David Sirota: Why Does Scott Walker Think $7.25 Is a Living Wage?

[marmar]

from In These Times:


Why Does Scott Walker Think $7.25 Is a Living Wage?
BY DAVID SIROTA


Under pressure to raise his state's minimum wage, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker confidently declared that there was no need to do so. Low-wage workers had filed a complaint charging that the state's minimum wage -- $7.25 -- did not constitute a "living wage" as mandated by state law. But the Republican governor's administration, after examining the issue, announced earlier this month that it found "no reasonable cause" for the complaint.

That official government finding was supposed to come from a dispassionate investigation. Yet, documents reveal that it was largely based on information provided by the state's restaurant lobby, which represents major low-wage employers including fast-food companies.

Indeed, the Raise Wisconsin campaign, which is pushing for a higher minimum wage, requested all documents on which the state based the "living wage" ruling. And the only economic study that the administration released in response was an anti-minimum-wage analysis from the Wisconsin Restaurant Association -- a group that lobbies against minimum wage increases.

Of course, there are plenty of ways to see that the minimum wage is not a living wage. For instance, there is data showing that nearly half of all restaurant workers live at or near the poverty level. Alternately, some low-wage employers have acknowledged that people who work for them can scarcely make ends meet. Last year, McDonald's corporate documents effectively admitted that its low-wage jobs do not provide enough income on which to survive. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17305/is_the_minimum_wage_really_a_living_wage

[Historic NY]

1. Because Snotty never worked a day in his life.

[riversedge]

2. well he has worked-Vast majority of time on the public dime!

[VanillaRhapsody]

3. because he never tried to live on it....

[hfojvt]

8. Once upon a time

a factory opened in Eau Claire, Wisconsin with hundreds of new jobs - jobs that paid $6 an hour. Of course, at the time, the minimum wage was only $4.25 an hour, and I was making $5.4 an hour at the satellite dish factory. The Republican Governor was bragging about the new jobs and some were complaining that the jobs only paid $6 an hour.

The Governor fired back "What's wrong with $6 an hour?"

The Governor made about $95,000 a year and got a free house.

My thinking was that somebody in the legislature should have proposed making the Governor's salary $6 an hour, and then he could have found out for himself "What's wrong with $6 an hour?"

Of course, even after Clinton pushed through an increase of the minimum wage to $5.15 an hour in 1997, that was only $7.64 in today's money. And by 2006, the minimum wage had not been raised again. By which time it had fallen to $6.08 an hour in today's money.

When it went up to $7.25 an hour in 2009, that was $8.04 an hour in today's money.

[VanillaRhapsody]

10. no idea what you are trying to say with this story

[hfojvt]

11. it's like Calvin said

"It's sad to think that all of my childhood experiences will one day become boring stories with no point."

I thought you might enjoy the part about "Make the Governor's pay $6 an hour" or "Make the Governor's pay minimum wage".

Although I included some historical perspective. The fact is that the minimum wage is no less of a living wage than it has been for the last twenty years. The minimum wage in 2011 was higher than it was at any point since 1984.

Wisconsin state legislators also make about $25 an hour, plus $88 per day in Madison.

[nashville_brook]

4. k and r

[handmade34]

5. anyone

working a regular 40 hour work week... must make enough money to live on! $1000 (+or-) per month... not even close...

[Cleita]

6. He's never been forced to live on it.

We need a new rule. All legislators working on laws involving wages and Social Security must live under the proposed law for three months before they can pass the law. In Walker's case, let him live under the present law for three months and see if it's adequate.

[JEB]

7. Fuck Scott Walker.

What does he think? Whatever his owners tell him to think.

[hobbit709]

9. Because he's clueless for starters and his qualities go downhill from there.

[Initech]

12. Because the Republicans don't give a shit about income inequality.

Yet they love chasing invisible boogeymen like Obamacare, Benghazi, and voter fraud in the same way that Wiley Coyote chases the Road Runner. What's the definition of insanity again?

[MineralMan]

13. Because his gardener works for that and is still alive.

Ergo, it's a living wage. Something like that, I suppose.

[QED]

14. Because ALEC and the Koch Brothers told him to think that.

He obeys his masters like the well-trained lap dog he is.

[xchrom]

15. du rec.