Oberlin to vote on living-wage law (126 cities have,80 in last 5 years)

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1129628065325451.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

It would tie city aid to workers' pay; critics say it targets Wal-Mart

Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Carl Matzelle
Plain Dealer Reporter

The last time Congress raised the minimum wage, gasoline cost $1.23 a gallon.

Every attempt to increase the wage since then has sputtered. Now, under pressure from fed-up workers, cities are beginning to act on their own.

Boston, San Francisco and 128 other cities have enacted living-wage laws, more than 80 of them in the past five years.

Most of the laws guarantee that city contractors and vendors pay workers at a minimum level -- a wage they can live on...

[pokercat999]

1. Minimum wage is better for employers than slavery.

Think about it. A slave is "property" and therefore must be "maintained", in order to protect the slave owners "investment". That means providing said slave with at least the minimum in housing, food, clothing and health care is essential. I believe (although I don't have any hard numbers) that the current minimum wage (at 40 hours) is lower than what it would cost to maintain a "healthy" slave.

Except for your "freedom" you'd be better off as an expensive slave than a corporate minimum wage employee.

[Child_Of_Isis]

2. My daughter goes to Oberlin.

They have been fighting to keep Wal-mart out for awhile. Wal-Mart says it will bring jobs to the students, but Oberlin likes it's students to be in areas of employment that benefits the community. My daughter is a math tutor to underprivileged children.

[SupplyConcerns]

3. www.ShopOberlin.org

This is the site for a campaign I'm working on. There's a small coalition of Main Street vendors, students, and town residents doing anti-Wal-Mart work in Oberlin. My hope is that the store's arrival can be delayed long enough that they'll be on the brink of going out of business due to the high cost of oil by the time they set up shop.

[theHandpuppet]

4. Cool! I'm passing along the link

http://www.shopoberlin.org/

Now if some of those merchants offer online shopping, we could really give them a boost!

[SupplyConcerns]

5. In the meantime, support your local merchants

That's what it's all about. A big part of this, to me, is the question of how we can redesign our economic system in a way that's less dependent on fossil fuels. Generally speaking, local merchants buy more locally-made things, you don't have to drive as far (or at all) to reach the store, and there's not the long shipping path you get from online shopping. But thanks for the support!

[madmom]

6. Did you know that Ohio is one of only 2 states with minimum wage...

lower than the federal minimum wage? Kansas being the other one. Fed. min. wage is 5.15 , Ohio min. wage is 4.25. Now we know why Ohio is 2nd in number of bankruptcies filed last year!