Recently, we wrote about Republican Pennsylvania lawmaker Jesse Topper, who, back in June, gave remarks to the state’s House of Representatives advocating against raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour.
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“Not every wage, and please hear me clearly on this,” Topper says in a viral clip.
“Not every wage is designed to be a livable wage.”
He goes on to give examples of his point, like a teenager or a retired person working for income they don’t technically need to survive.
The BuzzFeed Community had a WHOLEEE lot to say about Topper’s comments, so let’s get into it:
1.“One thing I’ll never understand is the idea that some jobs are ‘supposed’ to be for students trying to make money. Dude, who do you think is going to make your mid-morning coffee or make your fast-food lunch when STUDENTS ARE IN SCHOOL? It’s just not feasible! Obviously, some students can make it work — and sometimes have to support their parents, unfortunately — but there just aren’t enough people even available for minimum wage jobs. Adults have to do these jobs, too, and not just as ‘starter jobs.’ They need to make enough money to live, support kids, bills, etc.”
2.“If people who work full-time do not earn enough for them to live on, how are they supposed to survive? One way is by receiving benefits like Section 8, Medicaid, SNAP, and WIC. And I’m sure that this guy wants to cut those benefits. Or eliminate them. So, people who work hard to support themselves should go hungry? Live in their cars? Or the streets?”
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3.“If $7.25/hour is an acceptable pay rate to Pennsylvania lawmakers, then why don’t they just make that the pay rate for Pennsylvania lawmakers?”
4.“Sure, a job that a high schooler or a retiree is working to make extra money doesn’t need to pay enough to live off of because they’re not working it full-time. If that job IS being worked full-time, that job should have a wage that is able to be lived off of, because whoever is working that job is doing so TO MAKE A LIVING. Any job that hires any employee for 40 hours or more a week needs to pay a living wage.”
5.“The idiocy is not lost on me that these fast-food workers were considered ‘essential’ during the lockdown and still had to go to work, yet they aren’t ‘essential’ enough to pay a livable wage to.”
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6.“As an introverted disabled retiree, if I ever go back to work, it won’t be because I want to. I’ve got plenty to do at home, and it would bring me no joy to go back out into the world and deal with assholes all day every day for $7.25/hour.”
7.“Let him live off of that wage!”
8.“I think he is correct. Growing up as teenagers, we worked at jobs such as waitress, babysitter, pumping gas, cashier, filing paperwork, etc., to gain experience in the working world and also earn a wage to learn how to handle money, learn about taxes, etc. Originally, those types of jobs were not intended to actually support a family. The fact that these jobs are occupied by people who do need them is a sad reflection on our society.”
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9.“Since when is a kid saving for college not necessary? Since when is grandma running a cash register at Walmart not needed income? This asshole’s constituents should send him packing!”
10.“Wow, how truly despicable.”
11.“Public service should be a minimum wage job. You’re supposed to be sacrificing your time and effort for the greater good. So let’s start enforcing that.”
12.“I didn’t go to college, and I work in childcare, where I make $19.50 an hour. I still can’t afford to live on my own, making almost $20 an hour. $7.50 is an absolute fucking joke. How can anyone afford to do anything with that?”
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13.“I think all politicians should make minimum wage so they can truly understand how their constituents live. Watch them bitch and moan about not being able to live on $7.25 an hour while the people they represent have to. Don’t like it, well then raise the minimum wage.”
14.“Love when they say the job is meant for teenagers when those same teenagers are supposed to be in school for most of the hours the job is open. There isn’t a fast-food chain in the country that exclusively runs after 3 p.m., and that’s without including prep work and opening.”
—gtor
15.“I wish there would be a major push, worldwide, that politicians get paid whatever the minimum wage is of the region they’re representing. They work fewer hours than the average worker. This would help bring back the ideology of the politicians working for the people again. It’s become a joke where the majority of them are nepos of some sort who never worked a day in their lives.”
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16.“Welcome to America, where we work for vibes.”
17.“That’s why it’s called the MINIMUM wage. If jobs are difficult or require experience, then they get paid more than that. They make it sound like these employees will suddenly be living in the lap of luxury at $31,200 a year. If your rent is $1,000 (the national average is $1,700), that leaves you with only $19,000 to live on for the whole year before taxes. That doesn’t count food, cars, clothes, insurance, phones, etc….”
18.“At one time, businesses said they needed slavery so they could continue their lavish lifestyles. I would say if you cannot afford a livable wage to workers, do the work yourself so you can prosper on your own sweat.”
19.“I am retired and lucky that I am able to manage due to my husband’s pension and Social Security income. I went into banking a very long time ago because they had retirement plans, but those were soon disbanded in the late ’70s and ’80s with the advent of 401(k) programs, so I have both 401(k) and Social Security.”
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“My husband and I volunteer at the local retirement center and deliver food for the Meals on Wheels program. The meals cost $4, and some clients cannot even afford this cost, so since this is a ‘suggested’ amount, they pay what they can or pay $0. Since federal funding was cut by the Trump administration for social programs for counties, funding is no longer available for these senior centers, so now private and commercial donations have to make up the shortfall. I truly believe the Republicans are out of step regarding wages, programs for the needy, and retirees. There are a lot of retirees who have second jobs because their SS does cover their living expenses. Sad.”
20.“I’m really starting to hate Republiclowns. They should all be voted out of office. It kills me to think my tax dollars are paying for assholes like this.”
21.“There shouldn’t be a minimum wage. Each job should just pay what the job is worth.”
22.“Over the past year in Pennsylvania, I’ve seen the local car wash hiring at $16/hour, and just this week, a relative was hired at a fast-food restaurant for a $15/hour starting wage. Anything less, and these positions stayed vacant. Idiots like this overpaid legislator (in one of America’s largest and overpaid state governments) just show how out of touch our overlords actually are.”
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23.“They don’t want to pay a livable wage, but then they get mad when people need assistance to survive, like Medicaid and food stamps. How do they not realize the cycle they have created? Do you want the guy who can work fast food and do a great job to make a living wage and support himself, or do you want him to not make that and have to apply for government assistance? Or is the truth of it just that you want poor people to die because they aren’t convenient for you to think about?”
“Because guess what — those people are the ones who are doing essential jobs that make your life easier. Look at anywhere with unions. Ever experienced a sanitation strike? The people that you’re hurting with these laws are the ones that you absolutely need for your communities to thrive. It’s like they all share a single brain cell. No one can see the big picture.”
24.“To not even consider that some of the people in those jobs might not be teenagers: The close-mindedness is willful and deliberate.”
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“Also, if a teenager is working, it’s extremely likely that they also need the money. Maybe more than if they were older and independent! My brother-in-law dropped out of high school to wash dishes so he could support his mom. Should he have had to? Absolutely not. But did he deserve a wage that you can support a family on just as much as any other working person? Absolutely. His family stayed housed, but he worked his ass off, and then had to go through the shame (to him — we didn’t feel there was any shame in it) of telling my sister and our family that he needed to get a GED before they could carry out their plans for higher education for him as a mature student. Just to give one example of why teens aren’t necessarily working just for ‘fun money.'”
25.“Can we stop with the wealthy people telling the rest of us to live with the scraps we get? Or at least stop telling us to be grateful for it.”
26.“Guy who gets paid $106K per year to work in a legislature that meets 50 or 60 days a year says what??? The man is clearly asking for a less-than-livable wage, and so he should have it.”
27.And finally, “USA is a straight-up dystopia.”
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What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
