NY times editorial board today OP ed tells Hillary

[LiberalElite]

to join Bernie on $15 minimum wage. (Can't post link from phone.)

[Wilms]

1. Hillary Clinton Should Just Say Yes to a $15 Minimum Wage

Cross posted in GD: P http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511255433

Hillary Clinton Should Just Say Yes to a $15 Minimum Wage

snip

Reasonable people can disagree about the ideal level for the minimum wage. There is no doubt, however, that the longer it takes to get to a new minimum, the higher it should be, and that by any political or practical calculation, 2022 is a long way off. This alone argues for Mr. Sanders’s more generous proposal.

snip

Her minimum-wage proposal is also inconsistent with her larger agenda to increase middle-class wages. Historically, a robust minimum is one that equals at least half the average wage for typical workers, recently $21 an hour. Assuming Mrs. Clinton’s plan raised middle-class wages — through profit-sharing, paid sick and family leave, updated overtime-pay rules, fair-scheduling policies and labor-law enforcement — then $15 in 2022 would be a logical goal for the federal minimum wage.

But instead of embracing $15, Mrs. Clinton fights on for $12, saying that states could set their own, higher minimums. That is cold comfort. Experience has shown that without a robust federal minimum, state minimums also tend to be inadequate. Today, 21 states still do not have minimums higher than the federal level, and of the 29 that do, none have minimums high enough to cover local living expenses for an individual worker.

Worse, Mrs. Clinton’s stance misses the big picture, which is that the risk in keeping the minimum too low is bigger than the risk of raising it too high. One reason a third of Americans today live in or near poverty is that many jobs in the United States do not pay enough to live on. This is due in part to the steady erosion in the minimum wage — even as labor productivity, corporate profits and executive compensation have gone up. A raise to $12 an hour in 2022, or a mere $24,000 a year for a full-time job, would only lock in that dynamic. Even a $15 minimum works out to only $31,000 a year.

snip

Economic obstacles are not standing in the way of a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Misplaced caution and political timidity are.

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/opinion/hillary-clinton-should-just-say-yes-to-a-15-minimum-wage.html?_r=0

[Fawke Em]

2. Maybe they shouldn't have endorsed her. eom

[vkkv]

3. K&R

[delrem]

4. Even the dinosaurs are begging her to evolve. Whodathunkit?

It could only get to this state because she, and US establishment politics, is so far the right wing out of it.

Of course the NYT would never expect her to follow through.
That'd be too...

unbought.

[cal04]

5. Living in NY this should be no surprise to anyone

With rents out of control, taxes some of the highest in the nation, railroad and subway monthly fees that keep going up, I don't know how anyone can live on even $15. If you travel to NY, you make good money, a lot of which goes to monthly fares and child care, but a lot of us that work on the Island can not live on minimum wage, let alone 15.
I am talking about ADULTS that work for $9 right now. This is outrageous in a state like NY.



(New York ranks as the worst state in America for taxpayers. The average burden for state and local taxes is $9,718, which is 39% higher than the national average. Mayor Bill de Blasio recently proposed tax reform that would overhaul the nation’s corporate tax structure in an effort to provide relief to the city’s small businesses.)

[dana_b]

6. I don't get it either

I am moving to Silicon Valley soon and I think NY is more expensive than it is there.

Based on rent alone I would say that $20 is closer to a real living wage.

Average studio in Brooklyn and Queens is around $2000
http://www.mns.com/brooklyn_rental_market_report

http://www.mns.com/queens_rental_market_report

Manhattan is closer to $3000:
http://www.mns.com/manhattan_rental_market_report

There's no way that $15/hr. could even come close