Since the Senate is about to take up the most important equity question of 21st cen ($15/hr min wage), I want to do a little Front Porch Math lesson. I didn’t learn this grad school, so I understand some Senators may be in need of this education I got for free on front porches...

In working class communities, when people pause b/w minimum wage jobs, they often sit together on front porches to catch up & process their lives. When I became a pastor in a working class neighborhood, l enrolled in the Front Porch Ed program.

If Ray works his 20 hrs this week for minimum wage at McDonalds, he knows his bi-monthly check from them will be just over $200. Which is why he delivers pizzas for Dominos another 20-30 hrs each week. And cuts grass in the neighborhood whenever he can.

This means Ray sometimes works 60-70 hrs a week, even though politicians who work far less suggest people like him are lazy or should work “better jobs.”

If the minimum wage were raised to $15/hr & Ray had guaranteed healthcare, he would make more per month than he does now working less hours at any one of the dozen service jobs he’s worked over the past decade.

Last weeks CBO report says this minimum wage increase would lift a million Americans out of poverty, but they don’t know how generous Ray is. Even in poverty, he shares what he has to keep several family members afloat. So let’s say, on average, 1 million x 3 benefit...

But the CBO also says “the economy” could lose 1.4 million jobs. Rays not worried about this b/c he knows he works too many “jobs” right now. If a single employer ha to pay him enough to survive, he’d be glad to give up the extra shifts elsewhere.

But in the Senate, there’s a rule that says you can’t raise the wage in a budget reconciliation process unless raising it would directly affect the federal budget. Well, Ray knows the math to answer this question too.

If McDonalds has to pay him $15/hr for 40hrs, they also have to pay his payroll taxes for that income to the feds. And when he reports that income, Ray knows he won’t qualify for the federal SNAP benefits he gets now. But that’s OK by him b/c he’d LOVE to not deal w/ DSS.

So, yes, there’s a direct impact on the budget. But Ray is focused on what he can do w/ money in his pocket. He has a dozen good ways to spend it, many of which stimulate the local economy. If 27 million people like Ray spend more, that also creates revenue that impacts budget.

I wish every US Senator would take the time to sit down & talk this thru w/ a minimum wage worker like Ray. But if they won’t, we should do a little public education to give them some remedial education in Front Porch Math.