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By Isaiah J. Poole -- Executive editor of the blog site OurFuture.org

It is time – in fact, it is past time – to demand that Congress act to increase the minimum wage. This week, the effort to get Congress to act is accelerating.

As of late Wednesday, more than 15,000 people have signed a SignOn.org petition posted by the Campaign for America’s Future. The goal is to have several hundred thousand people calling for “the leaders of the House and Senate to allow an up-or-down vote on the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and then index it to inflation.” (Sign the petition here.)

Also Wednesday, the House sponsor of the bill, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., announced the formation of a group of restaurant owners pledged to be advocates for a minimum wage increase, as a counterweight to the National Restaurant Association, one of the leaders of the minimum-wage-increase opposition.

The Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment organization promises “to support small and medium-sized business owners as they move towards the ‘High Road’ to profitability by raising the standards by which we do business.”

The Fair Minimum Wage Act would increase the current federal minimum wage, $7.25, to $10.10 in three steps over a three-year period, and then index it annually to inflation from that point forward.

The bill would make an even more significant difference for tipped workers, mostly in the restaurant industry. They currently have a minimum wage of $2.13 an hour that has not increased since 1991. Under the bill, tipped workers would earn a minimum 70 percent of the regular minimum wage.

In addition to Miller’s bill in the House, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has a companion bill in the Senate.

House members have in fact had one opportunity to vote on the bill in March, in the form of a motion instructing the House to add the minimum wage increase to a workforce training bill. The motion was unanimously rejected by House Republicans. (more…)

By Mike Hall
AFL-CIO Senior Writer

With the federal minimum wage stuck at $7.25 an hour and an increase facing stiff opposition from congressional Republicans, coalitions of union, community, faith and other groups are mobilizing to win increases in state and local minimum wage levels. Here’s a look at some recent wins and campaigns where AFL-CIO state federations and central labor councils are playing big roles.

In late March, the New York state legislature approved a measure increasing the state minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour over three years. New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento says:

Raising the minimum wage will make a real difference in the lives of workers, many of whom are adults working full-time, and many of whom have families to support.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, raising New York’s minimum wage to $9.00 per hour will benefit more than 1.5 million New York workers—more than one in five workers in New York. The Fiscal Policy Institute estimates that increasing New York’s minimum wage to $9.00 per hour will generate more than $1.1 billion in new economic activity, supporting the creation of 10,200 new full-time jobs as businesses expand to meet increased consumer demand.

San Jose, Calif., recently increased its minimum wage to $10 an hour after a campaign that united the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and San Jose Downtown Association in winning a ballot measure to boost the city’s minimum wage. (more…)

By Dave Johnson
Fellow, Campaign for America's Future

The Walton (Walmart) heirs now have as much wealth as up to 40 percent of all Americans combined, and Walmart’s sales have been slowing down. What does the first fact have to do with the second? (Hint: Sign this petition for raising the minimum wage.)

The top 1 percent now rakes in 20 percent of the nation’s income and holds one-third of the country’s wealth. Meanwhile the economy remains stagnant because the incomes of regular people are stagnant and falling – meaning they can’t buy stuff and can’t invest in their own futures.

From the post “40% Of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage”:

The chart shows that wages used to go up as productivity went up, but in the 1970s they decoupled. Productivity kept going up but wages stagnated.

Regular people’s incomes have been stagnant since the 70′s while costs keep going up. In fact, 40 percent Of Americans now make less than the 1968 minimum wage if that minimum wage had kept rising along with productivity. If the minimum wage had stayed coupled to productivity the minimum wage would now be $16.50 an hour – which more than 40 percent of Americans now make!

Instead all of those people’s possible additional income went to the top. And that plus changes in taxation is why we have the inequality we have. That is what happened to our economy and to all of us.

Now, here’s another chart. This chart shows that financial-sector and non-financial-sector compensation used to rise together, but in the late 70′s / early 80′s they decoupled. Financial-sector compensation took off, while non-financial-sector compensation did not.

It is as simple as this: If we want our economy and democracy to recover, the minimum wage needs to be raised as a core part of the solution. (But only part.)

Sign this petition calling for “the leaders of the House and Senate to allow an up-or-down vote on the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and then index it to inflation.” While $10.10 is too low, it’s a start, and it is what is before the Congress. There are other essential things we need to do, but we need to raise the minimum wage to set a floor that is not falling out from under us. (more…)

Benjamin Todd Jealous
President and CEO, NAACP

Dr. King was in Memphis as part of his Poor People’s Campaign. He spoke to striking sanitation workers who, like the fast-food workers in New York City today, said, “We can’t do it; we can’t give our children access to the great dream of this nation while being so disrespected and so poorly paid.’

As we have moved from a post-industrial economy to a service economy, it is increasingly clear that the only way to rebuild the middle class is to do what we did in the past: organize and build the strength of the labor movement.

When I was a young organizer on those same Harlem streets 20 years ago, making $10 per hour, I thought I had it hard. The notion that in 2013 parents should be forced to raise families on $7.25 is simply outrageous.

Sadly, we are approaching the day when half the workers in this country will be making minimum wage. For the first time, the U.S. economy has shifted in the direction of a part-time, low-wage workforce. This explosion of low-wage jobs is widening the already-large gap between the rich and the working poor, making it harder for Americans to move up the economic ladder. (more…)

As the U.S. Commerce Department released a report late last month showing corporate profits at a 60-year high, suddenly the big news was about how cheating surely must be rampant in social security disability.

Wait, what?

Also late last month, a Washington Post investigation showed that the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones industrial average pay a dramatically smaller portion of their profits in taxes than they did a half century ago. Instead of discussing how that impacts government services, all of Washington is talking about slashing Social Security and Medicare.

It’s bait and switch.

CEOs and 1 percenters have elevated that old con to a whole new level. To them, bait is not a lure to a store but a taunt about the poor. “Look over there, a welfare queen!” they goad. “Look, someone not-quite-dirt-poor might get Medicaid,” they needle. Then they laugh all the way to their secret accounts in the Caymans as the 99 percent fight among themselves over how many pennies the government throws at the poor. The rich snicker as the vast majority of Americans are so distracted they don’t focus on record corporate profits, on record low corporate tax payments or on lobbyists buying tax breaks for corporations and loopholes for offshore accounts.

In defense of the 99 percent, it’s hard to concentrate on the big economic picture when household finances are so grim. The Commerce Department reported that in January personal income fell 3.6 percent. Overall, considering taxes and inflation, the decline was the largest in 57 years. (more…)

By Mike Hall
AFL-CIO Senior Writer

After President Obama called for raising the nation’s minimum wage to $9 an hour and protecting it against inflation, the struggle that millions of low-wage workers face trying to survive on the current $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage is back on the nation’s radar screen.

Pattie Federico prays her car keeps running until she somehow finds the money to fix it.  Her low-wage job at a Boston area movie theater leaves her constantly scrambling to cover basic needs.

Each week, Federico feels like she falls further behind. “I’m not on food stamps so buying food takes up a lot,” Federico told Acting Labor Secretary Seth D. Harris at a roundtable discussion on raising the minimum wage. “I just have enough to get gas to get to work and food so I can live, and I go crazy when I still hear the people who still think we’re quote unquote lazy.”

Federico is one of the 18 million low-wage workers who would benefit from President Obama’s proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.  These workers, like Federico, live paycheck to paycheck, delaying essential purchases and finding ways to live on less.

Even a small increase in income would have a huge impact on Federico specifically and the economy generally.  A higher minimum wage would give low-wage workers like Federico greater financial security.  Better wages would also unlock billions of dollars in new consumer spending, giving the economy a much-needed boost as it continues to recover from the Great Recession.

For Federico, a higher wage would mean having reliable transportation without having to go hungry. (more…)

Kenneth Quinnell
AFL-CIO

Costco CEO Craig Jelinek has joined the push to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by saying he supports the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which would not only raise the current wage from $7.25, but would index the wage to inflation and raise wages for tipped employees, too. Costco already pays its starting employees a wage of $11.50 per hour while maintaining a higher sales volume than competitors such as the Walmart-owned Sam’s Club and ranking in the top 25 of the Fortune 500 in terms of revenue.

Jelinek explained his company’s philosophy in a statement:

“An important reason for the success of Costco’s business model is the attraction and retention of great employees….Instead of minimizing wages, we know it’s a lot more profitable in the long term to minimize employee turnover and maximize employee productivity, commitment and loyalty. We support efforts to increase the federal minimum wage.”

Costco’s policies and support for higher wages and benefits for its workforce is supported by scientific research. MIT professor Zeynep Ton found a significant increase in sales as worker salaries were increased. She explained why:

I have studied retail operations for more than 10 years and have found that the presumed trade-off between investment in employees and low prices can be broken. Highly successful retail chains—such as Quik­Trip convenience stores, Mercadona and Trader Joe’s supermarkets, and Costco wholesale clubs—not only invest heavily in store employees but also have the lowest prices in their industries, solid financial performance, and better customer service than their competitors. They have demonstrated that, even in the lowest-price segment of retail, bad jobs are not a cost-driven necessity but a choice. And they have proven that the key to breaking the trade-off is a combination of investment in the workforce and operational practices that benefit employees, customers, and the company. (more…)

Robert Borosage
Co-Director Campaign for America's Future

On Tuesday, Senator Tom Harkin and Representative George Miller offer a ray of light amid the austerity blight in Washington.  They are announcing introduction of a bill – the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 – to raise the minimum wage gradually to $10.10 and index it so it adjusts annually with inflation.  Their legislation would also raise the minimum wage for tipped workers (at present a miserly $2.13 per hour) for the first time in 20 years.

This common sense reform is long overdue.  The current federal minimum wage – $7.25 per hour – is not enough for a full-time worker to lift a family out of poverty.  The current rate is lower than it was in the 1960s, adjusted for inflation.  If the minimum wage had kept pace with rising worker productivity, it would be $21.72 per hour.

The decline in the value of the minimum wage is a reflection of the failure of the conservative era that began with Ronald Reagan.  It has produced Gilded Age inequality.  Today corporate profits are at record levels as a percentage of the economy; workers wages at record lows.  In the two years coming out of the Great Recession, the top 1 percent captured a staggering 121 percent of the nation’s income growth.  The rest of us lost ground.  The Wall Street Journal reports that nine Wall Street moguls pocketed a total of more than $1 billion in dividends and compensation last year.   At the same time, a full-time minimum wage worker – most of whom work not in small businesses but in large companies – can’t earn enough to lift her family from poverty.  It is time to raise the floor. (more…)

By Oren Levin-Waldman
Professor of public policy at Metropolitan College of New York

Not everyone will agree that President Obama’s proposal to raise the minimum wage is the best approach for assisting the middle class. The standard arguments against raising the minimum wage are that 1) increases in the minimum wage will lead to disemployment effects, especially among low-skilled workers; 2) most minimum wage earners are not primary earners, but secondary earners; and 3) very few people earn the statutory minimum wage that raising it is worth the likely reductions in employment. And yet, the data would seem to suggest otherwise.

Labor market institutions such as unions and the minimum wage do make a difference with regards to overall wage structure and achieving a more equitable distribution. The minimum wage, for instance, is not only about helping the working poor to earn a wage above the poverty line; it is also about shoring up the middle class through wage contour effects. A minimum wage is effectively able to accomplish for non-unionized workers what labor unions have traditionally been able to accomplish for their members: it gives them a sense of voice by establishing a set of standards through the force of law, which is also enforceable by the state. This becomes even more important in an era of declining unionism. Because the minimum wage has all too often been conceived of narrowly as primarily an anti-poverty measure, its broader implications have been overlooked. The broader implications have also been missed because of our narrow construction of the minimum wage population as only those earning the statutory minimum, and not those who are earning an effective minimum.

Were we to conceive of the minimum wage in terms of contours, we would be able to understand just how important the minimum wage is as a labor market institution that can serve as a bulwark against stagnating middle class wages. In the 1950s John Dunlop developed the concept of a wage contour to explain how a firm’s internal wage structure might be as much affected by external forces as internal ones. A wage contour would be defined as a group of workers with similar characteristics working in similar industries and earning similar wages. For each group there would be a group of rates surrounding a key rate, and these group rates would be affected by changes in the key rate. The key rate was essentially to be defined as any rate serving as a reference point in a particular industry. A minimum wage can similarly be viewed as a reference point for what others in similar industries and occupations ought to be paid. (more…)