Minimum wage in Americaby Mark E Andersen Fri Sep 09, 2011 at 06:30 AM PDT. for Daily Kos Labor.
It's always been a BALANCE thing for me .. makes sense and certainly must help demand in the long run ..
State Assemblyman Cory Mason (D-Racine) has introduced a bill in the Wisconsin legislature to raise the minimum wage in the state from $7.25 an hour to $7.60 an hour. With the Republican majorities in the Assembly and Senate and with a Republican governor this bill has no hope of passing. Even if it did pass, raising the minimum wage only 35 cents is not enough.
According to Dr. Amy Glasmeir’s work at Pennsylvania State University one adult needs to earn $16,151 a year in Wisconsin, which breaks down to $7.76 an hour, to earn a living wage. That wage varies across the state; in Madison that same person would have to earn $8.74 an hour. In Milwaukee, $8.63 an hour, while in a small town like Adams $7.06 an hour will get you by.
To take this nationally, the average living wage average across the country is $8.37 an hour, while the average minimum wage nationwide is $7.36 an hour. The extremes of the scale are South Dakota with a living wage of $6.44 an hour and a minimum wage of $7.25 and Washington, D.C. with a living wage of $11.92 an hour and a minimum wage of $7.55 an hour.
None of this takes into account the dismal minimum wage of tipped employees. The federal minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 an hour. State minimum wages for tipped employees are a mishmash of regulations with no real standard other than the federal floor of $2.13 an hour. My understanding is also that the federal minimum wage for tipped employees is not tied to the standard minimum wage; thus, if the minimum wage goes up it does not necessarily mean that the minimum wage for tipped employees goes up.
In a nutshell, tipped employees who work their butts off have to rely on their customers being generous with tips instead of their employer actually paying them for doing their job. (One thing I have learned from my research on this is always tip waitstaff at least twenty percent and per Kim Bobo and her book "Wage Theft in America," always tip in cash. Do not put the tip on your credit card as that makes it easier for the employer to steal the tip from the server.)
Of course, in the typical Republican response to raising the minimum wage—Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said,
"I think it's highly unlikely given the fact so many employers are having a difficult time breaking even," Vos said. He said raising the minimum wage could raise the unemployment rate.
Oh, pity the poor “Job Creators.” Millions and billions in profits just aren’t enough for them. What Republicans don’t realize is that tax breaks and record profits do not create jobs. Consumer demand creates jobs. If no one has the money to buy your product your product will not sell. If you raise wages to a living wage you as a job creator may have to raise your prices; however, your employees will have additional purchasing power, which means more money in the economy, and thus more demand.
In 1956 the federal minimum wage was a dollar an hour. That same dollar when adjusted for inflation would be $8.30 an hour in today's dollars; which is only a few cents off from what the average living wage is in the United States today. The minimum wage needs to be pegged to a living wage and it needs to be regional, i.e. California has a higher cost of living so California should have a higher minimum wage standard. The minimum wage also needs to hold to the rate of inflation so that it cannot become a political football. It needs to go up on a yearly basis and have a mechanism to prevent it from going down if there is deflation.
Our national priorities are a mess. Instead of doing what is needed to raise the standard of living for the most vulnerable in our society our leaders put corporate profits ahead of people.
Unions launch new campaign for secure jobs and a better future for Australian workers
28 September, 2011 | Media Release
Australian unions will today launch a major national campaign to address the spread of casual, contract and other forms of insecure work in Australian workplaces.
ACTU President Ged Kearney said about 40% of the workforce was in insecure jobs and the number is growing.
“Fewer and fewer Australians have the security of a permanent job,” Ms Kearney said.
“Casual jobs, short-term contracts, labour hire and other forms of insecure work prevent people from properly planning for their future or managing their household. Insecure workers have no rights to paid sick or annual leave, no certainty about their income or whether they will have a job next week, and no career path or sense of belonging to a workplace.
“A casual job may suit some workers. But it’s really tough on many working families who have less certain incomes, rising fixed household costs and the shouldering of more and more household debt and are trying to plan for the future.
“Given the strength of the Australian economy and decades of sustained economic growth, there is no justification for why the proportion of the workforce with insecure jobs is so high.
“Insecure workers have told us they want a job they can rely on. This campaign will speak up for this large, often disenfranchised sector of the workforce and work towards change for the better.”
The Secure Jobs. Better Future campaign is to be launched at an event in Sydney today, where workers in insecure jobs will share their experiences and hear from leading academic researchers and representatives from the community sector. The ACTU is also launching a report, Insecure work, anxious lives, which documents the growth of insecure jobs in Australia.
Ms Kearney said this would be a multi-layered campaign involving workers in every industry across Australia. As the first step, Australians will be asked to join the campaign for secure work at www.securejobs.org.au
“Unions are already campaigning in their own industries to improve job security, but today we are beginning a national conversation with workers, with civil society, with government and with business to find effective solutions to the spread of insecure work across the workforce,” Ms Kearney said.
“Insecure work is about employers creating a way to shift costs from employers onto workers, and it is spreading into sectors that were once seen as havens for permanent and secure jobs, like education, manufacturing and construction.
“People can spend years in an insecure job, with unpredictable hours and volatile income, and with fewer entitlements, because this work suits the boss. But workers want a job they can rely on. And you can’t rely on insecure work.”
Undoubtedly the ongoing effort to preserve a culture in which the ordinary worker has a reasonable semblance of job security and a decent living wage, in consideration thus that the economy therefor will hopefully have a healthy level of demand is an ongoing and difficult battle.
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