My new hero - Saru Jayaraman

[IDemo]

I had not heard of Saru Jayaraman before seeing her on last night's Bill Moyers show. She is the founder and director of the Food Labor Research Center. Jayaraman is a powerful advocate for an increased minimum wage, particularly for tipped workers, whose minimum wage was frozen at $2.13/hr way back in 1991. She has the numbers to show that the usual arguments by the National Restaurant Association, "the other NRA" as she calls it, don't hold water. Counter to their claims, an increase of up to $10.00/hr wouldn't put restaurants out of business; in fact, restaurants in California are setting records even after implementing a significant increase. And the price "penalty" for customers would only be in the 10 cent per day range, hardly enough to discourage them from eating out.

On an earlier show with Bill Maher, David Stockman, the guy who was instrumental in bringing us Reagan's supply-side economics (affectionately known as 'Trickle Down'), claims the argument consists of "philosophical differences" after Jayaraman makes the above points. Apparently, he doesn't believe that money can trickle sideways into the economy from the increased spending power of employees who are earning above slave wages.

"All Work and No Pay", with Bill Moyers (couldn't copy video URL):
http://billmoyers.com/episode/all-work-and-no-pay/

On the Bill Maher show:

[IDemo]

1. Shameless kick

Doesn't the minimum wage issue generally hold the interest of DU'ers?