Money Matters +
Posted by Michelle Moquin on March 3rd, 2014
Good morning!
Ohh…it was a late one last night. Here’s the write.
Mind The Gap
The Latest Good News On The Minimum Wage
A few weeks ago, we wrote about a number of states around the country that aren’t waiting for Congress to raise their minimum wages. This week brings yet more big news for those of us who believe that raising the minimum wage is a critical step in creating an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few. Here are a few of the top stories:
1. Gap, Inc. Will Raise Its Minimum Wage To $10. The retail clothing chain announced its decision yesterday, which is estimated to affect 65,000 U.S. employees. “To us, this is not a political issue,” GAP Chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy said. “Our decision to invest in frontline employees will directly support our business, and is one that we expect to deliver a return many times over.” Gap joins other chains like Costco, Whole Foods and In-N-Out Burger in embracing higher wages because employees work harder and stay longer after wages increase.
2. Nonpartisan Study Finds Raising Federal Minimum Wage To $10.10 Would Raise Earnings For 16.5 Million Workers. The report, from the Congressional Budget Office, also estimated that the increase would result in $31 billion in more earnings and would lift 1 million out of poverty.
3. Economists Dispute The CBO Estimate That Raising The Minimum Wage Would Cost 500,000 Jobs. The one piece of bad news in the CBO report was its estimate that 500,000 jobs would be lost as a result of a minimum wage increase to $10.10. However, numerous economists who study these impacts have disputed the methodology used. The New York Times Editorial Board, whichsupported raising the minimum wage in the wake of the CBO report, explains in plain language: “The budget office didn’t do its own research on those variables. It surveyed the economic literature on the subject, and chose a figure more conservative than the most recent and rigorous studies have found.”
4. Wal-Mart Announced It Would No Longer Oppose Certain Increases In The Minimum Wage. The largest private employer in the U.S. will not oppose minimum wage proposals as long as they have provisions to “manage the impact,” like a phase-in period, according to their Vice President of Corporate Communications, David Tovar. Tovar also indicated that the company is “looking” at throwing its support behind a proposal.
5. Iowa State Senate Committee Approves Minimum Wage Increase To $10.10 By 2016. A bill to raise the minimum wage in the state cleared this key procedural hurdle yesterday morning by a 7-4 party-line vote. “Nobody that works full time should live in poverty,” State Sen. Jack Hatch said. “This should not be a partisan issue, this is about working people struggling to provide the very basics for their families.”
6. State Lawmakers Will Try To Live Off Of The Minimum Wage For A Week.Five Minnesota lawmakers are raising awareness for the cause by taking the “Minimum Wage Challenge” and living off of a typical budget for a worker who makes the federal minimum wage of $7.25. The challenge allows $5 a day for food and $9 a day for transportation.
BOTTOM LINE: Momentum for raising the minimum wage continues to build. Gap, Inc. is leading the way in showing that higher wages will help, not hurt, businesses. The latest studies show that the benefits of increasing the minimum wage in additional earnings and decreased poverty rates far outnumber the potential costs. And lawmakers in the states continue to work to pass their own laws without waiting for federal action.
*****
Readers: I love posting good news because it means that we are working on things and things are happening. Yes!
So…I’ll end with a little Fashion fun. What does it have to do with today’s write? Absolutely nothing. I just feel like it. :)
So…Did you all watch the Oscar’s last night? “Plunging necklines” were the popular look this year, and I thought they were simply lovely and some very sexy* too. Here’s some of my faves.
Lupita Nyong’o wins the Oscar for her Performance in “12 Years a Slave,” (Congratulations!) and looks stunning in her plunging Prada gown in a tint of “Nairobi Blue.”
*Charlize Theron in her Ooh La La…far from a LBD, Black Dior dress:
And Kate Hudson is a show stopper in her in her Atelier Versace gown with a draped cape accent:
Readers: What’s on your mind? Money? Fashion? Anything? Blog me.
Happy Monday! xox
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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March 3rd, 2014 at 2:02 pm
A merger of the two largest cable companies in the United States would be a bad deal for consumers, leading to less competition and likely higher prices for subscribers. And a combined Comcast-Time Warner would be in a position to slow or even block Internet traffic from content providers like Netflix or Hulu if the cable company decided it didn’t want the competition.
We have to speak out now to stop it. That’s why I started my own campaign on CREDOMobilize.com, which allows activists to start their own petitions. My petition, which is to Attorney General Eric Holder, says the following:
The proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner is not in the best interest of American consumers and threatens the free and open nature of the Internet. We urge you as attorney general not to let this merger proceed.
Tell Attorney General Holder: Stop the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner.
One of the biggest threats posed by this proposed merger is to a free and open Internet. Recent court cases have struck serious blows to the principal of net neutrality, which means a merged Comcast-Time Warner would have wide latitude to start restricting bandwidth or demanding payment from online services it deems to be competition.
With Comcast already owning Universal Pictures and all of NBC, the economic incentive to discriminate against competing content providers would be very strong. A combined Comcast-Time Warner would also be, quite simply, too big, with too much power over subscribers and too much influence in Washington.
Comcast and Time Warner are hoping that armies of highly paid lobbyists and attorneys can push this deal through, so we have to make sure Attorney General Holder hears the voices of Americans who know this would be a bad deal. As former FCC Commission Michael Copps said, “This is so over the top it ought to be dead on arrival.”
Will you join me and add your name to my petition to Attorney General Eric Holder urging him to stop the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner?
Thank you for your support.
Rep. Chellie Pingree
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:43 pm
Most scholarly studies and the experience of businesses themselves show that higher minimum wage helps lower turnover and improve productivity.
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:46 pm
Here is another example of how the Obama administration is different from the republicans who suck up to the business dollar. The Labor Department says Chickie’s & Pete’s, popular chain of sports bars in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, has agreed to pay $6.8 million in back wages and damages for improperly taking tips from waiters and bartenders, and for violating minimum wage and overtime laws.
That is something you won’t hear under a republican administration.
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:48 pm
Martha#2, case on point: Republicans sputtered with outrage when the Congressional Budget Office said that immigration reform would lower the deficit, strengthen Social Security and speed up economic growth. They called for the office to be abolished when it dared to point out that tax cuts raise the deficit or when it highlighted the benefits of health care reform. But now that the budget office has predicted (and exaggerated) the possibility that an increase in the minimum wage might result in a loss of jobs, Republicans think it’s gospel.
“This report confirms what we’ve long known,” said a spokesman for the House speaker, John Boehner. “While helping some, mandating higher wages has real costs, including fewer people working.”
What Republicans fail to mention is that Tuesday’s report from the budget office, a federal nonpartisan agency, was almost entirely positive about the benefits of raising the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016, as President Obama and Congressional Democrats have proposed.
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:50 pm
I’d be very surprised (but pleased) if it happened, especially in the states. The argument that raising workers wages at the bottom of the scale always annoys the hell out of me – why is it that jobs must be lost at the bottom of the scale rather than CEOs and top execs just learn to take a little less? after all if their staff can (just about!) cope with living on a low wage how rubbish they must be if they can’t organise and cope with their lives on what would still be many multiples of their lowest paid employees?
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:51 pm
No mention of the living wage then? :)
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:51 pm
What about a stratified minimum wage structure that considers an individuals education attainment, civic responsibility -that they don’t have multiple off-spring they can’t support- and economic maturity. It might re-introduce notions of responsibility for ones behaviour?
Didn’t think so, it’s all about raising aggregate wealth so the aforementioned low wage earners can go out and buy things. The solution will not be found in bigger economies, but by encouraging the development of a responsible citizenry.
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:53 pm
Zen Lill, I’d pay real money to see you in any of those gowns. What a vision that would be.
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:54 pm
The sad truth Michelle is that US corporations would much rather pay the legal minimum and keep their workers in poverty … and rely on the taxpayer to pick up THEIR derisory pay with tax payer funded food stamps and other minimal support programs which themselves are being gradually eroded away by the fascist right and also the blue dog Dems.
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:54 pm
Raising the minimum wage will do more for economic activity than the wasted QE issues. A belated step in the right direction.
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:54 pm
America the Unequal.
America the Unfair.
America the Discriminator.
America the Impoverished. (except the 1%)
The richest 450 Americans have more than the poorest 150 MILLION Americans.
41 MILLION Americans don’t have Health Insurance.
America is rapidly having very little to be proud of…..
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:56 pm
Freda#5, Allow me…America leads the Western World in having the Lowest Minimum Wage as well as the least Basic Benefits for Workers that includes Paid Sick Leave, Paid Maternity Leave and Paid Holiday Leave.
The U.S Minimum Wage if successfully raised to the suggested level mentioned in 2016 of $10.10 an hour will STILL be LESS than it was (allowing for Inflation) in 1968 as the minimum wage then equated to approx $10.45 in 2013 Dollars!
Here is a country by country comparison: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country
Here is a comparison of Minimum wage rates in OECD countries:
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-united-states-is-very-different-from-its-neighbors-when-it-come-to-minimum-wage-2013-2
America’s minimum wage as well as its Median Wage and associated Benefits are WOEFUL compared to other “rich Western ” Countries.
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:57 pm
Perhaps areas with lower inequality do not need minimum wage legislation?
The left answer of a minimum wage is no solution but neither is the right race to the bottom.
March 3rd, 2014 at 8:58 pm
I just wanted to point out that it is well worth noting that England didn’t have a minimum wage until Tony Blair. I lived with an Italian waiter in 1996 in London earning one and a half pound an hour.
The US has had a national minimum wage since the 1930s although regional ones starting in some states a few decades before that. The real issue is that purchasing power for that wage was at its peak in the 1960s in America.
It really is an issue that needs to be addressed for a country that pioneered legislation that is supposed to protect a worker’s livelihood.
March 3rd, 2014 at 9:00 pm
Brett#12, that’s not true. Germany, Italy, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark do not have minimum wage. In fact, France has been pressuring Germany to enact a minimum wage law to level the competitive playing field.
Nevertheless, there are laws in several of the aforementioned countries requiring employers and trade unions to set a minimum wage for specific industries. However, Denmark and Norway have no such requirements.
Here is a comparison of Minimum wage rates in OECD countries:
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-united-states-is-very-different-from-its-neighbors-when-it-come-to-minimum-wage-2013-2
Notice that none of these countries are listed on the linked website.
That being said, I do agree with the sentiment of your post and support a required minimum wage (set higher than the one proposed) with annual adjustments for inflation. I also believe the debate for increasing the minimum wage can be won without stretching the truth.
March 3rd, 2014 at 9:01 pm
Brett#5, I went to your sources and found that the weakest economies do in fact have a minimum wage: Greece, Spain, France, UK, Belgium.
And then I notices that the stronger economies do not have a minimum wage, AND they have lower rates of income inequality: Germany, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway.
Oh yeah, same is true in US. The states with a higher MW have higher rates of income inequality: MA, CA, NY, RI, CT.
Go figure.
March 3rd, 2014 at 9:03 pm
The US corporations would much rather pay the legal minimum and keep their workers in poverty … and rely on the taxpayer to pick up THEIR derisory pay with tax payer funded food stamps and other minimal support programs which themselves are being gradually eroded away by the fascist right and also the blue dog Dems
March 3rd, 2014 at 9:04 pm
True to their role throughout the modern era, the Democratic Party delays, dilutes, and diverts popular struggles for social improvement. It shares the same 1% base as the other corporate storefront, and thus answers first and last to the demands of capital.
Obama is now the great paladin of peanuts–$10.10 per hour, last I checked. This comes after more than a year of nationwide organizing and activist demonstrations in support of a $15 minimum wage for fast-food workers. In Sea-Tac, Washington, the $15 minimum wage was passed, but a court ruling restricted its application–there’s still work to be done. We need that minimum to apply everywhere, to all waged work.
This leaves aside the great issue, though: as is often pointed out by those who oppose, merely increasing a wage ensures higher prices. This is true not because of any cosmic law, but because the capitalist system exists to sustain and enhance profits. When wages impinge on this, capital responds by raising prices.
The solution is obvious: wage slavery and the system that sustains it, must go. Let’s establish a cooperative economy based on human needs rather than corporate greed.
March 3rd, 2014 at 9:06 pm
Sebastian#16:
That’s a cute little trick there, trying to pretend that the lack of a minimum wage is responsible for the low unemployment in Switzerland, or higher unemployment in some areas of the United States.
Of course you haven’t bothered to mention that Switzerland and other countries that don’t have a minimum wage don’t have one because their labor unions and collective bargaining agreements contain minimum compensation clauses, so it’s not needed.
They’re also not as bad as the United States when it comes to their CEO pay compared to the lowest paid Swiss citizens, but somehow I doubt you would be calling for the United States to follow their lead there.
March 3rd, 2014 at 9:08 pm
Oscar#18:
“Obama is now the great paladin of peanuts–$10.10 per hour, last I checked.”
————————————
Do you believe the US President has the power to pass laws? If so, then you might want to read up on the respective powers of the President and Congress.
As it currently stands, Obama’s ‘paladin of peanuts’ has little chance of passing the Republican controlled House.
“This comes after more than a year of nationwide organizing and activist demonstrations in support of a $15 minimum wage for fast-food workers. In Sea-Tac, Washington, the $15 minimum wage was passed, but a court ruling restricted its application–there’s still work to be done. We need that minimum to apply everywhere…”
————————————-
Introducing a DOA bill to Congress requiring a $15 minimum wage, would ensure no change to the current law for the foreseeable future.
Idealistic rhetoric does not help the working poor.
March 3rd, 2014 at 9:09 pm
There is a unrealistic business culture in USA which has been built around low wages, wages which have not and do not keep up. They drive the system down. Though they may employ a number of people, the jobs are mearly fantasy positions, dead ends. The only beneficiary is likely the owner.
Few wish to see a business fail. Yet, if the business has an inefficient work/employee ratio, requiring a great number of people at a lower than current market wages, the business is not truly viable. Some business needs to be purged. $20k annual is poverty for all practical purposes.
Business will adjust, improvements will come. The people cutting the checks simply do not want to take home less, wanting to retain all they can in order to meet their life goals. Low wage business is business made on the backs of other’s, no American pride in this, ugly.
March 3rd, 2014 at 9:10 pm
“The Congressional Budget Office report released on Tuesday found that without any adjustments to the minimum wage, about 45 million Americans are expected to live below the poverty line in 2016.”
__________
Patriotic,
Ain’t it?
March 3rd, 2014 at 9:13 pm
Thank you for this article Michelle, there are people who believe it’s OK to employ someone in a full time job and not pay enough to live on.
There are certain things you already can NOT do to your employees – such as beating them, stripping them naked or locking them into the workplace, etc.
You could say, someone doesn’t have to take a job, if it doesn’t pay enough to live on. But answer this – why doesn’t that apply to an employer that wants his employees to work naked ? Because some conditions are MORALLY unacceptable.
In feudal times, the village peasants worked for the lord of the manner 6 days a week in his fields, tending the crops. On the seventh day, they didn’t rest, they went to the communal open strip fields to grow their own crops, to live on. What caused the most turmoil & got the lord of the manor in trouble, was when he took away the Sundays.
Today, when you take away the employees opportunity to support themselves in other ways, you take on some responsibilities similar to the lord of the manor. If you are going to offer a full time job, it has to provide enough to live on.
Yes. This will impact product & service costs. Amazing how many times in America, people’s morality is limited by what it costs them.