Word: minimum
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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LIVING: For the millions of workers who must make do on the minimum wage, life is no American Dream...
During the past two administrations, Congress and the White House argued about raising the minimum wage for the first time since 1981. Some economists warned that prices would rise; others were worried that jobs would disappear. After months of delay and bargaining, last fall both sides settled on a two- stage increase: the wage rose to $3.80 an hour (or $152 for a 40-hour week) in April, and will reach $4.25 next year. Some called it an overdue victory, in an age of glossy neglect, for the working poor...
...behind the debate are the families who live the minimal life. More than 3 million Americans survive on the minimum wage, and millions more, like the Wellses, hover just above it. As inflation hummed along at 4% or 5% a year and buying power eroded, many lost their financial footing and slipped below the poverty line: a full-time worker at minimum wage still falls about $2,000 short of the subsistence level ($9,890 for a family of three). While it is true that most minimum-wage workers are teenagers or part-time employees, there are millions more...
Which means that everyone pays. Many of the expenses that fall through the cracks land on the public. A minimum-wage worker with a car probably cannot afford insurance. If he gets in an accident, someone else ends up paying, and eventually everyone's premiums rise. Likewise, babies of women who delay seeking adequate prenatal care are at high risk for birth defects and neo- natal trouble. This in turn drives doctors' insurance premiums up and makes for higher medical costs later on. Children who leave school early to help support the family have much less chance of climbing...
...tightly last week. After two weeks of sometimes intense dickering, the U.N. Security Council voted 13 to 0, with Yemen and Cuba abstaining, to authorize "such measures commensurate to the specific circumstances" to enforce the sanctions voted against Iraq four days after the invasion. At Soviet insistence, the phrase "minimum use of force" was dropped, but that is still what the new, vaguer language means. With five dissent-free votes condemning Iraq in three weeks, the Security Council has taken on surprising new life as an international policeman...