I was in a C-store the other Friday afternoon getting coffee, and while I was mixing in a few sugars and some cream, I heard the two I guess 18-20 year olds behind the sandwich counter talking about getting paid. One said to the other that he got around $400 every two weeks. One said he was getting more like $380. They seemed mostly happy about that, but I guess I’ve been living under a log, and I ain’t worked a minimum wage job like that in many years. What they were getting paid ain’t enough money for a pot to piss in. Was that for full time? I don’t know, but even if it was half time, that ain’t enough. Especially from a corporate C-store gas station. I won’t name it here, but you can use your imagination.

I know the minimum wage is a bit better in Montana then other states, and it’s going up 35 cents next year (whoopee sh*t) to $10.30 an hour. But the cost of living in Montana is crazy now. Peole moving here. Inflation was 14% last year. (No sense in arguing over the causes of inflation right now). The state minimum wage only applies to businesses who bring in $100,000 or more a year, and so that applies that national chain C-Store and gas station. But my point is: even the Montana minimum wage ain’t enough for anyone to work for. Of course, the Montana GOP killed a raise to $11.39 last legislative session.

We need the $15 minimum wage. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 and ain’t been raised since 2009. 2009? I joke about cranky old Bernie Sanders as much as anyone, but he’s got a good point and it’s important.

So what if a corporation has to pay a little more? They’ll pay for the raise for their employees in an hour of being open, the way the beer flies off the shelf. And a higher minimum ain’t going to cause inflation. We’re letting the corporations kill our kids and a lot of middle class folks and old people. Those people are the ones making the corporation all that money. What’s wrong with being fair? Hell, pass a law that says the $15 minimm will be funded by beer sales, and add ten cents on the price of a six pack.

"Some Old Cowboy ciphering about the Minimum Wage" from @mtgoplol

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Once, in another C-store, I heard who I took to be the manager telling clerks to take the gallons of 2% milk that were in the cooler. They were a day past sell date, she said. That meant that they were still good. What was unsaid was there was no sense sending them back to the dairy, and that the clerks could really use it with what they were getting paid. A gallon of milk is almost $4 these days at the regular store, probably more at that C-store, since all prices are higher there. And that’s a good chunk of an hour’s work at minimum wage. Some of those clerks with families probably qualify for food stamps.

Now I know smaller, independent C-stores might have trouble with a minimum wage at all, or $15 an hour. That’s why the current law doesn’t apply to businesses under $100,000 a year. But still. Do you value your employees? If someone gets paid what they’re worth, they tend to stick around. Getting new employees situated takes time and money. Have you seen all the Help Wanted signs everywhere? Do you see that so many are offering $15 an hour or better? I heard some GOP and Libertarian types say that if the minimum wage went to $15 an hour, fast food restaurants would get robots to make the food and run the cash registers, and then where would those employees be? Out of a job, they say. Well, I say: so where are the robots now? Huh? Have you see any robots slinging burgers or manning the till at the C-store? I haven’t.

Now you’re probably saying that this guy has never run a business with employees. I haven’t. I did run a business once where I hired help from time to time, and I didn’t stop to think about if I was or wasn’t getting my extra few dollars an hour out of the employee. And the subcontractors I hired, I learned that I got better and faster work if I paid a little more. Rather than wasting time trying to save a dollar or two, I spent a dollar or two more and the subcontractor was happier and I was, too. And when I worked for businesses, when I was an employee, for minimum wage or sometimes better, I could see that for the most part, people wanted to work, and they wanted to do a good job, no mater what they got paid. That’s people for you. (I’d say “That’s Americans for you”, but then the GOP would figure out a way to twist that and make me out to be unpatriotic.)

Make the corporations pay their fair share for their employees. $15 minimum wage, here in Montana and across the country. We don’t have to look out for the corporations; they’re designed to only look after themselves. Encourage smaller businesses to take care of their employees. If that means a law to raise the minimum wage for all businesses, so be it. Don’t sacrifice people on the alter of making money for the shareholders. We’re better than that. We have to look out for each other.