Why is it that, whenever newspapers want to find sad stories to illustrate their political points, they end up with people who are curiously unsympathetic?
Case in point: an article from the Washington Post, reprinted in today’s Chicago Tribune, “The 25-cent raise: What life is like after a minimum wage increase,” describes the overall background of the multiple legislative proposals to increase the minimum wages, and cites small business owners concerned about it’s impact on their ability to stay in business.
But here’s the woman they profile for their human interest angle: Shanna Tippen, who supports not just herself, but her two grown children, ages 24 and 21, and her almost-two grandchild, plus another grandchild on the way. We’re meant to feel sorry for her, that she can’t support the family on her paycheck, but at the same time: is it really reasonable to expect a minimum wage job to pay enough to support two nonworking adults and two children, besides the wage earner?
Why aren’t these two children working? The article doesn’t say — are they unable to find work or not looking? Or is it a matter of one daughter caring for a toddler, and the other too close to giving birth to contemplate working? Ironically, a boost in the number of employed adults in the household would increase income more than a boost in the minimum wage, and yet, assuming they’re looking for work, a boost in the the minimum wage makes it less likely that they’ll find something.
Oh, and at the end of the story we learn that Tippen managed to find an $8/hour job, back in 2004, but ended up back in minimum wage territory after stealing from the company and landing in jail for a year. Really? That was the best sad story you could come up with?
Hmmm. . . this scenario actually sounds pretty familiar. There it is: a post from back in 2013, in which a similar family, with multiple unemployed adults and their children dependent on their mother’s Social Security disability, is featured for a sad case of food stamp hardships.
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