Kucinich: Minimum Wage

[Flabbergasted]

The federal minimum wage is $5.15 and would be over $8.50, had Congress adjusted it for inflation over the past 35 years. (Of course, Congress routinely adjusts its own members' pay for the cost of living.) Over the past six years since the last time Congress "raised" the minimum wage, we've gone from six states to 12 that have established higher minimum wage levels than the federal.

In addition, over 115 cities and counties have passed living wage laws, applying higher wage standards to those working on public contracts or at companies benefiting from public subsidies or, in some cases, to direct government employees.

Local and state governments are in closer touch with popular wisdom on this issue than is Congress. A 2002 poll by Lake Snell Perry & Associates for the Ms. Foundation found that 77% of likely voters surveyed supported raising the minimum wage to $8. And 79% supported regular increases to address the effect of inflation. A 2001 survey for Investor's Business Daily found that 75% of respondents supported raising the minimum wage as a way to stimulate the economy.

Putting decent wages in the hands of those who need the money is a far surer way to boost an economy than giving tax breaks to those with more money than they know what to do with. And the living wage movement of the past decade has added more evidence to the already solid documentation that adjusting the minimum wage upward along with inflation does not cause unemployment.

We must make it a top priority to restore the value of the federal minimum wage, bringing it up to at least its 1968 level and indexing it to automatically keep pace with the cost of living. This will allow workers to quit their second or third jobs and spend more time with their families.

My goal is to combine this with the creation of a truly universal single-payer health care system, universal free preschool, free college tuition at state colleges and universities, a public jobs program to restore our infrastructure, and withdrawal from NAFTA and the WTO in favor of bilateral trade pacts that protect workers' rights here and abroad. This will transform the lives of working people, and without the efforts of working people who have made the living wage an issue, this would not be possible.

http://kucinich.us/issues/minimum_wage.php

[Selatius]

1. One thing that irked me when the Dems passed the min. wage bill was that it wasn't...

indexed to the rate of inflation. If this was done decades ago, this would not be an issue today, but it is. I can't help but think the Dem leadership didn't index it to inflation in order to use it as a political football every several years when inflation makes it an issue once again, and the thought of that really makes me angry because a worker's wage should never be a political football of anybody in power.

[Flabbergasted]

2. And actually our entire economy would be better off from bottom to near elite.

[Warpy]

3. They've been lying about inflation, too

If you want to talk real purchasing power, the minimum wage would need to be doubled just to bring it up to 1967 levels.

[Flabbergasted]

4. Some do describe the 70's as the height of the middle class.

[Mrspeeker]

5. So the 00's would be described as the end of the middle class.

mark it on your time-lines!

[Flabbergasted]

6. We are close and its all our fault

sarcasm.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. The 90s were the end of the middle class.

That's when it happened to me and unemployment was a way of life.
It still is.