Ten Years to the Day and Still No Minimum Wage Hike

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/08/20/ten-years-to-the-day-... /

Legislation & Politics, Bush & Co.

Aug 20

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Ten Years to the Day and Still No Minimum Wage Hike

It’s not like anyone expected him to send flowers or a card. But you would think President Bush, who has recently been leading cheers about the supposed great shape of the nation’s economy like a teenager who’s gone a little too deep into the Red Bull, might have remembered it was 10 years ago today—Aug. 20, 1996—that the last minimum wage increase was signed into law.

Bush, after a meeting with his economic advisors Friday, told reporters how proud he is of his economic policies and pointed to massive tax cuts—almost exclusively for the wealthy—as the so-called engine of his imagined economic boom. He didn’t mention that for past 10 years and for the entire tenure of his presidency, millions of hard-working men and women got up every day to go work for $5.15 an hour—$5.15 an hour then, $5.15 an hour now and $5.15 an hour every day in between.

That $5.15 an hour doesn’t buy nearly as much in this age of $3-a-gallon-plus gasoline prices and out-of-this-world health care and housing costs. The minimum wage is at a 51-year low in buying power.

In his talk to reporters, Bush ignored the fact that his administration and its Republican allies in Congress have turned their backs on America’s low-wage workers for the past decade. They’ve killed every effort to increase the minimum wage or loaded up legislation with “poison pills” like estate tax cuts for millionaires, attacks on labor law protections such as overtime eligibility and even cutting the pay of tipped workers—that Democrats have been forced to stand against those cynical wage bills.

The AFL-CIO’s America Needs a Raise Campaign is rolling along in the states, mobilizing for ballot initiatives and legislation to raise state minimum wage levels, and fighting on the federal level to pass legislation boosting the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour–with no poison pills.

Maybe in the near future we will have another date to mark each year—the day the minimum wage is finally raised again. But meanwhile, it’s not such a happy anniversary for the millions of America’s workers still busting their tails for $5.15 an hour.

by Mike Hall

[Poppyseedman]

1. The ignorance on this subject is mind numbing

As a election year political talking point, it is a LOSER issue.

All one has to look at the minimum wage numbers and who actually works for it and for how long they stay on minimum wage is easy to see why almost NOBODY gives a shit about it, except the unions for obvious financial reasons

When under 2.5 percent of the people work for minimum wage and a high percent of them are both under 21 and work part time, political urgency will be at a all time low.

The vast majority of voters will not got motivated to vote on the minimum wage issue.

[KingFlorez]

3. That's just an excuse not to raise it

How can it be a loser issue? It doesn't offend people or anything.

[Omaha Steve]

4. Polls show 80% of Americans want it raised

I posted a story a few weeks ago about a lady in her 50's that can't find work that pays more than the minimum. It was a cry while you read it piece. To bad you don't have any sympathy for the working poor. It is also to bad YOUR taxes pay for their health care, a child's free lunch, subsidized rent, ... Get the picture?

[Skittles]

5. I don't give a f*** how many people are getting minimum wage

raising it would be the RIGHT THING TO DO, regardless of POLITICAL POINTS

[curt_b]

2. Thanks Steve, Here in Ohio

the people mentioned in this study might care:

from: Policy Matters Ohio
http://www.policymattersohio.org/who_needs_a_raise.htm

The measure would raise the Ohio minimum wage to $6.85 an hour by 2007 with annual cost-of-living-adjustments thereafter. That proposal would raise wages for about 719,000 Ohio workers 14 percent of the states workforce. Directly affected are 297,000 workers who currently earn less than $6.85. An additional 423,000 are indirectly affected already earning at least $6.85 but likely to still get a modest wage increase as employers adjust pay scales to accommodate raises for minimum wage employees. If the wage is increased, those earning under $6.85 prior to the increase will get an average estimated 80 cent raise, and those earning more than $6.85 will get an average estimated 26 cent raise. Other findings include: About three quarters of those affected (74 percent) are age 20 or older. Many (28 percent) are married, and about one in five is a parent. Approximately 253,000 Ohio children have a parent who would see a raise under this proposal. Families with workers who would see a raise rely on those workers for more than half of the families weekly earnings, on average.

If the wage is increased, those earning under $6.85 prior to the increase will get an average estimated 80 cent raise, and those earning more than $6.85 will get an average estimated 26 cent raise. Other findings include:

About three quarters of those affected (74 percent) are age 20 or older.

Many (28 percent) are married, and about one in five is a parent.

Approximately 253,000 Ohio children have a parent who would see a raise under this proposal.

Families with workers who would see a raise rely on those workers for more than half of the families weekly earnings, on average.

In 38 percent of affected families, these workers provide the entire family weekly earnings.

More than half of affected workers (51 percent) come from the bottom forty percent of the household earnings spectrum, living in households with total weekly earnings less than $737.

The bottom forty percent of households currently takes in less than 16 percent of worker earnings, but would get more than half of the wage increases resulting from the $6.85 wage level.

The vast majority (78%) work at least 20 hours a week; 43 percent work full time.

Fifty-eight percent are women and 42 percent are men. Fourteen percent of all white workers and 15 percent of all black workers could expect to see a raise under the proposal.