You ask why Im being vocal about raising minimum wage? There are 2 sides to this issue, one being the raise being a burden on small business owners. Being a former small owner, I know first hand just how difficult it is to raise wages & still break even in the business world. But after much research, studying & consideration of pros & cons, Ive come to the conclusion that increasing minimum wage is whats best for those who are underpaid & struggling to support families/get ahead in life. Provided below are talking points on my stance that were created & shared by KY Public Pension Coalition, of which I hold membership. Read them & let me know your thoughts, both pro & con. Thanks! Talking Points on Raising the Minimum Wage • Every day, millions of Americans go to work at full time jobs but struggle to support their families. Earning the minimum wage, these workers are frequently forced to forgo basics—food, housing, clothing—or even rely on public assistance to make ends meet. • The annual income for a full-time employee making the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is $15,080. Living below the poverty line, that is not enough to afford rent on a two-bedroom apartment in any of the 50 states. Jobs should lift workers out of poverty, not trap them in poverty. • Many minimum wage workers are breadwinners in their families and 55% work full time. The median age of a low wage worker is 34 years old. And 56% of all minimum wage earners are women. Less than a quarter of minimum wage workers are teenagers—contrary to the outdated image of teenagers making minimum wage while flipping burgers at the neighborhood restaurant. • Today’s minimum wage is far below its historical level and loses value every year. If the federal minimum wage had kept up with inflation, today it would be about $10.75 an hour, instead of $7.25. If the minimum wage had kept up with productivity, it would be $18.75. If it had grown at the same rate as wages for the top 1%, it would be over $28. • It is also past time to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, whose protection from poverty has been frozen at $2.13 an hour since 1991. Almost three quarters of tipped workers are women, and 16% of tipped workers live in poverty. Tipped workers deserve some measure of security that their wages will not be dependent on their appearance or a customer’s mood. • The failure to pay employees a livable minimum wage is bad for workers, bad for our economy and bad for our country. An economy with a collapsing floor erodes the middle class and depresses consumer demand. The less you pay a worker, the less money he or she spends in the economy. The less money workers spend in the economy, the fewer jobs the country creates. Alternatively, raising employee wages would increase purchasing power, create more jobs and lift the economy. • Raising the minimum wage is especially crucial to the future economy because five of the six fastest growing sectors of the American economy are in low wage industries--home health aides; customer service representatives; food preparation and serving workers; personal and home care aides and retail salespersons. To rebuild a strong middle class and create an economy of shared prosperity, our country must pay fair wages in these growing sectors. On The Harkin-Miller Bill (The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013): • The Harkin-Miller bill is a great step toward creating good jobs and achieving paycheck fairness across our country. It would: o Raise the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2015, in three annual .95 cent increases. o Index the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation and the rising cost of living. o Increase the tipped minimum wage to 70% of the minimum wage. • More than 30 million workers would be positively affected by this bill. It would boost consumer demand, generate $32 billion in new economic activity, and create 140,000 new full-time jobs. • Of those workers who would be affected, 88% are over the age of 20, 56% are women, nearly half are workers of color, and over 43% have a college education. The average affected worker is the lead breadwinner in almost half of these households, and 23.3% of all children in the U.S. have a parent who would be helped by raising the minimum wage. • More than four out of five economists say the benefits of increasing the minimum wage would outweigh the costs. Further, a study from the Economic Policy Institute found raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would create jobs while causing no reduction in the availability of minimum wage jobs. epi.org/publication/bp357-federal-minimum-wage-increase/ • More than 80% of the American public supports raising the wage to $10.10 an hour and 74% say it should be a top priority for Congress. And the Harkin-Miller bill is supported by more than 200 business, labor, economic, civil rights, faith, and community organizations. • It is time for the actions of our elected representatives to reflect the wishes of their constituents. Only by ending this vicious cycle will we be able to help America achieve an economy that truly works for all Americans. Minimum Wage on the Ballot and in the Statehouse • Working families are way ahead of elected officials on the need to give minimum wage workers a raise. The latest Quinnipiac poll released on January 8 shows that a whopping 72 percent of Americans believe we should raise the minimum wage. • Cities and towns across the country have begun successfully raising wages and minimum wage will be an important issue in the 2014 election. • Already 18 states have introduced minimum wage legislation in 2014 (introduced this year or carried over from 2013). They are: Del., Fla., Ga., Hawaii, Kan., Mass., Md., Mich., Minn., N.C., N.H., Pa., R.I., S.C., Vt., Wash., Wis., and Vt. • Six states and D.C. have some kind of ballot initiative activity around minimum wage underway. (Alaska, Calif., Idaho, Mass., Mo., S.D.)
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 13:07:28 +0000
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