What’s
Wrong Today:
Can raising the minimum wage be a defining political battle of the 2014 Congressional
elections? Dave Johnson at Campaign
for America’s Future writes:
raising the minimum wage will be one of the defining battles for the 2014
elections. As the floor – the minimum wage – falls out from under Americans,
big majorities of voters in both parties want the minimum wage raised.
President Obama and congressional Democrats support an increase to $10.10,
indexed to inflation. Republicans and plutocrats want to obstruct this.
As the Wrongologist reported,
when
the public can vote on minimum wage increases, they pass handily:
(plus DC) have set their own, higher minimums, ranging from $7.35 in Missouri
to $9.19 in Washington State. Some cities and counties have gone even higher —
San Francisco’s minimum wage, for example, is set to rise 19 cents to $10.74 next month
Even in
New Jersey, where voters re-elected Republican Chris Christie as governor, the
minimum wage was increased to $8.25, and indexed it to inflation, by 61% to 39%
of the voters.
Polls show
public pressure is building: A December
11 Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 63% supported a rise to
$10.10:
$10.10 rate was broad, including 61% of those earning $75,000 or more and 68%
of those earning $30,000 or less. The survey found 77% of Democrats supported
that rate, as did 47% of Republicans
Here are a
few more polls:
- A November
Gallup poll showed that 76% of Americans want the minimum wage raised to at
least $9 from the current $7.25. This is up 5 percentage points just since
March.
- An August
poll by the National Employment Law Project (NELP)
found that 80% support raising
the minimum wage to $10.10, including 62% of Republicans and 75% of
southern whites.
- A March
poll by the USA Today/Pew Research Center found that 71% favor increasing
the minimum wage to $9.
How many
hours does it take to make rent at the minmum wage? The National Low Income
Housing Coalition looked
at the number of hours minimum-wage employees have to work per week in each state just to
rent an apartment and still be able to survive. (See their
chart here).
West
Virginia is lowest at 63 hours. Hawaii was 175 hours. California, Maryland, New
Jersey, New York and Washington, DC were all over 130 hours. A standard work
week is 40 hours. So, today, there is
no state where a minimum wage worker can earn enough to make the fair market rent
for a two-bedroom place on 40 hours a week.
In the New
Year, the Fair
Minimum Wage Act, that would raise the wage to $10.10 and index it to
inflation, was introduced in the 113th Congress by Sen. Tom Harkin
(D-IA) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA). President Obama has endorsed the
proposal.
So, the
push to make it a national issue begins. Republicans will have to decide: Will they allow this increase to pass the Congress, or will they try to obstruct it and run as opponents of fair pay
for working people in 2014? Many Republicans are likely to oppose the bill, but many local and state measures may be brought to the ballot in order to increase
turnout, which could hurt Republicans in some districts.
Republicans
will continue to push the nonsense that joblessness will result from a higher
minimum wage, when in fact more consumer demand via a higher minimum wage means
more jobs. As the Wrongologist said on Tuesday:
are the answer to better GDP growth and reduced income inequality, but ONLY if
the jobs produce enough income so that the person doing the work can afford the
other necessities that go along with a sustaining lifestyle
David
Johnson also makes a good point about businesses reducing employment if the minimum
wage goes up:
minimum wage means all businesses must do the same thing at the same time, so
no business gains an advantage over other businesses
Businesses can
decide how to cover their added costs. Some might raise prices, others might
pay top executives a bit less, and others would dip into some of their excess
cash. Companies that raise prices so top executives can retain their pay will
be at a disadvantage if their competitors don’t raise prices.
According to the BLS, 3.6
million workers in the US make the minimum wage or less. These 3.6 million
workers make up 4.7% of the working population.
Raising
their take home pay will not hurt our (now) growing economy, it will help it move
ahead. Let’s force corporate America to take their employees off of federal
aid.
Let’s
force Congressional Republicans to tell their voters why a higher
minimum wage is a bad idea.
