Earlier this week, John Bel Edwards was sworn in as Governor of Louisiana. His first act as governor was to issue an executive order to expand Medicaid – and just like that, 300,000 Louisianans were eligible for healthcare for the first time. Workers in the notorious “Obamacare gap,” who make more than $7.25 and less than $10 an hour, were previously too “rich” for Medicaid and too poor for federal subsidies. Of course, that gap only exists in Republican states where governors have refused to cooperate with the President, but Louisiana was one of those – and Alabama still is. Unless Governor Bentley suddenly decides to be wildly more courageous than he has the past five years, we aren’t going to expand Medicaid anytime soon. But there is another way to get people to qualify for the healthcare they need – and improve their lives in several other meaningful ways, and Birmingham has already done it.

Raising the minimum wage is good for conservatives and liberals – for employees and small business owners. The only groups that take a loss when the minimum wage is raised are corporations like Wal-Mart and fast food restaurants, and their influence is probably why so much of the rhetoric surrounding the issue is confusing. But across the nation, from blue New York to deep red Arkansas, Americans are waking up to realities that have been obscured by special interests for too long.

First, the liberal argument: when it was created in the 1930s, the minimum wage was intended to ensure that all working Americans made a decent living. It has not kept that promise. A fast food employee working full time at minimum wage makes below the federal poverty line, and likely has to work another job to get by, leaving no time for night classes or other opportunities to improve his or her station. Allowing American workers to live in poverty while the rich get incomprehensibly richer is inconsistent with American values, and was one of the driving factors of the Great Depression. Any true progressive will take up this cause with open arms.

But let’s say you’re a conservative; you don’t think people working in fast food deserve to make living wages, and you incorrectly assume that minimum wage jobs were intended for teenagers to earn extra cash (88 percent of minimum wage workers in the U.S. are 20 or older). When a corporation doesn’t pay its employees a living wage, you foot the bill for the rest of their necessities. Some of the wealthiest corporations in the United States are paying their workers wages that the American taxpayer is subsidizing through programs like food stamps, when all employees would prefer that value in cash. It is morally reprehensible for companies to make the American taxpayer provide what they should be providing for labor. Even small businesses, which have less profit with which to pay their employees, benefit from higher wages. Numerous studies have shown that when an employee makes more money, he spends it locally, often opting for small businesses rather than the big-box stores that were all he could afford. If you want to support your local businesses rather than eventually be forced to buy everything from either Wal-Mart or Target, raising the minimum wage is an imperative. 

So why $10.10? Why not $15 or some higher number? There are legitimate economic arguments to be made that doubling the minimum wage would cause an initial shock in the economy, especially in areas with low costs of living. However, the most persistent myth about raising the minimum wage incrementally – that it causes unemployment – is not backed up by any credible statistics, regardless of what you might have learned in your introductory microeconomics class. If you’re a liberal, $10.10 gives poor, working single mothers access to healthcare they may not have had in years. $10.10 is compassionate. If you’re a conservative, $10.10 keeps your tax dollars from subsidizing the wages of large corporations. $10.10 is fiscally responsible. If you’re a small business owner, $10.10 brings new customers into your door that can’t afford to pay a little extra for good quality right now. And if you’re a member of a far-right fringe group like the Tea Party or the Business Council of Alabama, who believes that minimum-wage workers should starve, try to spend a little less time ironing your “Don’t Tread On Me” flag and a little more time considering where you would be in your life without the advantages most workers haven’t had.

The Tuscaloosa $10.10 Coalition has been working for months to raise our minimum wage and give residents the raise they deserve. We need you to join us. There are 17,000 citizens of Tuscaloosa who are working for poverty wages, and it is our responsibility as residents of this great city to change that. Sign the petition, contact your local city councilperson, or email the mayor to let them know you support moving Tuscaloosa forward with a $10.10 minimum wage. Let’s get to work.

Kyle Campbell is a junior majoring in political science. His column runs biweekly.