The controversy that I will discuss in my term paper
is the controversy that President Obama sparked at the recent State of the
Union Address. President Obama called for raising the federal minimum wage to $9.00 per hour. The controversy over the minimum wage has two sides that are both very strong opinionated about their views. There are two main public advocacy groups who both have different opinions on the issue of what the wage should be and both are making movements.
The National Employment Law Project (NELP) is an
advocacy group that is working to restore the promise of economic opportunity
in the economy. NELP owns the website raise the minimum wage, where they share their new campaigns to raise the minimum wage. They
work with advocate groups of the state and nation to rebuild the minimum wage
in the United States. NELP is a partner to the national minimum wage movement and
help develop new ways to raise wage standards at state, federal and local
levels by designing new polices. There
slogan is “rebuilding an economy that works for all of us”, and
there main goal is to help America’s economy. George Miller, an advocate for NELP, introduced
the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 which would raise the federal minimum wage by
2015 to $10.10 in order to restore the value of the federal minimum wage (http://www.raisetheminimumwage.org). There are many other public advocacy groups for this issue and another one
being Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign. Let Justice Roll's slogan is “a
job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.” This organization has
over 100 members in the organization and their goal is to raise the minimum
wage to a living wage by educating the public the link between poverty and wages. Let Justice Roll has played a huge part in raising the minimum wage in 18 states (http://letjusticeroll.org). Along with these advocacy groups there are many more who all have the same goal in mind, to raise the federal minimum wage.
On the other hand, the Conservative Lobby Group is against
the push to raise the wage. The American Legislative exchange council (ALEC)
introduced 67 laws in 25 states trying to reduce the minimum wage and stop
creation of minimum wage laws in cities. ALEC's main goals are to repeal,
suspend and weaken state minimum wage laws.
ALEC has worked to repeal the state minimum wage laws and ALEC believes that
NELP portrays unfair views on ALEC. ALEC is not against employees they just think
that the market should command the wages. According to NELP, ALEC has worked to
repeal the state minimum wage laws and prevent the establishment of local
living wage.
I believe that for both advocacy groups struggle on impacting how the issue is debated. There are certain boundaries and morals that you have to be careful not to step on. I think the minimum wage is a moral issue and involves a difference of beliefs not preferences. It is hard to say who is right and who is wrong. I do believe that the minimum wage should be raised but I also believe that it is hard to advocate for that because you do not want to get in the way of peoples morals. I think it leads to a moral issue because are we really paying our lowest paid workers what they deserve? Or are we robbing them from what they are worth?
Great work. Take a specific look at the ways in which each of these groups present their agendas publicly. How do they attract/generate web traffic and donations to their cause? How do they engage the public to find volunteers?
ReplyDeleteTry to remain an objective observer and critic. You are correct to consider these arguments as "moral" in nature - consider how that frame lends itself to particular strategies. Realize that each of these groups balances its efforts to influence public opinion with an effort to relate to - or "play to" - public opinion. You are on a good track here! Let me know how I can help.