Democrats Gain Traction on Raising the Minimum Wage
July 13th, 2006 @ 9:01 am
The NY Times reports today that Democrats are “seeking to energize voters over economic issues” in ways similar to the ways that Republicans have rallied conservative voters with their “efforts to ban same-sex marriage.” Democratic members of Congress have “begun a broad campaign to raise the minimum wage and focus attention on income inequality.” Their argument is “straightforward: it has been more than eight years since Congress last raised the minimum wage, to $5.15 an hour, and inflation has reduced its real value to the lowest level in more than 20 years.”
The issue of raising the minimum wage was pushed to the forefront a couple of weeks ago after Congress okayed a pay raise for themselves, but had once again dismissed the concept of raising the minimum wage. The Democrats gained some traction Wednesday with their bid to raise the minimum wage when 64 Republicans in the House voted to support an increase to the minimum wage.
The House voted 260-159 to urge House-Senate negotiators to include a minimum wage boost, from the current $5.15 an hour to $7.25, in jobs covered by a job training bill under discussion. Sixty-four Republicans, many moderates from northern and northeastern states, joined Democrats in backing the non-binding resolution.
The author of the provision, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said that while the vote was symbolic, it “proves that if given the opportunity, a majority of House members would support increasing the minimum wage.”
Seeking to press the issue of raising the minimum wage, Democrats have begun state ballot initiatives in “more than a half-dozen states where Republicans are in danger of losing House or Senate seats.”
The issue is playing a role in Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona — all states where Republican senators are fighting for survival.
Over recent years, “hourly wages have climbed much more slowly than productivity.” Because of this, “corporate profits have increased rapidly over the past several years and account for an unusually big share of the nation’s total gross domestic product.” The bottomline, one we all know — the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that, “An estimated 14.9 million workers (11% of the workforce) would receive an increase in their hourly wage rate if the minimum wage were raised from $5.15 to $7.25 by 2008.”
Of these workers, 6.6 million workers (5% of the workforce) currently earn less than $7.25 and would be directly affected by an increase. The additional 8.3 million workers (6% of the workforce) earning slightly above the minimum would also be likely to benefit from an increase due to “spillover effects”.
But, the Republican leadership, with their allegiance to the corporate money machine, say that raising the minimum wage, “would discourage small businesses from hiring young and low-skilled people for entry-level jobs.” What a load of BS! The corporate money machine doesn’t want to let an extra dime slip out of their clutches, they are not small business owners — Republicans have long twisted the concept of true small business with the corporate machine. There is a huge difference and it’s glaring. Small businesses are people friendly, large corporations are money hungry.
I talk to small businesses owners everyday, not one says “oh no” to the concept of raising the minimum wage. Why? Because most small business owners, real small business owners don’t have the audacity to offer anyone a job these days at minimum wage. They recognize that no one can live off of minimum wage, when prices keep rising and the cost of living has steadily increased while the minimum wage has been on hold since 1997. As a matter of fact, “the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage is 30% lower in 2006 than it was in 1979.”
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http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=3588
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