10 Reasons to Call for MORE Than $10.10 as a Minimum Wage

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/10-reasons-call-more-1010-minimum-wage




1. It keeps up with inflation -- but not entirely.

Compared to the 1968 minimum wage, $10.10 is enough to keep up with inflation -- more or less. But it doesn't make up for the many years in which minimum wage workers fell behind. Those years often led to increased debt, lost educational opportunities, and other forms of deprivation.

2. We're lagging behind other industrialized countries.

The U.S. minimum wage is well behind that of most other industrialized countries. Even at $10.10, we would be laggards compared with most of our peers. (But not all of them. To use the vernacular: In your face, Slovak Republic!)

***SNIP

3. If the minimum wage had kept pace with productivity, it would be $21.72 today.

The Harkin/Miller bill would peg the minimum wage to inflation in future years. But there's a very strong argument for tying it to productivity instead. That's what the minimum wage did in the years between 1947 and 1968, as economist Dean Baker regularly points out. (Source: Dean Baker, CEPR)

***SNIP

4. If the minimum wage had kept pace with the incomes of the top 1 percent, it would be more than $28 per hour today.

Minimum-wage workers to America's wealthiest citizens: We'll take it! (Source: Economic Policy Institute)

[Scuba]

1. 11. It would help Democrats win elections.

That IS what we want, isn't it?

[djean111]

3. Yes, that, sadly, is probably the ONLY reason most of the D's in Washington are for this.

The actual people who cannot really live on $10.10 - all they really count for is votes, every couple of years.

[djean111]

2. Here is, IMO, Reason 11 - if the minimum wage is raised to only $10.10, with no automatic COLA,

Washington will pat itself on the back and not revisit raising it again for years and years - and not until politically useful for them to do so.

I think, for most politicians in Washington, raising the minimum wage is not seen as a necessity but as the least they can do for the most political gain or legacy or whatever. The amount, to them, is actually the least they can do in order to get campaign fodder and not aggravate the people they really work for.

And the TPP, IMO, will just exacerbate the problem. I have already sensed a feeling among some that how dare the lowest paid Americans make $10.10 when the lowest paid in other countries make so much less - the "leveling out" is NOT so that other countries' wages will be raised, that's for damn sure.

[grahamhgreen]

4. +1

[Thinkingabout]

5. If the minimum wage was set to keep up with the percent of increase to executive compensation

It just may result in lower executive pay or higher wages for the rest of the workers.

[TBF]

6. The minimum should be higher -

and maybe we should consider a maximum as well.

[davidpdx]

7. I wish we would stop allowing states to set a lower min wage

and make the federal minimum wage equal across the board. Then if states want to raise it above the min wage let them.

[Laelth]

8. k&r for labor. n/t

-Laelth