Living Wage

Colorado Coalition Urges Community Rights

September 7, 2015 Simon Davis-Cohen, www.theleap.thischangeseverything.org Create! Colorado, Community, Living Wage, Oil & Gas

By Simon Davis-Cohen in This Changes Everything - In Colorado, local governments cannot raise the minimum wage, pass rent control laws, or ban fracking. A system of state “preemption”—a favorite tool of the fossil fuel industry—stands in their way. Local activists have long been outspoken about this legal barrier to keeping fossil fuels in the ground. Now, a coalition embodying a range of economic and environmental justice fights is coming together to directly challenge the basis for state preemption: On August 17, a statewide initiative was launched by Coloradans for Community Rights to do just that. It may be the first time that anti-extraction and workers’ rights movements have allied behind a concrete political tactic in modern US history. The “Colorado Community Rights Amendment,” which needs some 99,000 signatures to qualify for the 2016 ballot, disrupts preemption by granting local governments a constitutional right to raise state standards—empowering them to boost the minimum wage, bolster environmental protections, and strengthen tenant rights, for example.

Understanding Divergence Of Productivity & Pay

September 7, 2015 Josh Bivens and Lawrence Mishel, www.epi.org Educate! Living Wage, wealth inequality, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Josh Bivens and Lawrence Mishel in EPI - This paper updates and explains the implications of the central component of the wage stagnation story: the growing gap between overall productivity growth and the pay of the vast majority of workers since the 1970s. A careful analysis of this gap between pay and productivity provides several important insights for the ongoing debate about how to address wage stagnation and rising inequality. First, wages did not stagnate for the vast majority because growth in productivity (or income and wealth creation) collapsed. Yes, the policy shifts that led to rising inequality were also associated with a slowdown in productivity growth, but even with this slowdown, productivity still managed to rise substantially in recent decades. But essentially none of this productivity growth flowed into the paychecks of typical American workers. Second, pay failed to track productivity primarily due to two key dynamics representing rising inequality: the rising inequality of compensation (more wage and salary income accumulating at the very top of the pay scale) and the shift in the share of overall national income going to owners of capital and away from the pay of employees.

Newsletter – Black August, End Neo-Slavery, Resist

August 30, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Arctic drilling, Carbon, Drought, Environmental racism, Fight for 15, Finance and the Economy, Fracking, Gas, Guaranteed basic income, Hurrican Katrina, Iran, Japan, Jeju Island, Korea, Living Wage, Minimum Wage, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Oil, Okinawa, Peace, Political Prisoner, Prison, Prison Labor, Private Prisons, Racism, Solar Energy, Sustainable energy, TISA, TPP, TTIP, Wars and Militarism, Wind, Worker Cooperative, Youth imprisonment

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance - Black August is coming to an end as we commemorate the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As many head back to school, a full season of actions are being planned for the fall to stop the corporate takeover of our communities and world and the push toward neo-slavery. There is a lot of resistance going on. We hope that you have an opportunity this summer to relax and build up your energy for the many actions that are being planned for the fall. If you go to a park, there is one more thing you can do: take a moment to think about the people who inhabited the land before it became a park.

The Case For Universal Basic Income

August 27, 2015 Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark, www.truthdig.com Educate! Barcelone, Europe, Living Wage, Universal Income

Support for a universal basic income (defined here) is growing. In Europe, for example, the City of Utrecht is about to introduce an experiment that aims “to challenge the notion that people who receive public money need to be patrolled and punished,” in the words of a project manager for the Utrecht city council. Nijmegen, Wageningen, Tilburg and Groningen are awaiting permission from The Hague in order to conduct similar programmes. In Switzerland, the necessary 100,000 signatures have been obtained for holding a referendum on whether Swiss citizens should receive an unconditional basic income of €2,500 per month, independently of whether they are employed or not. On 16 June, the centre-right government of Finland, where 79% of the population is in favour of a universal basic income, made good on its electoral promise and ratified the implementation of an “experimental basic income”.

McDonald’s Worker: Fight For $15 Gives Me Hope

August 25, 2015 Bettie Anne Douglas, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Fight for 15, Living Wage, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Bettie Anne Douglas in The Huffington Post - I'm 57 years old and I've worked for McDonald's for seven years, getting paid a few pennies above the federal minimum wage. For a long time, I felt like I had no choice but to accept $7.65 an hour and the daily struggles that come along with that poverty wage. But in the last year, all that has changed. In the March of 2015, I started joining together with my coworkers in the Fight for $15. I've gone on strike, spoken before the St. Louis City Council urging them to raise the city's minimum wage to $15, marched to McDonald's corporate headquarters, and listened along with a hall full of other fast-food workers as Hillary Clinton told us she wanted to be our champion. I've watched as workers who joined together in cities like Los Angeles, New York and even Kansas City (in my home state of Missouri!), won life-changing pay increases. For the first time in a long time, I have hope.

Washington Supreme Court Rules For $15 An Hour At SeaTac

August 23, 2015 Andrew Villeneuve, www.nwprogressive.org Resist! Fight for 15, Living Wage, Minimum Wage

By Andrew Villeneuve for the Northwest Progressive - Workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport must be paid a minimum wage of $15/hour in accordance with the City of SeaTac’s Good Jobs law (Proposition #1, enacted by voters in 2013) the Washington State Supreme Court ruled today. In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Susan Owens, the Court held the airport is not exempt from the law, even though it is administered by the Port of Seattle. The Court’s decision – a remarkable dismissal of all the issues raised by the business groups opposed to the law – is a significant victory for Washington State’s labor movement and will result in many more workers receiving badly needed wage increase and additional protections while on the job. Because the City of SeaTac’s interpretation of the state laws governing ports has prevailed, workers earning the lower minimum wage set by the Port of Seattle will see their pay go up. That’s a victory to be celebrated.

Lessons From Watts For Ferguson, Baltimore, L.A. And Everywhere

August 12, 2015 Gloria Walton, www.scopela.org Strategize! Living Wage, Poverty, Urban

By Gloria Walton in Scopela - In the last 20 years, SCOPE has emerged as a local laboratory for L.A. From day one, we were pushing the envelope. Experimenting. How do we build community power and influence? How do we elevate equity in all policies? We believe if you start by building a program for people with the most burdens, facing the greatest barriers, who come from the poorest communities, if you start there and build a program for those communities to succeed, then you have a program that will benefit everyone. SCOPE’s 20-year-old jobs model does that. Our model couples entry-level jobs with job-training and apprenticeships to create real career pathways into good-paying union jobs in entertainment, health care and the green economy. These programs go the extra mile by providing paid on-the-job training, mentoring by experienced senior workers and tutoring to help pass certification exams and tests.

U.S. Wages Grow At Slowest Rate In 33 Years

August 3, 2015 The Associated Press, www.AP.org Educate! Economic Growth, Finance and the Economy, Living Wage, Worker Rights and Jobs

By The Associated Press - U.S. wages and benefits grew in the spring at the slowest pace in 33 years, stark evidence that stronger hiring isn’t lifting paychecks much for most Americans. The slowdown also likely reflects a sharp drop-off in bonus and incentive pay for some workers. The employment cost index rose just 0.2 percent in the April-June quarter after a 0.7 increase in the first quarter, the Labor Department said Friday. The index tracks wages, salaries and benefits. Wages and salaries alone also rose 0.2 percent. Both measures recorded the smallest quarterly gains since the second quarter of 1982. Salaries and benefits for private sector workers were unchanged, the weakest showing since the government began tracking the data in 1980.

San Francisco Too Valuable For Poor People*

July 30, 2015 Carl Finamore, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Evictions, Housing, Living Wage, San Francisco, Tenants

By Carl Finamore in CounterPunch - Last year, San Francisco tenant rights’ supporters scored an important victory when voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition K, requiring all new housing developments provide 33% low and moderate-cost units. The objective was to put a lid on the unregulated, speculative construction boom that earned the city its most contentious distinction of being the country’s second most expensive place to live, just after New York City. Housing activists say Prop K was a partial victory but more is needed. That next step of “reining in record-high eviction rates” was announced at a July 27 city hall press conference attended by over 75 community, labor and political leaders. “The data clearly shows that the evictions crisis and resulting loss of rental units” is a big blow to the city meeting its affordable housing goals, said Board of Supervisor Jane Kim.

University Of California Raising Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour

July 26, 2015 Staff, www.AP.org Resist! Fight for 15, Living Wage, Minimum Wage

By Staff for Associated Press - Protests by Workers and Students Pay Off with $15 an hour Victory The movement to raise the minimum wage across the U.S. gained ground Wednesday with the huge University of California system announcing plans to increase base pay for its employees and contract workers to $15 an hour over the next two years. The move follows similar steps by local governments to give employees what activists call a "living wage." Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley have all approved phased-in increases that eventually will take their minimum wage to $15 an hour, or about $31,200 for a full-time job. UC President Janet Napolitano said that as California's third-largest employer, the university should be taking the lead in ensuring its lowest-paid workers make decent wages. UC has 10 campuses, including UCLA and Berkeley, nearly 240,000 students and a staff of 195,000.

NY Moves Toward $15 Minimum Wage For Fast Food Workers

July 23, 2015 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Fight for 15, Living Wage, Minimum Wage, New York (NY)

By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance - The raising of the minimum wage in New York for fast food workers is a hard won victory of workers and their allies. As Huffington Post reported: "We did it," Jorel Ware, a member of Fight for $15 and a McDonald's worker from the Bronx, said at a press conference after the hearing. "The Fight for $15 has shown me what's possible when workers stick together." Of the wage board, Ware added, "I want to thank them for understanding what it's like to live in poverty." Under pressure from progressives, Cuomo ordered the state's labor commissioner to convene the wage board earlier this year and asked its members to determine an appropriate statewide wage for the fast-food industry. A press release from the Fight for $15 declared: "When the Board’s three members announced their $15 decision to a packed hearing in Lower Manhattan, workers erupted in cheers, chanting, “We work, we sweat, put $15 in our check.”

Members Of Congress Introduce Largest Minimum Wage Hike Yet

July 22, 2015 Bryce Covert, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! Fight for 15, Law, Living Wage, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Bryce Covert in Think Progress - A $15 minimum wage hike marks a significant increase from past Democratic bills to raise it. In his 2013 State of the Union, President Obama called for an increase to $9 an hour. Some lawmakers went further a month later with a bill that would have raised it to $10.10 an hour. Then earlier this year, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Robert Scott (D-VA) got closer to the $15 mark when theyintroduced a bill raising it to $12 an hour by 2020. Their bill also would phase out the lower minimum wage for tipped employees and automatically increase the wage as median wages rise. Details are not yet available on whether the Sanders and CPC bill will eliminate the tipped wage and when it would take effect.

Utrecht Doling Out Free Money For A ‘Basic Income’ Experiment

July 11, 2015 Joshua Ostroff, www.huffingtonpost.ca Create! Holland, Living Wage

By Joshua Ostroff in The Huffington Post - The primary complaint by opponents is that it removes the incentive to work, resulting in efforts to make welfare as unpleasant as possible, from below-poverty-line payments and complicated qualification rules to judgmental monitoring and, in the U.S., dehumanizing drug tests. But there's an approach to poverty building momentum lately called the Basic Income Guarantee -- you can read our explainer here -- and in the Dutch city of Utrecht the theory is about to be put to the test. As the name suggests, the idea is to give everyone a basic income even if the recipient has or finds a job. The government would cover the basic living costs unconditionally and universally, without means testing or work requirements.

$15 An Hour NOW – Not 5 To 7 Years From Now

July 4, 2015 C. Robert Gibson, www.occupy.com Resist! 15 Now, Capitalism, Fast Food, Living Wage, Worker Rights and Jobs

By C. Robert Gibson in Occupy - So, to be clear, $15 an hour now is neither an unreasonable nor irrational demand. By contrast, the default argument against increasing the minimum wage is the alleged harm it will do to businesses. This can be negated by simply restructuring existing corporate entitlement programs already in place. According to a 2014 report by Good Jobs First, just 965 corporations have received over 75 percent of all state business subsidies. Fortune 500 companies – by definition the most successful and profitable in the world – received $63 billion in taxpayer handouts. Good Jobs First found that out of 441,000 entitlement programs (277,000 state and local; 164,000 federal), those 965 corporations received a total of 25,000 entitlements worth $110 billion through various subsidiary corporations.

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