Minimum Wage

Weak Minimum Wage Bill Defeated In US Senate

May 1, 2014 Alan Fram, www.bigstory.ap.org Resist! Congress, Minimum Wage

Senate Republicans derailed a Democratic drive Wednesday to raise the federal minimum wage, blocking a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's economic plans and ensuring the issue will be a major feature of this fall's congressional elections. Facing the threat of a GOP Senate takeover, Democrats have forced votes on a procession of bills designed to amplify their message of economic fairness. Republican senators accused Democrats of playing politics by pushing a minimum wage measure designed to lure voters but too expensive for employers and sure to result in lost jobs and higher inflation. "This is about trying to make this side of the aisle look bad and hard-hearted, and to try to rescue this midterm election," said No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas. The legislation by Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa would increase the $7.25 hourly minimum wage for American workers in three steps until it reached $10.10 after 30 months, with annual increases for inflation afterward. The minimum has been at $7.25 since 2009, with 3.3 million Americans — including disproportionate numbers of women and younger people — earning that figure or less last year.

Progressive Restaurant Owners Stand With Workers To Fight For Better Wages

May 1, 2014 Mara Kardas-Nelson, www.alternet.org Educate! Minimum Wage

Of the five of them, only one wears a tie. Another wears a T-shirt. All are under the age of 40; only one is white. All are former restaurant workers, and two are now restaurant owners. Only one lives in DC, the other four making their homes in either Chicago or Philadelphia. This is not the contingent you expect to see lobbying in the halls of Congress. And that's exactly the point. Members of Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United, which represents 13,000 restaurant workers and thousands of consumers uniting to improve restaurant wages and working conditions, and Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment (RAISE), a ROC initiative made up of 100 restaurant owners supportive of ROC's efforts, are in Washington, D.C., this week to push back against efforts of the National Restaurant Association (NRA), a multi-million-dollar outfit that represents some of the biggest names in corporate food. The "other NRA" counts among its members corporations like Starbucks, Darden Restaurants (which owns Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Capitol Grille, among others), and Yum! Brands (owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC). It wields huge influence in American politics and policy, historically pushing back on efforts to raise the minimum wage, close the pay gap between men and women, and require nutritional labeling on foods.

Low-Wage Workers Shame Greedy Restaurant Chains in Massive Protest

April 30, 2014 Mara Kardas-Nelson, www.alternet.org Resist! Corporatism, Minimum Wage, Organizing, Protest

Hundreds of low-income workers from around the country demanding better wages, benefits and an end to corporate greed blocked traffic in Washington on Monday morning to start of a day of protests, marches and lobbying Congress for economic justice. The protesters marched along main thoroughfare Pennsylvania Avenue as they headed towards the Capitol, blocking traffic for several minutes at a time at busy locations along the Mall. The activists were in Washington, D.C., for the Rising Voices for A New Economy conference, organized by National People’s Action and the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Their coalition included groups like Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), which is using the day to launch a new shaming campaign against the corporate restaurant industry and its national lobbying group, The National Restaurant Association. NRA members are also in Washington for their annual convention and congressional lobbying day. “It’s a shame that people get paid $2.13 an hour—that’s 213 pennies more than a slave was making an hour, and I come from a slave state,” said Darrin Browder,

40% Of US Workers Now Earn Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage

April 29, 2014 Michael Snyder, www.soundmoneyinstitute.org Educate! Inequality, Minimum Wage

Are American workers paid enough? That is a topic that is endlessly debated all across this great land of ours. Unfortunately, what pretty much everyone can agree on is that American workers are not making as much as they used to after you account for inflation. Back in 1968, the minimum wage in the United States was $1.60 an hour. That sounds very small, but after you account for inflation a very different picture emerges. Using the inflation calculator that the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides, $1.60 in 1968 is equivalent to $10.74 today. And of course the official government inflation numbers have been heavily manipulated to make inflation look much lower than it actually is, so the number for today should actually be substantially higher than $10.74, but for purposes of this article we will use $10.74. If you were to work a full-time job at $10.74 an hour for a full year (with two weeks off for vacation), you would make about $21,480 for the year. That isn’t a lot of money, but according to the Social Security Administration, 40.28% of all workers make less than $20,000 a year in America today. So that means that more than 40 percent of all U.S. workers actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968. That is how far we have fallen.

People Are Ready For A $15 Minimum Wage

April 28, 2014 Shamus Cooke, www.occupy.com Resist! Minimum Wage, Organizing

You’d think unions would accept the enthusiastic public support for a $15 minimum wage as a gift-wrapped campaign sent from the heavens. If unions organized campaigns for $15 nationwide, they’d win the support and admiration of hundreds of thousands, who would then be ripe for joining. A labor movement on life support would receive a massive injection of oxygen. And if all workers made $15, the leverage of unions at the bargaining table would increase exponentially. But in most cities, unions have not yet followed up with the serious community organizing that would be necessary to make $15 a reality. Seattle has proven it’s possible. Unions there are wisely going all in: a Service Employees-led coalition called Working Washington is mobilizing its members and the community for $15. The mayor and city council are working on a plan to introduce the new minimum.

An Apartheid of Dollars: Life in the Minimum-Wage Economy

April 25, 2014 Peter Van Buren, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Minimum Wage, Whistleblowers

At age 53, everything changed. Following my whistleblowing first book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, I was run out of the good job I had held for more than 20 years with the U.S. Department of State. As one of its threats, State also took aim at the pension and benefits I’d earned, even as it forced me into retirement. Would my family and I lose everything I’d worked for as part of the retaliation campaign State was waging? I was worried. That pension was the thing I’d counted on to provide for us and it remained in jeopardy for many months. I was scared. My skill set was pretty specific to my old job. The market was tough in the Washington, D.C. area for someone with a suspended security clearance. Nobody with a salaried job to offer seemed interested in an old guy, and I needed some money. All the signs pointed one way — toward the retail economy and a minimum-wage job. And soon enough, I did indeed find myself working in exactly that economy and, worse yet, trying to live on the money I made. But it wasn’t just the money. There’s this American thing in which jobs define us, and those definitions tell us what our individual futures and the future of our society is likely to be. And believe me, rock bottom is a miserable base for any future.

Seattle’s Elite Begin Their Counter Attack

April 18, 2014 Shamus Cooke, www.commondreams.org Organize! Minimum Wage, Socialism

Seattle’s corporations were blindsided, it all happened so fast. Socialist candidate Kshama Sawant’s successful City Council campaign tore through Seattle politics like a tornado, leaving the 1% devastated, unable to cope with a storm they didn't see coming. The Seattle elite had no way to counter her arguments, silence her supporters, or keep her from gathering a tidal wave of support for the $15 campaign. The establishment was paralyzed, powerless. But Sawant’s election victory was just the beginning of the humiliation for Seattle’s super wealthy. After singlehandedly transforming city politics, Sawant used her newly elected bully pulpit to torment the mayor and City Council and harangue Seattle's corporations, while simultaneously mobilizing thousands in the streets to bulldoze through her progressive agenda. The 1% had absolutely no idea what to do — they’d never experienced anything like it. They conceded defeat and agreed to a $15 minimum wage — in words.

Beyond The Minimum Wage

April 8, 2014 Amy Dean, www.inthesetimes.com Organize! Labor, Minimum Wage, Worker Rights and Jobs

Raising the minimum wage is an idea whose time has come. Long an important grassroots demand, campaigns to raise the wage are taking place throughout the country. Even the national Democratic Party has recognized it as it winning issue that its candidates should embrace. Yet, although a minimum wage boost is long overdue, an increase from $7.25 an hour to $10 an hour will not bring the working poor out of poverty. Nor will it restore the type of labor rights and collective organization that built the American middle class in the mid-20th century. This dilemma raises a critical question: How do we use the enthusiasm around this issue to promote a more robust and thoroughgoing vision of economic justice? Sarita Gupta is one progressive leader who is searching for an answer to this question. Gupta is executive director of Jobs With Justice, a national organization whose mission is to “win real change for workers by combining innovative communications strategies and solid research and policy advocacy with grassroots action and mobilization,” according to its website.

Connecticut First State To Pass Minimum Wage Over $10

April 1, 2014 Jodie Gummow, www.alternet.org Organize! Minimum Wage

In a move that is hoped to win over voters this fall, the Connecticut General Assembly has voted for legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2017,CT Mirror reported. The bill, which passed 87 to 54 in the House and 21 to 14 in the Senate, would raise the state minimum wage on January 1st in each of the next three years to $9.15 in 2015, $9.60 in 2016 and finally $10.10 by 2017. This will affect some 227,000 workers in the state, which amounts to about 15 percent of the workforce. First-term Democrat Govenor Dannel P. Malloy, is set to sign the bill into law on Thursday at the same restaurant Obama dined a few weeks ago at a minimum-wage rally.

SeaTac Workers Fight For Their $15 Wage

March 29, 2014 Amien Essif, www.inthesetimes.com Resist! Minimum Wage, Worker Rights and Jobs

The workers were joined by a group of about 30 supporters, drawing attention to the company’s alleged wrongdoings, which include shirking the new $15 wage floor and engaging in retaliatory firings against workers who have voiced complaints. According to the press release for a class-action lawsuit also announced Wednesday, an estimated 40 current and former Extra Car workers earn or earned between $10 and $11 an hour—or at least $4 less than required by law. Attorney Martin Garfinkel—who represents fired Extra Car worker Lou Lehman and may soon be representing other former and current Extra Car employees who have been invited to join the suit—said in a Wednesday press release that “the SeaTac living wage ordinance is in full force and effect outside the boundaries of the Airport, and must be followed....There is no excuse for Extra Car's unlawful conduct.”

Minimum Wage On The Ballot In California, Winning, Needs Funds

March 6, 2014 Steven Rosenfeld, www.Alternet.com Organize! California, Democracy, Economic Democracy, Minimum Wage

“There are lots of ultra-wealthy conservatives and libertarians around and maybe I can get one of them to fund the campaign,” he said. “Late last week, when I was getting desperate, I pointed out to the union leaders how bad it would look if some right-winger raised the wages of California workers by $15 billion while the unions were just too cheap and selfish and sat on their hands….I was trying to really light a fire under those union leaders last week, but I never heard anything back from them.” The silence from unions and liberals has been truly mystifying, Unz said. “I’d very much hoped to be able to raise the money from wealthy liberals and have been surprised it’s been so extremely difficult,” he said. “I can’t figure out why someone wouldn’t want to take national credit for such an important project. Even if they tell me the unions will surely pay for it, why wouldn't they want the credit for themselves? But I just haven’t had any luck and I'm really getting desperate, which is why I'll be running that public newspaper ad starting tomorrow, which is pretty much a last resort.”

VIDEO: 2014 State of The Union (minus the Corporate Influence)

January 28, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Barack Obama, Globalization, Government, Minimum Wage, State Of The Union

Note: In some alternative universe, not only am I the speechwriter for President Obama, but I’ve actually convinced him to deliver the following as the 2014 State of the Union. – Dennis Trainor, Jr. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, fellow citizens- 60 years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his annual State of the Union Address to the Nation as a Fireside Chat from the White House in which he outlined a proposed second bill of rights that would to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. The power elite have been guiding this country in a direction in the exact opposite of the spirit behind that second bill of rights ever since. It is because of this- the outsized influence of a few rich people and multi-national corporations that I must report to you that the state of our Union is in tatters, and if allowed to continue on its present trajectory, presents an existential threat to human life both at home and abroad and to the only habitat that human life has ever existed on: planet earth.

Low Wage Federal Workers Win Pay Increase

January 28, 2014 Carla Murphy, www.colorlines.com Educate! Minimum Wage

After a year of strikes and protests there’s a victory for many federal workers demanding that their government pay them a living wage. President Obama in tonight’s State of the Union address will announce plans to sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay workers at least $10.10 an hour. The action affects workers currently earning less and will apply to new federal contracts. The federal government, according to a 2013 Demos report, employs more than 2 million workers earning less than $12 an hour, making it the nation’s largest low-wage labor employer. The executive order is a limited enactment of a bill, which Obama hopes to get through Congress. The Harkin-Miller bill calls for an across the board minimum wage increase to $10.10.

Hackers Leak Secret Walmart Internal Documents

January 18, 2014 JWJ, www.jwj.org Educate! Minimum Wage, Walmart, Worker Rights and Jobs

The files are rife with misleading claims about OUR Walmart, the association of current and former Walmart employees who have gained attention through recent protests demanding better wages, adequate hours and respect on the job. One document clearly instructs supervisors to immediately report “early warning signs” such as “speaking negatively about wages and benefits” to the company’s so-called Labor Relations Hotline.

Washington State Judge Stops SeaTac’s $15 Minimum Wage

December 30, 2013 Jonathan Kaminsky, www.reuters.com Resist! Minimum Wage

King County Superior Court Judge Andrea Darvas ruled that the city of SeaTac does not have the authority to set workplace rules within Seattle-Tacoma International Airport because the aviation hub is owned by the Port of Seattle, a separate government entity. Supporters of the law, who view it as an example for communities elsewhere to emulate in their fight for a living wage, said they will appeal the decision directly to the Washington state Supreme Court. "The Washington State Legislature has clearly and unequivocally stated its intent that municipalities other than the Port of Seattle may not exercise any jurisdiction or control over SeaTac Airport operations, or the laws and rules governing those operations," Darvas wrote in her ruling. Darvas is the same judge who in August ruled that the voter initiative be struck from the ballot in a decision subsequently overturned on appeal. Under her ruling on Friday, the minimum wage and paid sick leave law does not apply to roughly 4,700 airport workers but does cover about 1,600 workers at SeaTac hotels, rental car agencies and parking lots.

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