Black corporations assist elevating the minimal wage

Last updated Feb 22, 2021

People gather to ask McDonald’s Corporation to raise workers wages to a minimum wage of $ 15 and to demand union rights on May 23, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

President Joe Biden announced the American Rescue Plan in January, which includes raising the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour. Since the president’s announcement, there has been a lot of debate about raising the minimum wage, particularly among business leaders.

While much of the American Rescue Plan has focused on COVID-19-related relief, the minimum wage hike is long overdue and the pandemic has only exacerbated the need for wages that can support American workers.

In the past 25 years, the minimum wage has increased by only $ 2.50 – from $ 4.75 an hour to $ 7.25 an hour – and the last increase was in 2009. Additionally, according to the Economic Policy Institute ( EPI) 31% of the workforce who would benefit most from an increased minimum wage.

Opponents of an increase in the minimum wage argue that doing so would harm American companies and force small and medium-sized businesses to lay off workers.

The US Black Chambers, Inc. (USBC) disagrees with this argument. The USBC, which represents 310,000 black-owned companies and 145 Black Chambers nationwide, believes that raising the minimum wage will have a significant impact on millions of Americans and their homes, reducing racial and gender wage inequality.

Even as 41% of black-owned businesses shut down due to COVID-19, black business owners continued to express their support for an increase in the minimum wage as it would have a significant impact on millions of American households and family outflow Poverty.

The EPI estimates that “almost one in four (23%) who would benefit is a black or Latin American woman”.

The USBC met with Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier this month to discuss the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on black-owned companies and the way the Biden administration is working to help the companies that do it To offer help and support is needed most.

If black business, facing major obstacles outside of COVID-19, can hit a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour, then why can’t the rest of American business?

Raising the minimum wage won’t be easy for businesses, but it’s a significant step in bringing financial stability to parts of America that have long been overlooked.

Indeed, black-owned companies can see slower growth based on the number of employees they can afford (in addition to less access to capital), but that doesn’t stop the community from taking up the challenge.

Corporate America, let’s hit a minimum wage of $ 15 by 2025.

Ron Busby is President of the US Black Chambers, Inc.