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LEGISLATION & INFORMATION
"We stand for a living wage.
Wages are subnormal if they fail to provide a living for those
who devote their time and energy to industrial occupations. The
monetary equivalent of a living wage varies according to local
conditions, but must include enough to secure the elements of
a normal standard of living—a standard high enough to make
morality possible, to provide for education and recreation, to
care for immature members of the family, to maintain the family
during periods of sickness, and to permit of reasonable saving
for old age." Theodore Roosevelt, Confession of Faith, 8/6/1912
"The [Fair Labor Standards 1938] act—which also established
time-and-a-half pay for overtime and restricted child labor —
first set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents. .... No
one ever wants to make just the minimum, but the best time to
have done so was 40 years ago. That’s when the minimum wage
was the equivalent of $10.11 in 2008 dollars." "Keeping
an Eye on the Low Point of the Pay Scale," NYTimes,
8/31/08, Korkki
"An estimated 2.8 million employees will get a raise on Friday
[7/24/09] as the federal minimum wage rises from $6.55 an hour
to $7.25. Another 1.6 million whose hourly pay hovers around $7.25
are also expected to get a boost as employers adjust their pay
scales to the new minimum. The raise is badly needed. It is also
wholly inadequate.
With the latest increase, the minimum wage
is still no higher now, after inflation, than it was in the early
1980s, and it is 17 percent lower than its peak in 1968. That
means that no matter how hard they work, many low-wage workers
keep falling behind. The latest increase will slow the decline
in living standards, but it doesn’t reverse the overall
downward pull.
Even that understates the broader dimensions
of the problem.
The minimum wage also sets a floor by which other
wages are set. Keeping it low keeps wages lower than they would
be otherwise, especially for jobs that are just above the minimum-wage
level. That’s a big problem for American workers because
low-wage fields are the ones that are adding the most jobs.
According to the Labor Department, 5 of the 10
occupations expected to add the most jobs through 2016 are “very
low paying,” up to a maximum of about $22,000 a year. They
include retail sales jobs and home health aides. Another 3 of
the 10 are “low paying,” from roughly $22,000 to $31,000,
including customer-service representatives, general office clerks
and nurses’ aides." NYTimes Editorial, July 24, 2009
Raise
the Minimum Wage, website
by NELP
Most minimum wage workers are not teenagers, Cooper, EPI, 1/12
The
declining value of minimum wage, EPI, 11/17/10
Minimum Wage: EPI Issue Guide, 7/09
Minimum
wage laws in the states 10/09
Minimum
wage stuck in the 1950s, Holly Sklar, 7/09
Raising
the Minimum Wage in Hard Times, Holly Sklar, 7/09
Minimum
wage workers: better educated, worse compensated, 7/09
Increases
in minimum wage boost consumer spending, Filion,
EPI, 5/09
What today's economy means for workers wages- including minimum
wage workers,
Nathan Newman, July 2008
"In 1956 the minimum wage in today's dollars was about $7.93
an hour. Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage reached its
peak in 1968, at about $9.91 an hour. During the decades that
followed, its real value declined by almost 50 percent. That enormous
pay cut for the nation's poorest workers benefited some industries
enormously--supplying cheap labor to fast food restaurants, retail
stores and farms--while imposing enormous costs on society. When
the federal minimum wage hits $7.25 in July 2009, it will still
not reach the level considered adequate by President Dwight Eisenhower."
"The
Bare Minimum" Eric Schlosser, The Nation,
4/08 [On July 24, 2008, the federal minimum wage will increase
from $5.85 to $6.55; a year later, it will be $7.25. jz]
"Employment
and the Minimum Wage—Evidence from Recent State Labor Market
Trends"
The
Minimum Wage Remains a Key Issue, CAF,
7/08
What
a new federal minimum wage means for the states,
L. Fox, EPI, 6/07
Life
at Minimum Wage, CEP, 7/07
Fact
Sheet: “Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007”
First
Federal Wage Hike in 10 Years, Brennen Ctr
Good News! "..minimum wage
initiatives passed in all six states where they were on the ballot
on November 7 [2006] This means over 1.5 million workers in Arizona,
Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio, will see their wages
increase, thanks in part to your [economists'] support. Not only
did each of these states raise their minimum wages, they also
adopted automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments, bringing
to 10 the number of states with inflation indexing." Monique
Morrissey, EPI
Minimum
wage trends: Understanding past and contemporary research,
L. Fox
Hundreds
of Economists Say: Raise the Minimum Wage
States
with Minimum Wages above the Federal Level have had Faster Small
Business and Retail Job Growth, Fiscal Policy Instit.,
3/06
"There is nothing
but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate
wage to every [American] whether he [she] be a hospital worker,
laundry worker, maid or day laborer." Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?,
1967 quoted by Sklar and Sherry,
A Just Minimum Wage: Good For Workers, Business and Our Future
Job
Slayers or Fact Slayers? The Wall Street Journal's flawed argument
against raising the minimum wage
Citywide
Minimum Wage Laws: A New Policy Tool for Local Governments
6/05
Labor/Working
Families--Civil Rights Coalition
Bill Number: H.R. 1050 A
Living Wage, Jobs For All Act Sponsor: Rep. Barbara Lee
(D-CA)
3/2/2005--Introduced. A Living Wage, Jobs for All Act - Declares
that the Congress affirms the basic economic rights and responsibilities
under the 1944 "Economic Bill of Rights," while updating
and extending it to include: (1) certain rights to decent jobs,
income security for individuals unable to work for pay, a decent
living for farm families, freedom from monopolies, decent housing,
adequate health services, Social Security in old age, sickness,
accidental injury, and unemployment, and education and work training;
and (2) certain other rights relating to collective bargaining,
a safe working environment, information on trends in pollution
sources and products and processes that affect the well-being
of workers throughout the world, voting and campaigning, and personal
security. Requires corporations registered with the Securities
and Exchange Commission to disclose fully in annual reports the
impact of their activities on environmental quality and on the
rights of other stakeholders, including employees, consumers,
and communities. Requires each State to require all State-chartered
corporations to submit such annual reports. Directs the Attorney
General to establish a computerized registration program of all
corporations found guilty of violating a Federal or State law.
Authorizes the President to deny Federal contracts, loans, or
loan guarantees to non-compliant corporations. Requires Federal
agencies and commissions, including the Board of Governors of
the Federal Reserve System, to help establish and maintain conditions
under which all adult Americans may freely exercise the economic
rights specified in 1944 and in this Act. Prohibits Federal agencies
or commissions from promoting recession, stagnation, or unemployment
to reduce wages or inflation. Directs the President to establish
a full employment framework for the annual budget submitted to
the Congress that meets specified goals for: (1) quality of life
and environment; (2) responsible, sustainable growth; (3) unemployment
reduction; and (4) human rights. Requires the Joint Economic Committee
to oversee actions under this Act and submit an annual Concurrent
Resolution on Economic Policy setting forth its proposed employment
goals.
Sponsor/Co-sponsor(s) 1
MINIMUM WAGE BILL
"Since Congress last acted to raise the minimum wage in two
phases in 1996 and 1997, the value has eroded by more than 15
percent. In the past eight years, Members of Congress
will have raised their own pay seven times -- by $28,500. Yet,
in those same eight years minimum wage workers have not received
a single raise, continuing to earn only $10,700 a year
working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. This is $5,000 below
the poverty line for a family of three.
According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI),
an estimated 7.3 million workers (5.8 percent of the workforce)
would receive an increase in their hourly wage rate if the minimum
wage were raised from $5.15 to $7.25 by June 2007. And, due to
"spillover effects," the 8.2 million workers (6.5 percent
of the workforce) earning up to a dollar above the minimum would
also be likely to benefit from an increase. " [emphasis added-jz]
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=47590
Making
a Living: How the living wage movement has prevailed,
By Jared Bernstein
No
Way Out: How Prime-Age Workers Get Trapped in Minimum Wage Jobs,
Heather Boushey May 2005
The
Economic Effects of Citywide Wage Mandates: Evidence
from the 2004 San Francisco Minimum Wage Increase
Labor
Markets and Living Wages--Political Economy Research Institute
UMASS
See Resources:
Living Wage
The
National Jobs for All Coalition is a project of the Council on
Public and International Affairs.
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