The Minimum Wage: Time to Start Working on the Next Increase
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This is a cross-post from Jared Bernstein’s blog, On the Economy. Bernstein is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) and, from 2009 to 2011, was the chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.
I’ve always thought the national minimum wage is a lot more important than most people tend to think. By definition, it sets a floor on the low end of the job market, though to their credit, many states now set their minimums above the federal level of $7.25 (Washington State clocks in at a cool $9.04). So it’s a floor, not a ceiling.
Lots of low-wage workers and their families depend on it, and its long slide, as shown in the accompanying chart, especially over the Reagan years, contributed to wage losses and working poverty for many who toil to this day in low-end services.
Of course, when someone raises the idea of a raise, you hear a huge outcry from some in the business lobby. Their generic argument is that the increase will lead to job losses among those low-wage workers affected by the higher wage level. Such workers, they say, will now be “priced out of the labor market.”
Yet, you hear the opposite from groups that represent low-wage workers’ interests, groups like the National Employment Law Project, or NELP (proud disclosure: I’m on their board). Read the rest of this entry »
State Dept. Cracks Down on Abuse of Foreign Students by Hershey and Others
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In response to protests by foreign students exploited in a factory subcontracted by the Hershey Company and advocacy by the AFL-CIO and our allies, this week the U.S. State Department announced that it will make major revisions to a guest-worker and cultural exchange visa program and barred participation by a major player in the program, the Council for Educational Travel, USA (CETUSA).
Harika Duygu Ozer, one of the students involved in the protest, told the New York Times:
I hope this sends a clear message to other recruiters like CETUSA, that we will not be your captive workers.
As we reported last summer, students recruited for a cultural exchange program found themselves instead all but indentured to a factory in Palmyra, Penn., where they were made to perform dangerous work loading Hershey products with no safety protection for less than the minimum wage. In addition, the students stayed in housing provided by the Hershey contractor, for which it overcharged. Rents were deducted from the students’ pay. Read the rest of this entry »
Tell Labor Department to Adopt Home Care Worker Rule
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In December, the Obama administration proposed a new rule to bring the nation’s nearly 2 million home care workers under the protection of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) minimum wage, overtime and other provisions.
But opponents who want to continue to deny these rights to home care workers are mounting a campaign to derail the proposed rule. With the public comment period now open, they are flooding the Department of Labor with negative comments and a barrage of lies, and their congressional friends are backing a bill (H.R. 3066) that attacks the proposed rule.
You can help these hardworking home care workers by clicking here to tell the Department of Labor to adopt the new FLSA rule for home care workers and here to send a message to your lawmakers urging them to oppose the bill.
Home care workers provide back-breaking personal care assistance to many older adults and individuals with disabilities. When President Obama announced the proposed rule, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee said: Read the rest of this entry »
Migrants’ Trade Union in South Korea Grows, Gains International Support
Migrant workers face tremendous pressure and exploitation in dynamic and wealthy South Korea, reports the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center’s Timothy Ryan.
In one of the richest and the most Internet-wired countries in the world, you might assume that workers’ and migrants’ rights are respected. You’d be wrong.
Between 200,000 and 700,000 migrants, a large number of them undocumented, work in South Korea. They represent several Asian countries, including Vietnam—home to the largest number of migrants to South Korea—as well as the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Nepal. They work in manufacturing, construction, fisheries and the service industry (e.g. hotel and domestic workers).
One important issue is that ethnic Korean-Chinese, who come to South Korea through a separate visa process, are given relatively preferential treatment because of their ethnic background. This lays the groundwork for inherent discrimination against workers from all the other countries, including in terms of wages. Many employers discriminate against migrants by refusing to pay them the minimum wage or forcing them to work up to 20 hours a day to get overtime pay.
Another issue is that South Korea is rather unique because companies do not use private recruiters to attract migrant workers. Instead, the government brings in migrant workers through memoranda of understanding with sending countries.
But South Korean unions, in concert and support with their brothers and sisters in the Nepali labor movement, are fighting back and making progress. Read the rest of this entry »
Report: Wage Theft Reaches Deep into the Low-Wage Economy
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A new report shows how wage theft reaches deep into the low-wage economy.
“The Movement to End Wage Theft” illustrates the problem with the stories of workers employed by a grocery chain, a temp agency, a construction company and other incorporated businesses. These workers’ wages were stolen by their employers who failed to pay the minimum wage or overtime, or refused to abide by work-break and safety rules.
Findings from a 2009 study cited by the study’s author, Nik Theodore of the University of Illinois at Chicago, concluded that 26 percent of low-wage workers in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles were paid less than the legal minimum wage, and 76 percent of workers who worked overtime were not paid the legally required overtime rate.
Here’s one account from the report (available here in PDF format):
For six years Modesta has worked as a cashier in a retail store in Brooklyn, New York. When she started at the job she was paid $5 an hour. She worked 60 hours, 6 days a week, but received no overtime pay. Last year she was given a “raise” and now earns $6.60 an hour—still well below the state minimum wage. Most of her co-workers are paid even less, but she says her employer has been able to continue this practice because the workers are too scared to complain.
Shout Out to Public Workers in Presidential Proclamation
Some good stuff in the Presidential Proclamation on Labor Day issued by President Obama today.
The right to organize and collectively bargain is a fundamental American value. Since its beginnings in our country, organized labor has raised our living standards and built our middle class. It is the reason we have a minimum wage, weekends away from work to rest and spend time with family, and basic protections in our workplaces….The principles upheld by the honorable laborers of generations past and their unions continue to fuel the growth of our economy and a strong middle class.
And more:
This year has seen a vigorous fight to protect these rights and values, and on this Labor Day, we reaffirm that collective bargaining is a cornerstone of the American dream. From public employees — including teachers, firefighters, police, and others who perform public services — to workers in private industries, these men and women hold the power of our Nation in their hands.
Read the full proclamation here.
And check out a Labor Day video message from Labor Secretary Hilda Solis here.
Even in Hard Times, Boosting Minimum Wage Makes Sense
A handful of states this year have introduced bills to raise their minimum wage. That’s generated the usual cries from business groups and the regular gang of lawmakers who fight darn near every piece of pro-worker legislation that comes along.
OMG! Raising the minimum wage in the middle of an economic crisis with more than 9 percent unemployment will kill jobs. Disaster!
Well, as usual they are wrong. Raising the minimum wage not only won’t cause job loss, but it’s good for the economy, say David Madland and Nick Bunker at the American Worker Project. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour but states can and do establish higher rates.
Maine Rolls Back Child Labor Laws. 1 Down, 1 to Go in ‘Right to Work’ Fight
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R)—the same LePage who was so incensed about a labor history mural that included a depiction of the fight for strong child labor laws that he ordered it taken down—signed a bill yesterday that weakens Maine’s child labor laws.
The bill allows business owners to work teenagers longer hours each day and later into the night. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds can now work six hours a day and until 10:15 p.m. on school nights. But counting weekends and short school weeks, employers could have teenage workers on the clock for as many as 50 hours a week.
The Maine Restaurant Association, Maine Innkeepers Association and other business groups backed the child labor law rollback. Says Rep. Timothy Driscoll (D):
I think this bill should be more rightly titled an act to exploit our children for the financial benefit of the restaurant and the hospitality industry.
Workers Come Out Strong At End of Missouri Legislative Session
Missouri AFL-CIO President Hugh McVey and Secretary-Treasurer Herb Johnson wrap up the outcome of the state’s legislative session.
The first session of the 95th General Assembly of Missouri ended at 6 p.m., May 13. The session began with the emotional fervor of the majority Republican party proclaiming great changes they would make in the state during the upcoming legislative session.
Among those issues were those that were political in nature, bills that would produce no employment and create no economic gains for our state. Those bills were simply meant to reduce the capacity of labor unions to advocate for our members and so reduce the participation of working people in the political process in our state. Read the rest of this entry »
S.F. Activists Launch Anti-Wage Theft Campaign
San Francisco workers yesterday kicked off a new citywide campaign to combat wage theft and rallied to mobilize support for a proposed new anti-wage theft law.
Wage theft is a $30 billion a year problem nationally and in the Bay Area, workers in the restaurant, construction, caregiving, manufacturing industries are victims. Tiffany Crain, from the activist group Young Workers United (YWU), says:
It comes in the form of not being paid overtime, not receiving breaks, not being paid at all in some instances, and many other things that are unlawful, work off the clock, they’re told to clock out and told to do other duties and not paid for it.
In 2010, a report released by the Chinese Progressive Association revealed that 1 out of 2 workers in Chinatown restaurants are paid below the minimum wage. In 2010, the Progressive Workers Alliance helped Bay Area workers recover nearly $500,000 in stolen wages due to wage theft through legal claims, lawsuits, employer negotiations and community campaigns.
