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The WMail Newsletter Essays
Volume V - Issue #46: September 2004
That was then. So: How come the U.S. minimum wage today in America is $5.15 and it costs $10-$11 to see a movie?
The obvious, general answer is, of course, that the Oligarchy {see WMail Issue #42} wants it that way.
The Oligarchy wants it that way because U.S. workers sentenced to poverty and indentured servitude cannot afford to take time off to unionize or to 'vote the bastards out'; because workers having two jobs (or three part-time jobs) are too tired to protest having no benefits; because traveling to work on growling buses prevents family life and increases the difficulty in getting an education; because the lack of family 'quality time' delivers yet another incompetent generation, one without the courage to refuse work that is illegal, dangerous, and-or underpaid.
The continuing increase of shipping business at the Ports of Los Angeles [San Pedro] and Long Beach has finally forced the nepotistic I.L.W.U. longshoreman's union to open up 3000 temporary positions – for which they received a half-million application forms from all over the U.S., a symptom of the failure of Bush administration policies to create jobs (or even to stem the loss of jobs).
Note also that the shipping increase at all U.S. ports is mostly IN-bound goods, a symptom of our ever-expanding trade imbalance. The U.S. manufactures far less than before and we continue to import more goods than we export – partially because the jobs transferred offshore pay wages at pennies on the dollar compared to U.S. workers, so that customer service employees in India who replaced U.S. workers cannot afford to buy U.S. products.
Per a recent report from an on-going White House study, nearly two-thirds of married mothers with children under six are working. [2002 data]
"Half the working poor [in America] are working mothers. It is time to be ashamed."
— David K. Shipler [quoted in WMail Issue #43]
The U.S. Department of Labor in April published regulatory changes to take effect August 23rd, the result of which is to strip away overtime pay for over 6 million workers. The original proposal would have affected 8 million workers, but widespread public opposition forced a reduction in the final effect.
The regulation change alters overtime criteria to any work done beyond an 80-hour two-week pay period, effectively eliminating daily overtime pay (beyond 8 hours per workday), except in such states as California that have legislated overriding laws. (One of Gray Davis's first projects upon being elected Governor of California was to restore daily overtime pay – in effect January 2000 – which had been eliminated by his Republican predecessor Pete Wilson.)
The U.S. House Representatives, however, lodged a rare non-partisan protest by a 223 to 193 vote on September 9th blocking the regulation change. Dubya may still veto that bill (though probably not before the election).
In June 2004, candidate John Kerry announced his plan to raise the federal minimum wage from its present $5.15 per hour to $7.00 per hour by 2007.
Adjusted for inflation, today's federal minimum wage has shrunk to its lowest level since 1949. Or as Howard Dean said in 2003: "Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage has decreased 38% since 1968."
A year's pay at minimum wage is $10,712 – before taxes.
The U.S. Census Bureau definition of poverty for a family of four is income of $18,810 per year or less – which is $9 an hour. All of 36 million Americans – twelve-plus percent of the population – live in poverty today [almost exactly the population of California!] and 13 million of them are children. ['No Child Left Behind' starts when exactly?]
In California, 4.6 million people were living in poverty in 2003, which is 13.4% of the state. Children living in poverty in California amount to 1.7 million, which is 18.6%, a full percentage point higher than the national average.
Other useful Census Bureau 'poverty thresholds' are: single, under 65 years of age: $9,573 [just $1,139 under minimum wage]; for two people under 65 with no kids, the figure is $12,321 – so minimum wage is below the poverty line for a couple on one salary!.
Two full-time jobs at minimum wage [at $21,424 before taxes] barely keeps a family of four above the poverty line – the official term is 'subsistence living'.
Twenty percent of the people of Mexico live in 'extreme poverty', which is defined as living on less than one dollar a day. [statistic from 2002 study]
"[Americans] work more hours than workers in any other industrialized country except South Korea."
— Program on WorkLife Law at American University Washington College of Law
The California Legislature has challenged Gov. Arnold by passing a pile of laws and putting them on his desk for signature [or not]. Among them is Assembly Bill 2832 which increases the state minimum wage from the present $6.75 per hour by fifty cents on 1 January 2005, and again to $7.75 per hour on 1 January 2006.
Big problem for Arnold: He must either sign this bill and offend the business interests who assume that he is bought-and-paid-for =OR= veto the bill, which will offend millions of hard-working voters. [Arnold must run for re-election in 2006.]
News item 18 September: Arnold vetoed the bill.
Other retail chains have learned well from Wal-Mart's example: I discovered recently that all new-hires at the Office Depot store chain are part-time, scheduled for either three days per week for 8 hours =OR= 5 days per week for 6 hours, and so have no benefits whatsoever. (California law requires standard benefits for employees who work over 30 hours per week on a regular basis.)
The recently announced Forbes 400 Richest Americans list shows a combined net rise in worth of $45 billion, which is a mere $112,500,000 per person. Did you get a raise this year?
With such an increased minimum wage at McDonald's, prices need not go up: Joan Kroc's recent death revealed the billions of dollars that she gave in charity in her will. Well, duh: pay a Living Wage to employees and fast-food workers would not need handouts from charity. With a Living Wage, full-time workers at Wal-Mart would not qualify for welfare – nor would they need to.
With such a Living Wage, parents could spend time with their children & families, they could save up for a car, they could move out of the over-priced one-bedroom tenement apartment (owned by the Oligarchy), and even think about sending one or more kids to college, to bootstrap the family out of poverty or 'subsistence living', and up from Working Poor to Working Class and even to the Middle Class.
With such a Living Wage, the economy would perk up in every nook and cranny, as workers bought the products that they made or managed or sold, as they moved from K-Mart to J.C. Penney to Macy's and beyond, as they allowed themselves time off to vacation across America, spending time out-of-doors on weekends, or taking {ohmigod!) enrichment courses not designed to enhance survival.
With such a Living Wage, neighbor could meet neighbor, and workers would have time to unify around non-wage matters – workplace safety, ethical business practices, a clean environment, schools that educate, crime prevention. Families could give time to the old and the lonely, maybe reinstitute the nuclear family.
These are matters that workers who live in abject fear for survival cannot see as their right. The Oligarchy wants it that way.
Survival looks like your harried and fearful life.
The Working Mind game is to stand up, to stand in the face of the Culture-Structure.
The Revolution exists when you say "No! No more of this grovelling!"
And our next chance is in November – thus the topic of next month's WMail is 'Dumping Dubya'.
David K. Shipler is author of "The Working Poor" [Knopf 2004]
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375408908/
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