My local paper ran a version of this article on the minimum wage.
Apparently, In only four of the nation's 3,066 counties can someone working full-time and earning federal minimum wage afford to pay rent and utilities on a one-bedroom apartment, an advocacy group on low-income housing reported Monday, notes the Associated Press piece. For those who don't have a calculator handy, the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour is insufficient to pay rent and utilities in 99.87% of America's counties.
The group, National Low Income Housing Coalition, assumes that a family spends no more than 30 percent of its gross income on rent and utilities. The government generally considers anything more to be unaffordable.
It's worth noting that the group did not use a national standard or average for how much rent and utilities cost, but analyzed each market on a case-by-case basis. So the figure reflects different costs in different areas.
Some cities are even going so far as to pass local living wage laws, to raise their local minimum wage above the state or national level, notes The Christian Science Monitor.
"The fact that a known opponent of these ordinances has come out with a credible study showing the net benefits of the policies is a significant boost to the movement," says Jay Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute.
Pro-living-wage forces got a boost from a study released [in March 2002] by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. Done by an early skeptic of the benefit of living-wage laws, the report examined 36 cities with such laws – including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, New Haven, and San Jose. It found that slight job losses caused by the law are more than compensated by the decrease in family poverty.
Jen Kern, executive director of the Living Wage Resource Center for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), observes that many employers predicted the sky would fall when these ordinances were passed but "Now those employers who thought they'd suffer are saying they get higher production from these employees, less turnover, more satisfaction ... and are able to service their clients better."
So higher wages leads to more productivity, a more stable work force, higher employee satisfication and better service to clients. A falling sky?
This is hardly surprising. A worker that can actually pay his or her bills is going to be more focused at work and less likely to look for another job.
Earlier this year, New York state's legislature approved a minimum wage increase to $7.15 an hour (in three increments) by 2007. It was vetoed by Republican Gov. George Pataki. But earlier this month, the Republican state Senate finally joined the Democratic Assembly in overriding the veto.
Gov. Pataki and his big business allies had predicted that the rise would cause jobs to flee the state. I like business. I work for one. I wish there were more good ones in my town. But this threat is repeated every time a minimum wage increase is proposed and every time it's approved, I never hear a giant sucking sound. Why? Because the threat ignores the reality of the modern work force.
Most minimum wage jobs are in the service industry. Fast food, supermarkets, chain superstores. They cater primarily to a local audience who want the convenience of a near-by business. Very few are subject to international or even inter-state competition. Is a McDonald's in Syracuse going to lose tons of business as central New Yorkers flee to Pennsylvania or Vermont just because the Big Macs might be a nickel cheaper?
Even in agriculture, there is a premium for local products because they are often fresher. Especially in New York's prominent diary industry. Do you really want milk imported from Switzerland? Maybe, but most people would just as soon buy something that comes from a regional farm.
The actual reality of a minimum wage increase is not that businesses will flee or shed jobs. It's that you might pay a tad extra for your CD at Wal Mart. A few additional pennies for a U2 album in order for the cashier who rings me up to have heat in upstate New York's brutal winter? I really can't quite work up much outrage about this.
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