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

[Nicholas Gier]

Greetings:

I had to cut out a lot of references and explanations from this column, so,
if you have objections, please refer to this full version attached.

nfg

On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 4:31 AM, Moscow Cares <moscowcares at moscow.com>
wrote:

> Courtesy of today's (June 11, 2015) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with much
> thanks and appreciation to Nick Gier.
>
> --------------------------------------
> $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.
> --------------------------------------
>
> Seeya at the Wingding, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares"
> http://www.MoscowCares.com <http://www.moscowcares.com/>
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
>
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>



-- 

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
shall never sit in.

-Greek proverb

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not in
lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without
guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your own
understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.

--Immanuel Kant
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20150611/61bdf2cc/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: MinWage2300.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 110459 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20150611/61bdf2cc/MinWage2300-0001.pdf>