Minimum wage drive ignited
2014Michael Schreiber 2014-04Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 4 →
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A grassroots movement to achieve a sig nificant increase of the minimum wage, to $15 an hour, is gaining momentum around the United States. The urgency of a higher minimum wage is shown by the fact that the number of “working poor” in the U.S. now exceeds 47 million people. “People are busting their butts now, work ing two or three jobs and they’re not making it,” Andrea Bell, an organizer with the Al liance of Californians for Community Em powerment, which has helped to organize fast-food workers, told the San Francisco Chronicle (March 16, 2014). “This [$15 an hour] would help.”
The real value of the federal minimum wage has fallen by close to 30 percent dur ing the last 40 years. The Center for Eco nomic and Policy Research estimated in 2013 that if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation since its peak in 1968, it would now be $10.75 an hour. And if the minimum wage had grown along with workers’ productivity, it would be as high as $17.19 today.
Congress is balking over Obama’s pro posal to raise the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. A recent article in the Washington Post (Jan. 4, 2014), basing itself on a study by Uni versity of Massachusetts at Amherst econo mist Arindrajit Dube, suggests that a raise to $10.10 alone would be sufficient to reduce the number of people living in poverty na tionwide by 4.6 million.
Activists around the country, however, have called for $15 an hour as the minimum base rate that could begin to make signifi cant changes in the standard of living of the working poor. “Fifteen dollars—now!” has been the demand at countless marches and “mike-check” rallies at fast-food restau rants and convenience stores in hundreds of cities during the last three years. Recent campaigns have been inspired by the November ballot victory in SeaTac, Washington, which raised the minimum wage there to $15. And new ballot initiatives for $15 an hour have now been launched in Seattle and San Francisco.
On April 7, Service Employees Interna tional Union (SEIU) Local 1021 and other activists, including the Alliance of Califor nians for Community Empowerment, filed papers to place the “Minimum Wage Act of 2014” on San Francisco’s November ballot. The current base rate in the city is $10.74, already the highest of any large city in the country; $15 would represent an additional raise of roughly 40 percent.
Under the proposal, San Francisco compa nies with more than 100 employees would have until 2016 to raise wages to $15 an hour, but they must lift wages to $13 an hour by next January. Businesses with few er than 100 employees have until 2017 to raise wages to $15 an hour, but must raise them to $13 an hour by 2015 and $14 by 2016. Polls show that the proposal has over whelming support among the electorate in San Francisco—which has the highest cost of living of any sizable U.S. city and the fastest growing gap between rich and poor. In Seattle, activists in the “15 Now” co alition are also working to put a $15/hour wage ordinance onto the Nov. 4 municipal ballot. At least 20,000 valid signatures must be submitted in June in order to qualify, and activists will be mobilizing to collect a full 50,000. A conference will take place on some authentic small businesses to offset the increased wages they would be paying, the base wage level of $15 must remain for all enterprises.
Last month in Chicago, voters approved by an 87% to 13% margin a non-binding referendum expressing broad support for a $15 minimum wage at large businesses in the city. The election results have sent a strong message to city council, which will be considering a minimum wage measure in upcoming weeks. At the same time, the Richmond, Calif., city council approved raising the minimum wage locally to $12.30 by 2017. New York and San Diego are among other cities that are considering hikes in the minimum wage, while the SEIU and other forces in Oakland have set out to collect 50,000 signatures to obtain a city minimum wage of $12.25 an hour. On the state level, Connecticut recently approved a bill to raise its minimum wage to Obama’s goal of $10.10 an hour—which will boost pay for 227,000 workers in the state, roughly 15 percent of the state’s work force. Maryland legislators have followed suit, although their bill contains exemp tions for many employers. Massachusetts and Hawaii are also considering minimumwage increases.
The readiness of many city and state offi cials to accept at least modest raises in mini mum wage rates can be explained in large part by their perceived need to cut down on spiraling public assistance payments to the working poor. In California, for example, researchers from the University of Califor nia and the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign estimated that low-paid fastfood workers cost taxpayers $717 million a year in state and federal assistance. Capitalist politicians also sense that a rise in the minimum wage has broad popular support. Nationally, 69 percent of Ameri cans support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, according to a March poll by Bloomberg news. For activists de manding a more equitable $15 an hour, that should be a promising start.
But there is far more work to be done, and the goal cannot be achieved nationwide solely through municipal ballot measures or by “mike-check” rallies and flash occupa tions—however valuable and inspiring such local efforts might be. Winning the demand for $15 nationwide will take a concerted campaign by the entire labor movement and its allies. It must be seen as part of a mas sive drive to organize low-wage workers throughout the country into a fighting tradeunion movement. n