The country believes that what you do has value. The country will offer you a layer of protection that no one can undercut.
Today's column began with one question, so let's end it with another.
If there had never been a minimum-wage law passed -- if, as in the years before 1938, Americans today could be paid as little as employers could get away with -- and if, in 2013, someone in Congress proposed the first law ever that would guarantee workers a minimum wage. . . .
Do you think, in our current political atmosphere, such a law would have a chance of passing?
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