Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy (D-MA) has served in the United States Senate for over four decades and one of the main subjects to caused him endless heartburn in the last few years has been the battle he has fought to get a minimum wage increase for America's low-income families.
Kennedy, who will undoubtedly chair the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee when the new Congress convenes in January, got bills to raise the federal minimum wage to the Senate floor three times in the last two years, only to see all of those killed by Republicans on almost straight party-line votes.
"I believe that anyone who works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year should not live in poverty in the richest country in the world," Kennedy said, in arguing for one of his defeated bills in 2005.
And Kennedy, who has long been the Senate's champion of worker rights, made a vow when the minimum wage increase was shot down in the current Congress for a third time in June of 2006, that voters could expect a different result if they retuned the Senate to Democratic control in November.
"When the Democrats control the Senate, one of the first pieces of legislation we'll see is an increase in the minimum wage," said Kennedy.
And that's about to come true in January.
With Democrats entering the 110th Congress with a 51-49 majority in the Senate, many issues will compete for a priority place on the agenda, including investigating the conduct of the Iraq war and implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations.
But when you listen to every Democrat from Kennedy, to presumptive Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to Senator-elect Sherrod Brown (D-OH), there's no doubt that the Democrats' longstanding desire to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 will be front and center.
"Today is the first day of a new direction for America," said Kennedy last week, when the election results became clear. "It's also the first day in many years that we can start putting the interests of working men and women ahead of special interests."
Kennedy also referred to the fact that six states enacted minimum wage increases in last week's elections, saying "Washington wouldn't act on raising the minimum wage, so America did - and now the new Congress will."
"Millions of Americans spoke out loud and clear that no one who works for a living should have to live in poverty," said Kennedy of the new state laws. "They stood up for fairness, and renewed the America's commitment to the common good that fell victim too often over the last several years to the politics of fear and division."
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have already expressed strong support for Kennedy's plan -- which will raise the wage over a two-year period -- and have committed to an immediate vote in the new Congress.
Among full-time, year-round workers, poverty has increased by 50 percent since the late 1970s. The minimum wage, which Republicans have fought to keep at $5.15 per hour, has remained the same for almost a decade, while the number of Americans in poverty has increased by 5.4 million since George W. Bush took office.
According to Kennedy, increasing the minimum wage will help more than 7.3 million children whose parents would receive a raise.
And the Senate's "Liberal Lion" will finally get to push through a victory for low-income Americans knowing that, as of the new Congress, the Republican party simply does not have the votes to continue working against them.
Said Kennedy last week: "When Congress reconvenes under the new Democratic Leadership, working men and women will get a raise, and America will finally move forward again."
http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com
Bob Geiger is a writer, activist and Democratic operative in Westchester County, NY.
I work with families at risk of homelessness and have seen the minimum wage dilemma first hand. What incentive does a single mother with three kids who receives no child support have to get off welfare and take a job for $5.15 an hour? She will make the same amount of money but in leaving welfare will lose both her health benefits and her child care subsidy. When she does eventually get booted off TANF, the party in power gets to say they've reduced the welfare rolls (both have had a turn at patting themselves on the back). In turn, CVS, Rite Aid, WalMart, McDonalds, etc. are provided a ready and waiting pool of unskilled labor that gets funneled right into those jobs with the worst pay and absolutely no potential for growth or advancement.
Corporations win, poor people lose, politicians high five each other. It's really awesome.
It's bad when you have to counsel a client to stay on welfare because that's her best possible option.
by
Jeff Deeney (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 7 comments)
on Monday, November 13, 2006 at 3:15:41 PM
As someone who has felt the sting of poverty a lot in the past few years, I think we need a bit more than a raising of the minimum wage. We need real jobs to come back to our shores as well.
I'm not saying don't increase the minimum wage. I'd never say that. I am saying it's time to scrap NAFTA, CAFTA, and the rest of the so-called "free trade agreements" that have sent so many good jobs for Americans overseas. Further, we have to end tax credits for companies that have outsourced employment in America.
We need to put America back to work. Raising the minimum wage is a good thing, but it's not going to fix the situations of others, especially people like myself who have some sort of college degree. We need to bring the good jobs back home.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 2:52:41 AM
Definitely a major problem at every level and no end in sight.
Until something's done to assure US industry and manufacturing returns here a minimum wage increase will only give it further incentives to go abroad.
I agree with Pappy.... the jobs just aren't out there... I've experienced the same job phenomenon he describes, night clerking in a motel for minimum wage, any job, pretend no degree exists out of fear they won't hire you because of it.
Living on the minimum wage is roughly the same as living on Social Security. It's a tough gig. But raising that minimum wage, while it will help those living on it, won't begin to solve the problem and will probably exacerbate it.
The 'wealthiest nation on earth' doesn't have any jobs left. It sent them all to countries where there's no minimum wage.
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Jack Purcell (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 102 comments)
on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 7:33:24 AM
I was always wondering if maybe the politicos smartly distract the public from the real issue that is not the minimum wage but 'honest work for honest pay'. The actual wages are screwed. Nobody knows exactly and there is no guideline on how much the job really is worth. And outsourcing puts a huge damping force on any raise and not only on that- it does not allow to evaluate the fairness of the wages. Market? But if the employer can use outsourcing and you cannot outsource your own job than the market is screwed, right? What if you come to employer and ask for $30000/year and then when getting a job you outsource it through a slave- trader for $5000/year in India, do nothing and also get commmissions? That would be a deal, right? Min. wage becomes an illusion because there is no way in Hell to survive on it and both sides know that. The issue is not a min. wage but actually a MAXIMUM one. How big can a compensation be? For which job?
Free labor market is obly really free when the niches are under the fair competition. Now, if it is not so, why then we are charged full price for services rendered? They say they charge us low? But we never can check that.
So, what I am coming to is that the min. wage politics is what it is- politics. Both sides of the aisle know that. Of course, people have no voice in that or they should maybe remind our lawamkers that Founding Fathers served in Congress for free. Honest work it was. And honest pay.
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Mark Sashine (54 articles, 19 quicklinks, 252 diaries, 3605 comments)
on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 1:28:18 PM
raising the minimum wage could be a bad thing as well. There is evidence to prove that raising the minimum wage tends to feed inflation. Because more people supposedly now have more money, goods and services can be priced higher in response to this. It has happened before, and it will most likely happen again. The only question will be how high this inflation will go.
There is also evidence that raising the minimum wage can make certain companies let people go. Given the present propensity to ship jobs overseas, what's to prevent certain companies from shipping even more jobs off shore? Not much.
While it is true that employers like McDonalds, Taco Bell, Wally World, and others can't really ship their jobs overseas, it is just as true they can cut the number of employees that work for them. We have seen that hours worked have gone up, number of workers has gone down, and compensation has gone down as well in the last ten years or so as a result of so-called corporate downsizing. Given the fact that an increase in the minimum wage is going to cut into that bottom line BIG TIME, there really is nothing preventing companies from dropping people.
Remember, companies are in business for that bottom line kind of feeling. If it gets threatened, they'll drop the bomb on anyone they can.
So while there are good arguments for raising the minimum wage, and in the long run, it will be of benefit, it is not the be-all and end-all answer to America's employment woes.
We need to bring good jobs back. I just hope someone in the new iteration of congress figures that one out before it's too late.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 2:33:26 AM
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