Kiley McCoy, a senior in political science, wrote a guest column for the Knoxville News Sentinel about the need for an increase in minimum wage for the working poor.
She wrote: “Almost every day for low-wage workers consists of the struggle and anxiety of making decisions about which bills to pay, which meals to skip and whether to buy a gallon of gas or a gallon of milk. The minimum wage in America has remained stagnant at $7.25 an hour for almost five years now, but in that time prices for food, gas, utilities, etc. have continued to rise. This results in millions of members of the working class relying on federal government welfare programs, paid for by taxpayers, to provide food and other necessities for their families. Raising the federal minimum wage would allow almost 4 million workers to come off welfare program support, and in turn American taxpayers would no longer have to pay for corporations to build wealth for shareholders on the backs of their workers.” Read the article online.