Letter to the Editor

Raising minimum wage would be blessing

Monday, October 12, 2015

To the editor:

Some fights will always be needed. Often we get tired of hearing arguments of raising the minimum wage, but the end result would be the greatest blessing to come into so many peoples? lives, saving them from so much struggle they may have endured.

With the minimum wage at its current rate, $7.25, a person working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year would earn a grand total of $15,080 before taxes. In the state of Indiana, one year of: rent (at $400 a month), electricity (at $105 a month), and water/sewer (at $65 a month), comes out to be $6,840 for the year! That does not even include some other basic needs such as: food, transportation, insurance of any type, or clothing. Many people have children and debt that they must maintain also! People shouldn't have to try to survive like this, the minimum wage should cover all minimum necessities.

I have a brother who is 24 and has four children, who struggles more than paycheck to paycheck, who often works more than 50-60 hours a week at some points, who is a graduate from Indiana University, who spends all his free time helping his wife raise the kids so she can have time to do her coursework because she, too, is trying to become an IU alumni.

We need to raise the wage to help such people who are doing all they can survive. How many more hours does my brother have to work to not struggle? Five hours? 10 hours? 20 hours? How much more educated does he have to get?

How much more should he get into debt trying to help his wife become more educated too? The truth is, many of us know someone with a similar story, and we need to fight for a better life for them.

Wesley Lagenour

Terre Haute