Dems to use minimum wage against GOP in 2014

[ProSense]

The Morning Plum: Dems to use minimum wage against GOP in 2014

Posted by Greg Sargent

Yesterday, both sides drew their battle lines in the coming war over the minimum wage. After Obama called for a minimum wage hike in his State of the Union speech, House Republicans dug in against it, casting their opposition as grounded in concern for the plight of low wage workers. John Boehner asked: “Why would we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people?”

But who is really going to believe Republicans oppose a minimum wage hike for this reason?

In an excellent piece, Steven Dennis reports that Democrats are quietly laying plans to use the minimum wage as an issue against Republicans in the 2014 elections. Dennis supplies important context: The last battle to hike the minimum wage provided Democrats with ammunition in their effort to win back Congress, which they ultimately accomplished in 2006. The minimum wage was raised the following year.

It’s too early to say just how precisely Dems will use the issue, in which Senate races it might or might not matter, or how much of a boost it could give to Dem efforts to take back the House. But that history is an important reminder that this is a very potent issue for Democrats. As I’ve been saying here, it goes directly to the GOP’s inability — or unwillingness — to articulate a positive vision for how government can improve people’s lives. Democrats can press Republicans who oppose a minimum wage hike with a simple question: What action by government do you support to improve social mobility and boost the prospects for struggling workers who are falling behind?

Dems are already road testing this message. Yesterday, White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer Tweeted: “If the GOP is opposed to raising the minimum wage, what is their plan to ensure people who work full time don’t live in poverty?”

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/02/14/the-morning-plum-dems-to-use-minimum-wage-against-gop-in-2014/

NELP Praises President Obama’s Call for Raising the Federal Minimum Wage

As the core of the U.S. economy shifts toward low-wage work, raising the minimum wage will help strengthen economic security of country’s lowest-paid workers

Washington, DC – President Obama called for raising the federal minimum wage and indexing it to rise automatically each year with the cost of living during his State of the Union address this evening.

“The president said he was putting jobs and the economy front and center tonight – and that's exactly what he did by calling for a minimum wage increase,” said Christine L. Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project. “President Obama's remarks tonight show he understands that a higher minimum wage is key to getting the economy back on track for working people and the middle class. The President's remarks also cement the growing consensus on the left and right that one of the best ways to get the economy going again is to put money in the pockets of people who work, who will spend it at small businesses in their communities. A minimum wage increase will stimulate consumer demand and help drive economic growth for the people who most need it in America – workers.”

Polling consistently reveals broad public support for raising the minimum wage: A national poll conducted in 2012 found that nearly three in four likely voters (73 percent) support increasing the minimum wage to $10 per hour and indexing it to inflation. The same poll showed 50 percent of Republicans and 74 percent of Independents favoring an increase in the minimum wage.

A record number of business voices have endorsed raising and indexing the federal minimum wage. Nearly 1,000 business leaders, including Costco, U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce CEO Margot Dorfman, Addus Health Care CEO Mark Heaney, Credo Mobile President Michael Kieschnick, ABC Home CEO Paulette Cole, and small business owners from all 50 states, signed a statement supporting the last increase in the federal minimum wage.

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http://nelp.3cdn.net/bc37dd568c6fc526fd_0bm6i6s85.pdf

President Obama throws his support behind increasing the minimum wage

by Doug Hall

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This proposal lays the foundation for an important conversation about increasing the minimum wage, a conversation that has already been joined by many, including our former EPI colleague, Jared Bernstein, our colleagues at the National Employment Law Project, and even Bloomberg News, which posted an article online that recognizes the positive impact such a change would have on the economy.

The erosion of low wages is not news, both in the sense that it’s not a new phenomenon, and it certainly hasn’t been the focus of much media attention. Nor is it news to families that have been struggling for decades to get ahead, only to see their real wages eroded over time. But having the President throw his support behind increasing the minimum wage certainly is an important development.

Raising the minimum wage to $9.00 by 2015 would affect approximately 21 million workers (the White House fact sheet on the minimum wage proposal notes that 15 million workers would directly benefit, the balance – approximately 6 million workers whose wages are currently slightly above $9.00 – would benefit indirectly, as their wages were incrementally increased). We have a pretty good idea who these workers would be, having analyzed the demographic impact of increasing the minimum wage to $9.80 in 2012, as proposed by the Fair Minimum Wage Act. That analysis showed that more than half of those who would be affected are women, more than four in five are 20 years of age or over, more than a quarter are parents, and over a third are married. Moreover, the average affected worker earns about half of his or her family’s total income. While the demographic breakdown for a $9.00 minimum wage would differ slightly, these breakdowns would still be in the right ballpark.

Much of the “buzz” around the President’s minimum wage proposal was around the idea of “tie(ing) the minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a wage you can live on.” While indexing the minimum wage is a great idea – it’s been adopted in ten states, with significant positive results, as my colleague David Cooper notes – it’s important that indexing build on a solid starting point, since you basically get locked into wherever you start. With that in mind, $9.00 is certainly a good place to start the conversation, if not, perhaps, the indexing of the minimum wage. The other important consideration has to do with how the indexing is achieved. My EPI colleague Heidi Shierholz has written persuasively that in order to really “fix it and forget it,” we should be indexing using the average growth in workers’ wages, so minimum wage workers aren’t gradually left behind.

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http://www.epi.org/blog/president-obama-minimum-wage/

Bring it on: Battle over minimum wage is underway
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022367076

Ted Kennedy’s great 2007 minimum wage speech: “When does the greed stop?”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022368902

EPI: Hundreds of Economists Say: Raise the Minimum Wage (2006)
http://www.epi.org/page/-/pdf/epi_minimum_wage_2006.pdf

[yesphan]

1. Smart move, very smart

http://videosift.com/video/Maddow-Democrats-Defend-the-Minimum-Wage

[ProSense]

2. Thanks for the clip. n/t

[Coyotl]

3. Demographics are important here. Who gets the raise? Count the votes.

Women are already voting Blue, but the minimum wage can bring more voters to the polls. Young, first-time voters are very impacted, and this can influencelife-longh voting patterns and party affiliation.

A good statistical analysis would be to review state minimum wage initiatives and the Congressional races in those elections in relation to elections without aminimum wage raise on the ballot.

Another strategy worth pursuing is, IF Congress does not pass the minimum wage, to start initiative drives in the states. That will swing a few elections on turnout alone.

[ProSense]

4. You should watch the clip in the first comment.

Maddow focuses on how Claire McCaskill used the issue to beat down Jim Talent in 2006.

[Coyotl]

5. Exactly, minimum wage initiative get great vote results, like MAGIC!

I filed the very first state minimum wage initiative petition in history, so I know this one in spades! A lot of people followed my idea in other states with great success. I knew this beforehand. AFL-CIO did not get behind my idea because they thought it would cost to much in the general election, and I did not get enough signatures to make the ballot. After they saw the incredible election results in WA state, the state President told me that I was right and they were wrong. My idea was a game changer.