[Vision2020] $15 per hour is still not a living wage

[Moscow Cares]

Courtesy of today's (June 11, 2015) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with much thanks and appreciation to Nick Gier.

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$15 per hour is still not a living wage
Nick Gier
In January 2007, during the debate on raising the federal minimum wage to $7.25, one-term Idaho Congressman Bill Sali embarrassed himself again by proposing legislation to repeal the law of gravity. Sali foolishly believed that the law of supply and demand would rule the labor market just as infallibly as gravity keeps us from flying off the face of the Earth.
Free market ideologues are so blinded by their "pure" economic theory they routinely ignore overwhelming evidence that government intervention in the economy is not always bad. Insisting on a completely free labor market and keeping workers at the lowest possible wages have proven to be disastrous.
In a previous column (Sept. 4, 2014), I demonstrated that raising the minimum wage does not kill jobs, and neither does it reduce teen employment. Significantly, the states with the highest minimum wage have also experienced the highest economic growth.
Ignoring all evidence (as it is prone to do on most issues), the GOP Congress refuses to consider President Barack Obama's request for a $10.10 federal minimum wage. Surprisingly, the private companies Wal-Mart and Target have taken the lead to raise wages to $9 an hour, and former McDonald's CEO Don Thompson supports Obama's proposal.
In 27 states the minimum wage is higher than the federal level. These states have passed the most substantial increases: Washington ($10.50, July 1); California ($10, 2016); Massachusetts ($11, 2017); Iowa ($10.10, 2016); New York and Republican Nebraska ($9, 2016); Minnesota ($9.50, 2016); and Michigan ($9.25, 2018).
The most dramatic rise in the minimum wage is happening in the nation's cities. Companies in Seattle with more than 501 employees must pay $15 per hour by 2017, and all other companies must comply by 2021. Tacoma will vote on a $15 minimum in November. In California the following cities are leading the way: Oakland ($12.25); San Diego ($11.50, 2017); San Francisco ($15, 2018); and Los Angeles ($15, 2020).
In Chicago workers will make at least $13 per hour by 2019. Mayor Bill De Blasio has proposed New York City go to $15 by 2019.
At $16.42 per hour, Australia now has the second highest minimum wage in the world, and after taxes, leaves the most money in the pockets of any worker anywhere. It was one of the few countries that sailed through the Great Recession with nary a hiccup. A GOP Congressman predicted that Obama's $10.10 minimum would give us a $20 Big Mac, but today you can actually buy one in Sydney for 47 cents less than in the U.S.
According to a 2014 report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a person would have to earn $18.92 per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment at its "fair market rate." In San Diego, where a quarter of its 8,000 homeless are families, two adults working minimum wage would pay half their earnings on housing. In Los Angeles a single person, earning $15 per hour and allowing one-third of their salary for rent, could not find a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the city.
With housing costs rising dramatically, the Seattle City Council is considering a bill that would charge "linkage fees" for any new construction and apply them to building 50,000 new affordable housing units.
In 1967 a single adult working minimum wage could support a family of three above the poverty line. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal (May 6), this person would have to work 8 times more hours a week than a comparable Australian to stay above the poverty line.
Brazil reduced its poverty rate from 40 to 25 percent over eight years, and the principal reason for this remarkable success was a significant rise in the minimum wage. Shame on us for not providing a living wage and decent housing for all our citizens.
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Seeya at the Wingding, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares"
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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