Let’s stipulate that the opportunity to get an education to the highest level of one’s ability and ambition is a value most Americans support. Okay so far? “Free” public education through high school has been supported by taxpayers since long before the living memory of most people. In many communities, the high school is the epicenter of civic life and, even more important, of sports.

Let’s also stipulate that there are many jobs considered essential or indispensable to ordinary American life that are not likely to be replaced by technology. Cleaners. Hospitality workers and servers. Childcare and eldercare providers. Receptionists, call center helpers, and data entry clerks. Many of these jobs offer pay levels far below what would be considered a living wage: that is, enough money to house, clothe, and feed a family, and to provide for basic medical care, insurance, child care, and savings for future security and further education.

Today, even with a basic education, and the willingness to find and perform a full-time job in an “essential” capacity, thousands, if not millions,* of Americans are unable to take the next step up from poverty for themselves and their children. Are we as a nation making the judgment that people performing jobs we consider essential to our quality of life must settle for—be consigned to–everlasting poverty?

Why don’t we as taxpayers insist on wages instead of “welfare”?

A federal minimum wage required of all employers seems like a relatively inexpensive answer to “welfare” in all its acronyms. Such a wage would cover the basics mentioned above, including medical (pay-as-you-go maintenance, personal insurance for catastrophic or pre-existing conditions). Being able to secure a living wage for any and all jobs would permit employees to move fearlessly from one job to another. Employers would seek the best workers available simply by boosting the offered wage. That’s good old American competition, right?

Even entrepreneurs and small businesses should be required to meet the basic wage. Can’t “afford” to pay your servers, your drivers, your clerks? Then perhaps you can’t afford to start a business just yet. On the other hand, perhaps a government guarantee of inexpensive, even forgivable, loans until a new business gets going would promote innovation. Just as “free” education gives everyone (theoretically) an equal start in life, so wage assistance from taxpayers for small businesses would give people with new ideas and leadership ability an equal start with the privileged. A federal scholarship program for higher education wouldn’t hurt when ability earns it.

As for big business: living wages, and profits shared with workers as well as with investors, put money to work fast in a far-reaching way for the everyday economy.

Let’s begin to lift all boats by demanding wages commensurate with the essential, valued labor of our fellow citizens. Unless we want to see (again) our nation’s success built on the backs of the poor, every employer must pay a living wage to every employee. Let’s make it a federal law.

*I welcome the contribution of a source for this claim.