Forty years ago, CEOs earned $24 for each $1 workers got; in 2004, CEOs got $431 for every worker dollar. In 2004, total CEO compensation averaged $12 million, according to the Institute for Policy Studies.
You Senators and Represenatives make $165,200 per year and average an estimated 1.9 percent yearly cost-of-living increase.
What about minimum wage earners? Minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 an hour since 1997. At $5.15 per hour, a person working full-time will earn just $10,700 annually. Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage is now worth less than one-third of the average wage in the U.S. – its lowest share since 1949, when the minimum wage was worth more than half of the average wage. Research has shown that 7.3 million people would benefit from raising the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour, including 1.8 million parents with children under the age of 18.
Nearly three-quarters of minimum wage workers are over the age of 20 and many can’t afford to buy food. In 2004, 23 million people used food stamps, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from 17 million in 2000.
Every year, the Democrats vote to raise minimum wage, while the Republicans vote to keep it at $5.15.
This week, the Democrats will force a debate and a vote on raising minimum wage to $7.25 an hour over two years. This issue alone could get the working poor to the polls. The majority of the minimum wage earners I met on my six-month road trip didn’t even know that the government has the power to raise their wages. The problem is, the ‘liberal media’ doesn’t care about minimum wage and barely gives it any coverage.
“I challenge every Republican member of Congress who has spoken in favor of a minimum wage increase but who for years has allowed the Republican leadership to block House action to sign on to our petition,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “It is immoral to tell working Americans that they should try to provide for their families’ needs while earning only $5.15 per hour. Democrats respect the value of work, and we have fought for years to try to ensure that the minimum wage keep pace with inflation and is updated periodically. American workers have earned it.”
Let’s hope the Democrats can figure out how to get coverage on this issue.
It’s time to start talking to the working poor and give them a reason to vote.
the minimum wage, while it is unlikely that a token increase will inspire hordes of poor to fall to their knees in gratitude to the politicians, or to be able to afford housing, there is a very good chance that those politicians who do express support for such a generous gesture will receive lavish praise and many checks from their devotees.
The working poor would appreciate being acknowledged. Half of this country doesn’t vote and I’d bet a huge percentage are poor. Are they online reading blogs? Are they following the port deal? Do they think their vote makes a difference?
During the 2004 presidential “debates,” Kerry used the word ‘poverty’ ONCE. The words ‘poor’ and ‘poverty’ aren’t in the current president’s vocabulary.
I know that if your rent were $800 and you had only $200, and I offered you $6.34, you would appredicate the acknowledgement.
You wouldn’t complain that you still couldn’t pay your rent, or chide me because I had not offered you $9.74, or $12.89 in acknowledgement, and you would certainly not have the poor manners to remind me that you still couldn’t pay your rent.
After I had gone out of my way, and don’t think I didn’t take some pretty heavy crap for it either, to acknowledge you.
I know you would be willing to go considerably out of your way to do me any little favor you could, because all you would want is a little acknowledgement.
Sadly, though, perhaps because they have not had your advantages, the poor are simply not like you.
But don’t you fall into the trap and be like them, forgetting the bright side – the politicians don’t need the poor. They just need people who realize that all the poor need is a little acknowledgement. They’ll see those campaign contributions come in.
There are a lot of voters to whom a little acknowledgement of the poor will mean a lot.
nice comment Ductape. Thank you. Also consider the fact that WalMart, and other giant corporations are some of the biggest proponents of a minimum wage increase. Think about it. Is it possible that a forced wage increase will only help the mega companies that can afford it – thus helping them put the small, local competition out of business?
Not too supportive of actions that help out the big boys; that help out companies like WalMart at the expense of individuals and communities.
It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing!
Wal-Mart is a proponent of a minimum wage increase because the wages they pay are already higher than minimum wage. They’re lobbying for an increase because they have nothing to lose and they’ll gain PR points.
“Not too supportive of actions that help out the big boys”
Tell that to motel maids and janitors.
Many small businesses are in favor of minimum wage increases because they feel people will have more money to spend. Minimum wage is $8.82 an hour in SF and small businesses are doing fine.
According to a UC Berkeley study, the city’s minimum wage has not led to layoffs or business failures.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/01/02_livingwage.shtml
A raise in the minimum wage by anything but a large amount would absolutely not result in many immediate layoffs. The effect of a small increase is so minor that it is practically invisible. Only a few people lose their jobs. Prices rise only a little. And the people this effects negatively are politically invisible – workers with minimal skills and the poor. And that’s how the politicians get aways with it. You hurt a few people in order to help a few people, and you make a name for yourself with the folks who think increasing wages and benefits is as easy as passing a law. The trick is to raise the minimum wage by just enough to reap the political benefits without doing any real damage to the economy.
If raising the minimum wage is a good thing, why not set it at $25/hour? The answer, of course, is that then the negative effects become visible. But the fact that this is not done, or even proposed, also implies that those who support increased minimum wage laws know this – that they are aware of the negative effects and are willing to accept them as long as they are invisible to the voting public. The minimum wage is not about egalitarianism, its about power.
storiesinamerica, I’m with you. I don’t care why the minimum wage is raised, it just needs to be raised. This reminds me of how Santorum tried to introduce legislation that would do away with ANY wage for people who work for tips, like restaurant workers. The working poor need this desperately. We just need to make sure that the Republicans don’t raise the requirements for government programs that these people depend upon. That would be a typical Republican move.
I just posted a diary about co-sponsoring Kennedy’s wage bill. I also linked to your diary.
I think that all congresscritters should be paid minimum wage and have Medicare D, as opposed to what they receive now! If it is good enough for a constituent, it is good enough for a congresscritter!