How A $15 An Hour Minimum Wage Can Help Curb Domestic Abuse

[votesparks]

I heard a story this week that brought into focus why people who work 40 hours a week deserve a living wage.

A guy was telling us his personal story about why this issue is so important to him.

He told of his life growing up in an abusive family in the South. His father emotionally and physically abused his mother, who was a minimum wage worker at Wal-Mart.

Every year she would tell her children, "Just one more year, and we'll have enough money to leave."

But because she could never amass enough money to leave, the abuse and the cycle of violence continued. My friend says she is an emotional wreck from all the years of abuse, and that the kids have had many problems dealing with the legacy of familial abuse.

But the one thing that was most powerful was when he said "If my mother had earned a $15 hour minimum wage, she would have been able to leave, and spare us all the agony that was going on inside of our home."

Because abused women should have the economic leverage to leave lives of domestic violence, I voted early in the Ohio Democratic Primary for Bernie Sanders.

[desmiller]

1. Coming home with a "true" paycheck can solve miles of problems.

BTW k & R

[SheilaT]

2. That story resonates with me.

My father was an abusive alcoholic. When I was 14 my mother took the five children still at home (oldest brother was in the army) and moved us from northern New York State to Tucson, Arizona. She was a nurse. She'd worked at a state hospital for seven years at that point, and had $2,000 in her retirement fund, which she cashed in for the move. It took a thousand dollars for the drive across country, for the up front costs of renting the small (maybe 500 square feet) 2 bedroom place she rented for us. But she was a nurse and quickly found employment. Back then, in 1962, nurses didn't make very much money. What she earned just barely covered our basic expenses, and in the next year or two the rest of that retirement money was used up.

But she'd gotten us away from a very bad situation, which she could not have done had she not had that money, had not known she could get a job that paid a survivable wage. Which is all it was, but we managed. Today, someone with kids and a minimum wage job cannot possibly acquire the cushion that made our leaving such a terrible situation possible.

Many years later, when I was married with a couple of small children, and in a marriage that was a good, steady one, I finally got a glimmer of how much courage it must have taken Mom to leave with us.

And only some people are in such a situation. Even those in good, solid marriages/relationships still deserve a living wage. We all do.

[rusty quoin]

4. +1

[rusty quoin]

3. Financial problems are usually the reason for fights.

Fights lead to abuse. No money leaves a wife having to stay in a bad situation.
It's always been about money.

[Uncle Joe]

5. On the flip side I have no doubt financial stress contributes to aggressiveness. I'm not suggesting

it's a panacea but I believe less stress of all kinds; whether it be financial or PTSD as from war among other things would have a positive effect on reducing familial abuse.

Thanks for the sharing, votesparks.