direct result of decades of deliberate policy choices. Tax cuts for the wealthy, the decimation of labor unions, deregulation, corporate concentration, and trade policies that favored capital over workers have collectively redistributed trillions in wealth upward.

Between 1975 and 2018 alone, more than $50 trillion was transferred from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. This is not just an economic imbalance—it’s a profound moral and political failure. And it has left working families dependent on public social safety net programs to survive, not because they are failing, but because the system is failing them.

A fair minimum wage—indexed to productivity and inflation—would begin to reverse this engineered inequality and redistribute a portion of the wealth that workers help to create back into their own pockets.

Public Subsidies for Private Greed

Our current minimum wage policies function as a hidden tax on the American public. When private employers pay workers so little that they qualify for food stamps, Medicaid, housing subsidies, and other assistance programs, taxpayers are forced to cover the shortfall. According to a study by the University of California, Berkeley, U.S. taxpayers spend over $150 billion per year on public assistance for low-wage workers.

This is not fiscal conservatism—it is corporate welfare by another name. Companies that underpay their workers are effectively shifting their labor costs onto the public, while reaping the profits that those underpaid workers help generate. As noted in my "Thinking Deeply: A Fairer Path to Fiscal Responsibility" essay², this dynamic is fiscally wasteful, economically inefficient, and morally outrageous. True fiscal responsibility begins with ensuring that private employers pay living wages—so taxpayers don’t have to subsidize corporate bottom lines.

The False Arguments Against a Higher Minimum Wage

Opponents of a higher minimum wage often argue that such policies kill jobs or hurt small businesses. But the evidence overwhelmingly contradicts this. In fact, more than two dozen rigorous studies have shown that moderate increases in the minimum wage do not lead to significant job losses—and often lead to improved productivity, lower turnover, and stronger consumer demand.

Furthermore, when low-wage workers have more disposable income, they inject that money directly into the economy. Unlike the ultra-wealthy, who are more likely to park their wealth in financial instruments or offshore accounts, working-class Americans spend their earnings on food, housing, transportation, and other local goods and services—fueling job growth and economic activity.

Several states and cities that have raised their minimum wages—such as California, Washington, and New York—have experienced strong job markets and economic resilience, even in the face of broader national downturns. These real-world examples dismantle the scare tactics used to block reform.

Tying Wages to Productivity and Inflation: A Vision of Economic Justice

Indexing the minimum wage to both productivity and inflation is not only fair—it is smart policy. Inflation indexing ensures that wages keep pace with the cost of living, while productivity indexing ensures that workers share equitably in the gains they help generate.

Such a dual index would end the political stagnation that leaves wage hikes hostage to partisan gridlock. It would also restore a principle of shared prosperity that once defined America’s economic miracle. Workers would no longer be left behind as the economy grows; instead, they would rise with it.

This reform is not radical—it is rooted in common sense. If we value work, we must value the workers who do it. And if our economy depends on their labor, it must reward them justly.

Democracy, Dignity, and the Moral Case for Change

Economic inequality is not merely a numbers problem—it is a threat to democracy itself. When wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, so is political power. The result is a system that serves elites while ignoring the majority. As working families fall further behind, their faith in the system erodes. Populist demagogues exploit that despair, and our democratic institutions become vulnerable to authoritarian drift.

Raising and indexing the minimum wage is not only about dollars and cents—it is about dignity and democracy. It is about ensuring that every worker, no matter their job, is respected, protected, and compensated fairly.

It is also about restoring trust in the idea that public policy can work for the people—not just for the powerful. In doing so, we reaffirm the social contract that binds us together as a nation.

Conclusion: A Call to Action for a Just and Prosperous America

The time for action is now. We can no longer afford a system where work does not guarantee stability, where employers profit while taxpayers foot the bill, and where inequality grows unchecked. Raising the federal minimum wage and indexing it to productivity and inflation is a long-overdue step toward justice, responsibility, and shared prosperity.

We call on policymakers to act:

• Raise the federal minimum wage to a living wage level in reasonable steps over a three to five-year period.

• Enact legislation that ties future increases to both inflation and productivity growth.

• End the hidden subsidy that forces working families into poverty while enriching large corporations.

• Restore fairness to our economy and faith in our democracy.

We call on citizens to speak up:

• Organize, advocate, and vote for leaders who believe in economic dignity.

• Support local and national campaigns for wage justice.

• Challenge the myths that protect the status quo and perpetuate inequality.

A just minimum wage is not just an economic policy—it is a moral declaration. It affirms that in America, no one who works full time should live in poverty. It says, plainly and proudly, that dignity belongs to the worker, and that a just society rewards labor with respect, security, and opportunity.

Let us make this vision real—together.

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