Liveable wages in an economy that needs to change

[geiger]

I am re-posting my response to any earlier post by Schmajo about "Boehner's minimum wage proposal," initiated by BillORights Man. The reason I am doing this is because I am tired of Democrats being pulled into arguments on Republican turf, and I would like to re-frame the discussion a bit. So, if you have already read this, please kindly respond or skip. Schmajo's comments to me are itemized 1, 2, 3, etc.; my responses are indicated by 'RESPONSE.' I am not working for any particular candidate in Ohio; I am just concerned about issues to get us elected as Democrats.

1. There is, always will be, some portion of the work force that has to work for minimum wage. The same forces that hold down wages overall (globalization, illegal foreign workers, union-busting, etc.) operate to assure that some workers always will be on the lowest rung of the ladder.

RESPONSE: a--neither Party had the courage, very recently, to deal with the issue of "illegal" immigration, although they put on quite a phony fanfair; b--union busting is illegal, also, but the real force at work is the exporting of jobs, which noone is or probably can stop, thus we need to find new products, services, energies....; c--the biggie, globalization: this Country, our Country, continues to ignore international law, international agreements, international protocols, unless it suits the political agenda du jour, thus we have no credibility when it comes to telling/advising/trying to strong-arm "less enlightened" countries on such issues as civil rights, human dignity and fair wages.


2. The 'free-market' beliefs that oppose minimum wage legislation also apply to employment discrimination laws, employee health and safety regulation, and even child labor laws. Should we ditch these worker protection provisions as well? Would business voluntarily abide by these restrictions?

RESPONSE: a--(discrimination)Much of the work force is already exempt (e.g., businesses with less than a certain amount of workers, Members of Congress), and the business people I know have enough enlightened self-interest to behave in terms of not discriminating as it applies to civil rights (at the very least, diversity in your work crew is a good thing when you are trying to relate to multiple constituencies/markets);b--(safety) the Bureau of Workers Comp basically forces safety provisions because if you want workers comp, which is required by law, you have to "play ball," about safety compliance by both employer and employee now; d--(child labor)as Hillary Clinton would put it, our "young people" today have no work ethic (put aside the notion of children working, except on the internet, but that's a different topic).

But, of course, I am not saying we ditch our commitment to any of these civil rights protections in our own country or any other for that matter

3. Yes, the state constitution is not the best place to codify minimum wage laws. However, under the current circumstances (Republican/business domination of Ohio government), it is the one viable way effectively to pursue this issue.

RESPONSE: I say, don't try to legislate the way people conduct their private business, ESP. when the laws won't apply to them anyway (how much of Ohio business is small employers anyway? does anyone have the statistics on this--I know it's the overwhelming majority, and the law wont apply to them anyway). You just piss them off. We need to be looking for ways to making it easier for businesses to survive. There are so many expenses and market forces beyond any one business' control; just filling out tax forms every month is onerous. There's even a private initiative out there right now, JUMP START, to help encourage economic development in northeast Ohio, but it's for businesses that can generate at least a million dollars a year in revenue. I think we need to be encouraging the mom and pop bread and bacon businesses in a tangible way. It's very hard, to stay in business, with such market volatility.

4. Having it on the ballot will help get the 'right' people to the polls in November.

RESPONSE: I know there are some people out there espewing this logic, but even our very pro-Labor senatorial candidate Sherrod Brown has conceded that he's not sure if it will help or hurt. I think if, on the ballot, it will boomerang, as did all prescriptive initiatives in the last Ohio election. In the last election, for example, the galvanized right couldn't even hold back stem cell research (Issue 1), but they did squash the stuff that had to do with telling them someone else was going to decide how they should think.

5. Raising the minimum wage will put positive pressure -- to some extent -- on business to raise the wages of others.

RESPONSE: then we need to publish the data and provide the talking points to make the case, at every level possible. I haven't seen it