Wednesday night at the University of Wisconsin Memorial Union, the Contemporary Issues Committee sponsored a debate on the possible increase in minimum wage in Madison. Representing both sides of this issue, the dialogue incorporated the voices of UW students, professor of economics Robert Haveman, Ald. Austin King, District 8, and small-business owner Sandi Torkildson.

The goal of the dialogue was to hear both sides of the proposed $2.60 increase in the federally mandated $5.15 minimum wage.

“The reason minimum wage is such an issue is because it is a tradeoff,” Haveman said. He argued that despite the benefit of higher wages to both students and members of the working class at poverty level, the implementation of a higher minimum wage would adversely affect small businesses in Madison, as well as create job loss in the city.

A general theme focused on how the city thrives on differences among its residents. According to King, the possibility small businesses in Madison will suffer must be addressed.

“It is a complicated issue, but there is no doubt there will be job loss … The question is how much job loss,” Haveman said.

The job loss associated with increases in minimum wage occurs because many small-business owners, such as Torkildson, are unable to increase employee wages while continuing to provide benefits, such as health care and dental insurance.

Torkildson has been owner and operator of the Madison bookstore A Room of One’s Own, 307 W. Johnson St., for 29 years and said this wage increase would indeed negatively affect her business.

A minimum-wage increase would affect the working class and businesses differently. According to Haveman, large chain businesses would be able to combat the negative effects of the wage increase much more easily than a small business would.

Some part-time and student workers will benefit immediately from the wage raise, while those at the poverty level may find jobs frozen.

Despite possible negative effects of a minimum-wage increase, studies of the living wage in Madison have found that in 2003, people living at the poverty level need to make $9.57 an hour to survive. King and other advocates said the current $5.15 wage and the possible $2.60 increase do not reach close enough to the necessary amount.

“Students need this money; poor people need this money,” said UW senior and co-chair of the Poverty Action Network Katie Ray.

Supporters of the wage increase say they have solid grounds to fight. Madison is one of the more expensive places to live in Wisconsin based on transportation and housing alone, according to The Capital Times.

“No one can survive on $5.15. No one in the city can survive on that. Five dollars and 15 cents is an economic anachronism,” King said.

Activists promoting the legislation, such as the Madison Fair Wage Campaign, hope to have 12,800 petition signatures of local Madisonians in seven days to support the minimum-wage increase. This petition will ask the City Council to implement the increase in Madison.

However, some believe a wage increase is not the answer. “[An increase] does not effectively fix problems,” said UW senior Peter McCabe, Upper Midwest chair of Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow.

In the short run, the $2.60 raise will not solve all of the city’s problems with low-income workers, despite granting a higher pay to some. The long-term effects of the wage increase will hurt productivity, Haveman said.

Yet, supporters of the petition agree that some help is better than none at all.

“No one is saying [the minimum-wage increase] will solve problems completely,” Ray said.