<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of today's (June 11, 2015) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with much thanks and appreciation to Nick Gier.</div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div><h1 id="blox-asset-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 34px; font-size: 30px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="blox-headline entry-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); line-height: 38px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">$15 per hour is still not a living wage</span></h1><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Nick Gier</b></span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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).</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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).</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">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.</span></p></div></div></div><div>--------------------------------------<br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya at the Wingding, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></body></html>