Letter to the editor: Benefits not enough for low wage workers

The Daily Northwestern's editorial stance on living wages — that it makes perfect economic sense to set NU workers' wages so low that they must rely on government benefits to survive — is based solely on free market ideology and thus misses the larger critical issue: growing social inequality.  Social inequality is unsustainable, a moral, social, and political crisis that has led to unrest, human suffering and misery globally. In the U.S. today, the largest gap in income since the Great Depression is a disgrace — and a result of the kind of policies The Daily espouses. The editorial board, with the zeal of a religious convert, repeats free market solutions for improving the lives of worker by "increas[ing] their skills and earning potential." These "solutions"  shift the burden of responsibility off the administration and onto workers.

This is not to say the Living Wage Campaign does not support improved worker training and development programs. In fact it was only after workers, student and faculty mobilized last winter for living wages that University administration relented and passed the "community benefits" package The Daily now praises.  But that is not enough. With double digit unemployment and shrinking welfare state, the only immediate solution for improving the lives of workers are living wages.  

At an elite, renowned research institution known for breakthroughs in biomedical science and economics, I hope we could figure out a way prioritize and fairly compensate the many workers and families who indispensably contribute to campus life.  Living wage campaigns are the only effective way to improve immediate working conditions while addressing the larger issue of growing inequality. Having the government subsidize Northwestern's low wages, while patronizing workers with self help programs, are not a solution: it's more of the same.

—Dario Valles

PhD student, Anthropology