By: Cory McCray
“Don’t young workers deserve a shot at being a part of the middleclass?” Across the country, many local, state, and federal governments have been restructuring their wages, health benefits, and retirement systems. While many workers have been affected, the ones that are most adversely affected are young workers. Young workers that are still in high school or college, the workers that are just entering the workforce or maybe have not even entered the workforce are the ones hurt the most. Can we honestly say that these workers have a fair shot at the table of negotiations?
I was always told “If you’re not sitting at the table, then you are on the menu!” That’s exactly what happened to young workers, they were the full course meals. As legislation across the country is being signed into law, some of the agreements are that:
1. Instead of five (5) years to be vested into a pension, it now takes ten (10) years to be vested.
2. For pension systems, many multipliers have been raised for new workers
3. Some pension systems have added 5 additional years to retirement requirement (Ex. Instead of 20 and out, it’s 25 and out.)
4. Health benefits are being restructured
5. Different Pay Scales for new workers
These are just some of the new changes that will cripple the middle class dreams for young workers. The long term consequences of these new agreements are lower wages, costly health benefits, and longer years to be vested or for retirement qualifications. All of these actions happened while young workers were studying for their exams, attending their proms, and doing the right things to ensure a promising future.
Well young workers, we can no longer just do the right things to ensure a promising future. Instead we have to be engaged with the politics that surround us to demand a promising future for ourselves and the people behind us. We are currently “On The Menu” young people, and the only way to get a seat at the table is to be engaged, educated, and involved. That will ensure that others will respect our voting block and our power of voting.
