Minimum Wage

Republicans Try to Convert America into Pottersville

Leo Gerard — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:20:41 -0500

In the iconic Christmas film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” an angel offers the beleaguered main character, George Bailey, the stark choice between a hometown named for a cruel banker or one created by and for the middle class.

The banker’s town, Pottersville, is filled with bars, gambling dens and despair. The people’s town of Bedford Falls is made of hope, hard working middle class families, and their homes financed by the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan.

The film’s happy ending is the people of Bedford Falls banding together to rescue George Bailey and the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan that had given so many of them a leg up over the years. Republicans seek a different conclusion. They find middle class cooperation and community intolerable. They want the banker, Henry Potter, with his “every man for himself” philosophy to triumph. In the spirit of their self-centered mentor Ayn Rand, Republicans are trying to disfigure America so she resembles Pottersville.

A building and loan association, like the Bailey Brothers’, uses the savings of its members to provide mortgages to the depositors. Members essentially pool their money to give each other the opportunity to buy cars and homes. At one point in the film, George Bailey explains this concept to frightened depositors who are trying to withdraw their savings during the panic that led to bank runs in 1929.

Bailey urges the townspeople who had crowded into the building and loan office to withdraw only what they need, not empty their accounts. “We have got to stick together,” he tells them, “We have to do this together.” A building and loan doesn’t function without trust and cooperation.

It works well for Bedford Falls. The mortgages it provides help working people move out of the Potters Field slums and into Bailey Park, where homes well kept by their owners increase in value. Despite the success, Potter condemned this practice, saying it was based on “high ideals without common sense.” He criticized the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan for granting a taxi driver a mortgage after Potter’s bank had rejected his application. Potter scoffed at such practices, asking if the building and loan was a “business or a charity ward.”

This is exactly what Republicans do. They describe beloved American programs like Medicare and Social Security as charities – using the euphemism “entitlements.” Like mortgages from the Bailey Building & Loan, Medicare and Social Security are not charities. They’re the American people depositing and pooling their money for the benefit of the American community.

The GOP tries to destroy programs like these that aid the middle class, the vast majority of Americans – the 99 percent – while Republicans protect tax breaks and special perks for the rich – the one percent, the Henry Potters.

This time last year, Republicans demanded extension of tax breaks for the 1 percent, contending tax breaks stimulate the economy.

For the past three months, however, Republicans have fought extension of payroll tax cuts, contending a break benefiting 160 million middle class Americans did not stimulate the economy.

All year, Republicans have demanded an end to programs the middle class created to aid the majority, the 99 percent. The GOP wants to reverse the new banking regulations that were passed in an attempt to prevent another economic collapse caused by risky Wall Street practices. The GOP tried to to rescind the healthcare reform law that prevents insurance companies from terminating coverage when beneficiaries get sick and prohibits the practice of refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Influential Republicans this year have called for repealing laws forbidding child labor, laws guaranteeing minimum wage and laws protecting the environment. They’ve demanded elimination of federal funding for organizations like the Public Broadcasting System that educates preschoolers, Head Start, which provides opportunity to poor children, and Planned Parenthood, which uses 97 percent of its funds to provide general, obstetrical and gynecological medical care to women, many of whom are rural and poor.

Republicans have decided to be the party of Henry Potter, the “meanest man in the county,” a man about whom George Bailey’s father said: “he's a sick man, frustrated. Sick in his mind, sick in his soul, if he has one.”

Like Potter, Republicans deride compassion and community as character defects.

In the Republican world, where greed is good, it was appropriate for Henry Potter to keep the $8,000 in Bailey Building & Loan money that George Bailey’s uncle, Billy Bailey, accidently handed him.

Republicans are attempting to impose that selfish belief system on the selfless American people, people like the citizens of Bedford Falls who rush to the rescue of neighbors.

It won’t work, just like it didn’t in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Republicans will fail in their attempt to make America Pottersville because the 99 percent believe avarice is a sin, not a value. The GOP will fail because greed is not the American way.

Why Low Wages are Far From Good News

Anne Thompson — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:38:38 -0400

The Austin American-Statesman ran an op-ed Saturday under the head-spinning headline ”Low Texas Wages are Mostly Good News.” No joke.

American-Statesman staff writers Lori Taylor and Heather Gregory noted that Texas had the highest percentage of low-wage workers in the country in 2009 and 2010: more than a half a million workers in the state made the federal minimum wage or less. In this tough economy where so many Americans are struggling to provide their families with housing, food, education and health care, how is that good news?

Taylor and Gregory argue that Texas has a higher percentage of low-wage workers primarily because it is cheaper to live in Texas. “The biggest reason why Texas is a low-wage state,” they write, “is that we have a relatively low cost of living.” As a result, the authors argue that low-wages are sufficient for Texas workers and not a cause to worry.

Yet while Texas may have a lower cost of living than other states, the federal minimum wage is so woefully low and out-of-date that Texas workers making minimum wage are still mired in poverty. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, or roughly $15,000 a year for full-time work. That is more than $7,000 below the official poverty line for a family of four, and even farther below what a family requires to meet basic needs. The notion that $15,000 is enough to raise a family in any state in this nation is absurd.

But according to Taylor and Gregory, these low wages are acceptable to Texans, otherwise they would not be taking such poorly paid jobs. They write “Research demonstrates that workers are generally willing to accept lower wages in locations — like Texas — where the cost of living is low and there are local amenities that make it a desirable place to live.” According to the authors, it’s not that companies are offering lower wages and workers have little bargaining power to negotiate a better wage—it’s that workers willingly accepting lower pay because they don’t need higher wages.

Yet more than one in six Texans—or 17.2 percent of state residents— lived in poverty in Texas in 2009. That’s the 8th highest rate in the country. Mississippi, which tied Texas in 2010 for having the highest percentage of minimum wage workers, had the highest poverty rate in the nation in 2009. Texas also has the nation’s highest percentage of residents without health insurance; in 2009, more than one in four Texans had no health coverage.

Another reason that Taylor and Gregory say that lower wages in Texas are not a cause for concern is that the workforce is younger than in other states, and young workers’ wages will increase with age. They write, “Nationally, teenagers are five times more likely to earn the minimum wage than are hourly workers over the age of 25, and Texas has a lot of teenagers.” However, Census data show that teens make up an even smaller portion of wage earners in Texas than they do nationwide: nationally 4.1 percent of working people are teens while 4.05 percent of wage earners in Texas are teens. . In fact, it’s not a greater percentage of working teens that are driving low wages in Texas. That makes sense, because we know that while teens are more likely to make minimum wage, more than three quarters of minimum wage earners in the U.S. are adults over the age of 20. Contrary to stereotypes, the overwhelming majority of low-wage workers are adults who contribute a substantial portion of their households’ incomes.

Stepping back to look at the stalled economic recovery, the fact that low wages could be regarded as good news is stunning. As David Leonhardt detailed over the weekend, the main factor preventing an economic comeback is anemic consumer demand. With the bursting of the housing bubble and the disappearance of easy credit, wages play an even bigger role in spurring spending. The downward pressure on wages caused by the economic crisis make a stronger minimum wage even more important—both because even more families are depending on it, and because it is the floor for other wages across the bottom of the labor market.

As the below graph from the Bureau of Labor Statistics demonstrates, the number of Texans making at or below federal minimum wage has shot up since the recession. The number of jobs paying at or below the federal minimum wage in Texas increased by 76,000 in 2010.

With the disappearance of higher paying jobs, more and more families are depending on low-wage jobs to get by. A growing proportion of workers making minimum wage or near-minimum wage will make it harder for Main Street to recover from the severe economic hit they have already taken. This is anything but good news.

Anne Thompson is a Policy Analyst at the National Employment Law Project.

Busting the power of conservatives in both parties

Dennis Baer — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:51:32 -0500

From: http://www.democratz.org

Hello

I HAVE YOUR NON VIOLENT PROTEST HERE: Busting the power of the corporations and the conservatives in the Republiklan and Democratic Parties and My letter to President Obama. We do not need to go out in the streets. We merely decide to stop buying products from companies that give money to conservatives. We will not get arrested nor get ignored.

At the end of this message I have a plan to destroy the power of the conservative coalition of Democrats and Republican members in congress. Conservative Democrats and Republicans have thwarted an increase in the minimum wage to $10 an hour, EFCA, Health care and more. I urge people to boycott consumer products from some major companies that contribute money to conservatives in both parties and pressure these CEOs with the potential huge loss of income and force them to go to conservatives in congress and get us progressives the legislation we demand. If you like this then please consider spreading the word. Yes, we need elections and getting progressives elected BUT look what has happened even with Democratic majorities in both house and senate and a Democratic President. We have gotten thwarted and we need a strategy that will get us progressive legislation between elections and this strategy needs to get considered. What has worked to get us needed legislation that hasn't gotten watered down or stopped? Do you have a better way? If not then consider this.

Thank you.

I sent this letter to President Obama by fax the other day.

Dear President Obama

I come to you today to praise you and to criticize you and to petition you.

I want to tell you a true story which just happened a few days ago. I came into this world 4 years after World War II. When I grew up partly in New York City and Partly in Nassau Country New York, as a young boy I would watch Meet the Press. I watched this show as a boy of 6 or 7. I watched the people of the era talk about the issues. I also watched Mike Wallace's You are there as well. I recall seeing other programs about famous people. I saw newsreels of a man who wore a white sheet. NO! not that kind of white sheet! Mohandas Gandhi, wore a white sheet of cotton. Why did Gandhi wear white sheets? He wanted to set an example for his people to make their own cloth and not buy goods from his oppressors who occupied his country.

He appeared a modern day Moses, but of another religion. I have a number of heroes like Gandhi. Most of them died, except for Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Considering myself a Jewish person, I find that good that people from other religions and other people's can serve as examples for heroes as it tends to unite people of different backgrounds. Each of these heroes, Moses, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Tutu eventually brought their oppressors down by not cooperating with their oppressors.

The other day, I spoke to the great grandson of Mohandas Gandhi. I had sought to speak to his father, the grandson of Mohandas Gandhi. I never expected to ever speak to anyone in this family of Gandhi. I told him that I thanked his great grandfather for his work and that he inspired me as I used to see newsreels of his great grandfather during the 1950's and 1960's and especially using boycotts to eventually uniting his people of India to eject their oppressors out of their country. I told Gandhi's great grandson of my electronic PAMPHLET on the web and again thanked him and said good day.

Now, I say to you Mr. President, that I want a real populist President similar to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and I and other people will make you do it, just like FDR told his supporters to make him do what they wanted him to do.

So in the tradition and inspiration of Moses and Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu and their people I say to you again we will make you do it.

How? By boycotting the products of those of your friends in corporations who donated money to you, and donated money to Republicans and to conservatives in the Democratic party who have led this country down a path to the second great depression. The only reason that we have not descended further appears that we had citizens back about 77 years ago who made FDR do it and had good regulations in place today that the conservatives in both parties want to repeal. So from now on I will no longer donate money to the Democratic party although I remain a member. Again I will not buy products from major companies that donate money to conservatives in both parties and I will demand progressive legislation that really helps the poor and middle class people instead of the undeserving wealthy at this point of crisis in our country, of the CEOs that run those companies and until that happens they will lose business from me and many other people such that we will put pressure on those CEOs to help get us the legislation that we want.

I agreed with the bailout of the banks and the partial nationalization of GM and Chrysler but now it appears OUR turn such that we get a $10 an hour minimum wage, a passage of the employee free choice act, a passage of the women's freedom of choice act, a passage of a compromise SINGLE PAYER PUBLIC OPTION paid for by general taxes which will allow private health insurance but in which those who choose this new single payer public option will have no premiums, no copayments, no yearly deductibles, no recisions, no rejection for preexisting conditions and cover everything: doctors visits, surgery, hospital stays, abortion, dentistry, eye care, nursing home and hospice care and home care and it will serve as a health insurance EXODUS so that the private health insurance companies will let our people go. We also need to end the war in Iraq and a way to end the war in Afghanistan but we need to help build Afghanistan up so the Taliban and Al Qaeda will no longer get the favor of some people in Afghanistan. We need other legislation that helps those less fortunate in our country.

Republicans only talk about freedom but they offer us no real solutions. These Republican corporate masters only offer us FIEFDOM and wage slavery and a kind of slavery to insurers where they exploit the economic conditions of those who don't have enough money to pay for their insurance and not freedom. These Republican corporate masters offer their middle class and even poor supporters FREEDUMB organizing them in a rabble of misnamed fake populist Tea partiers for which those Boston patriots of a few centuries ago would probably say, hey these Republican FREEDUMB lovers HAVE REPRESENTATION, so what excuse do they have for disrupting government town halls that we helped to establish?

Really Mr. President, those present day so called tea partiers appear a perversion of those real patriots that helped liberate our country a few centuries ago. Do these false tea partiers stand for a living wage? No. Do these false tea partiers stand for unions? No. Do these false tea partiers stand for helping those less fortunate in our country? No.

These Recruited Republican FREEDUMB lovers claim that they appear PATRIOTs.

I say NAY, those Recruited Republican rabble appear as

stand PAT RIOTers

disrupting government who attempt to help the less fortunate in our country. How many times have I seen or heard this Republican rabble express their contempt for the poor and less fortunate in the middle class? I have seen and heard such contempt by these conservatives for decades blaming most of the poor and less fortunate middle class for their own problems as an excuse to shift blame away from many corporations who disadvantage such people and also as an excuse to have government dissolve in the area of social justice.

These Republican rabble stand PAT RIOTers want us to stand pat for their corporate masters to continue to profit on the suffering of people in many areas and not just health care. They want us to stand pat and yell no more higher taxes deliberately wanting the American people to not see the way corporate governors want to PRIVATELY TAX people with low pay aka Cheap labor aka wage theft not giving workers in many cases the worth of their work that they do and suppressing the organization of people in unions. These corporate governors also tax people privately with high prices in a cartel working with other corporate governors in fixing prices so even though you have a few companies in a sector of products you really have a polyopoly keeping PRIVATE TAXES high in a lot of product sectors. Yes high prices and low wages function as a PRIVATE TAXATION system run by private government which the Republicans support and come from and they have their stooges in the stand PAT RIOT movement to pose as as populists. NAY!

So next time Republicans criticize our party for taxation in their miscommunications at election time we Democrats will remind the people that the Republicans continue to tax us PRIVATELY and raise these PRIVATE TAXES through POLYOPOLY, DUOPOLY, MONOPOLY, cheap labor and high prices and that Republicans need to get relieved of their power in government which they deliberately sabotage social programs through deliberate deficit creation through oil wars, unjust tax breaks for the wealthy and cutting of social programs. This deliberate deficit creation has gone on for 30 years now started by Ronald Reagan the miscommunicator and it has to stop. The Republicans create a huge deficit so when they get relieved of power then the Democrat has to clean up the mess and cannot or will not continue on the path of social justice or water it down such that supporters of Democrats get angry as they did in Bill Clinton's time and now yours!

So Mr. President, we will make you promote real social justice and not catering to corporations in the quest for social justice and eliminate these so called public private partnerships that these corporations take too much money from the poor and less fortunate that the Republicans have done in the past years and until this day and create regular government programs that do not allow these corporations to leech upon the public and profit to the detriment of middle class and poor people.

I have seen this in Medicare Part D and Medicare Disadvantage and now thanks to conservative Democrats we face this in the new health insurance and Pharmaceutical company enrichment act of 2010.

No more Mr. President. No More.

Help the middle class and the poor and until then, the Democratic party gets no money from me and in 2010 and 2012 I will go to the polls and only vote on referenda, meaning I will not vote for anyone for representative, senator and President. I will stay in the Democratic party and do what I can to rid us these conservatives in OUR party from power by peaceful means through boycotts of consumers products of their contributors that give them money and convince other Democrats to also boycott these contributors to conservatives in both parties and force these CEOs to go to congressional leaders and tell the leaders that hundreds of thousands of people will no longer buy from the CEOs companies until congress passes real progressive legislation that citizens want and have petitioned the CEOs for.

In the end, Mr. President we will get this done peacefully and we will do everything peaceful to make you help us.

In the tradition of Moses, Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, we will get this done for social Justice for the less fortunate in our country. I encourage other people reading this open letter to the President to organize and petition the government and the CEOs of corporations that aid meanspirited conservatives in both parties to go to my electric pamphlet at http://www.democratz.org and sign those petitions that you see best to accomplish social justice for the less fortunate in our country. Once you sign them, electronic letters will go out right away to congressional leaders and the Corporations that aid meanspirited conservatives. Do this for the less fortunate! Let our people grow and to meanspirited conservatives, let our people GO from your greed, high prices and wage slavery and private taxes and your religious oppression.

So let it get written so let it get done.

Sincerely,

http://www.democratz.org

I created these petitions for social justice. These petitions appear different from regular petitions. These petitions allow people to boycott conservative contributors that give money to conservatives in both parties.

I enthusiastically voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Now I appear disappointed that President Obama made deals with Big Pharma and the health insurance industry. This administration looks like Clinton II.

Please sign these NEW petitions for single payer health care HR676 as primary legislation or for HR676 as the public option.

http://bit.ly/public_option

http://bit.ly/traitorjoe

http://bit.ly/HR676

http://bit.ly/single_payer_snowe

http://bit.ly/single_payer_ross

http://bit.ly/single_payer_exxon

http://bit.ly/single_payer_california

http://bit.ly/drug_benefit

Also sign these petitions.

http://bit.ly/EFCA

http://bit.ly/10_an_hour_min_wage

http://bit.ly/women_freedom_of_choice_act

http://endthewars.democratz.org

We can stop the filibuster done by the Republiklan party and also get a bonus of the employee free choice act too enacted into law. You can help.

It appears very simple. Since Senator Mitch McConnell has nothing much to lose directly by pressuring him, we go after Brown Forman corporation of Kentucky who distributes Jack Daniels Whiskey and Southern Comfort Liquor, who by the way gives money to Mitch McConnell, the senate minority leader for his campaigns.

Go to http://bit.ly/STOPFILIBUSTERS which link will take you to a petition demanding the passage of the Employee Free Choice act and also for Mitch McConnell to halt any filibusters. Oh and when you sign the petition, emails go out right away to Mitch McConnell and Brown Forman Corporation from Kentucky. If you can’t pressure McConnell directly pressure his friends at Brown Forman by telling them you will boycott their products until they get McConnell to comply with our demands.

Also call Brown-Forman at 502-585-1100 and tell the person who answers to get the CEO to GET Mitch McConnell to execute no Republican filibusters for the duration of the Obama Administration and enact the Employee free choice act into law or you don't buy Jack Daniel's whiskey and Southern Comfort anymore!

So if you want to end the filibuster by Republicans, sign the petition now.

YOU HAVE THE POWER !!

Peter Namtvedt

Peter Namtvedt — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:15:09 -0400

Federal Minimum Wage Lags States

Armand Biroonak — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:01:32 -0400

After the federal minimum wage increases to $6.55, it will remain below the minimum rate in 23 states and the District of Columbia. And even when it reaches $7.25 in 2009 the federal wage will still be below the minimum rate in at least 11 states and the District of Columbia.

Minimum Wage Not Adjusted for Inflation

Armand Biroonak — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:56:31 -0400

If the minimum wage had been linked to the inflation rate in 1968, it would be over $8.60 today. If had been indexed to inflation in 1978, it would be nearly $8.00 today.

New Minimum Wage Still Falls Short

Armand Biroonak — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:49:44 -0400

The new minimum wage of $6.55 an hour still leaves millions of hard-working Americans in poverty.

A worker who is employed full-time at the new minimum wage still earns only about $13,600 per year—$4,000 below the federal poverty line for a family of three and $7,600 below poverty for a family of four.

Minimum Wage

Armand Biroonak — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:21:00 -0400

U.S. Poverty Data Raise New Questions About Cost of War

Eran Lillestrand — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 10:53:48 -0400

Still Waiting For A Raise

Bill Scher — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:59:00 -0400

Raj Nayak is Counsel with the Economic Justice Project of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. The Brennan Center advised in drafting voter ballot initiatives in 2004 and 2006 that raised the minimum wage and tipped worker minimum wage in seven states.

Last month, many of our nation's low-wage workers got their first raise in a decade as the federal minimum wage inched up to $5.85 an hour. But millions more who are paid in part with tips—low-wage workers like waiters and waitresses, car wash attendants, and delivery workers—are still waiting. For them the minimum wage has been frozen at a meager $2.13 an hour for 16 years. And the restaurant industry—which fights to block pay increases for tipped workers—has lobbied hard to keep it that way. It's time for Congress to stand up to this special interest and give the nearly three million Americans who work for tips a long overdue raise.

In the past, tipped workers weren't always excluded from minimum wage hikes. For decades, employers were required to pay them a base wage of at least half the federal minimum wage. This guaranteed a stable income that was automatically adjusted as the minimum wage went up. And it reflected changes in the cost of living and recognized that tips are notoriously unpredictable and can vary substantially depending on work schedules, seasons, and broader economic trends.

But in 1996, when President Bill Clinton shamed House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Congress into raising the minimum wage, Republican lawmakers sided with restaurant industry lobbyists and excluded tipped workers by permanently freezing their minimum wage at $2.13. This resulted in a tipped-worker minimum wage that is worth less and less every year, forcing them to rely almost entirely on tips to make ends meet. Ultimately, it's meant lower and less certain pay for millions of Americans.

Restaurant industry lobbyists defend their position by focusing on waiters and waitresses at high-end restaurants who earn a lot of money in tips. But such workers are the exception, not the rule. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average waiter or waitress in the U.S. makes just over $17,000 per year including tips—hardly enough to support a family, as many of these women and men struggle to do. And other tipped workers—like car wash attendants and delivery workers—make even less.

As Congress has refused to address this serious problem, thirty-one states ranging from Arkansas to Ohio to North Dakota have stepped in to establish minimum wages above $2.13 an hour for people who work for tips. In fact, seven states require that tipped workers be paid the full minimum wage, recognizing that they are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of gas, rent and milk. None of these states have found that it hurts business to ask employers to pay tipped workers a fair wage. According to the National Restaurant Association, three of the states with higher minimum wages for tipped employees—Nevada, Arizona, and Florida—are projected to see the fastest growth in restaurant jobs and/or sales over the next 10 years.

Congress should follow the states' lead and restore the tipped-worker minimum wage to its historic level of at least 50 percent of the federal minimum wage, or $3.63 in 2009. This would give full-time workers an extra $3,120 a year—which would make a real difference in the lives of millions of working Americans.

As a nation, we pride ourselves that people who work hard and play by the rules should earn enough to support themselves and their families. Our shocking $2.13 wage is an affront to this deeply held value and is hurting working families. It's time for Congress to stand up to the restaurant industry and fix this unfair vestige of the Gingrich era.