S - 1737 Minimum Wage Fairness Act
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| Photo by REUTERS/beawiharta |
S 1737 - Minimum Wage Fairness Act - In Senate
The Minimum Wage Fairness Act was "Introduced" to the Senate by Sen. Thomas "Tom" Harkin (for himself and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) on November 19, 2013. S 1737 - Minimum Wage Fairness Act - GovTrack.us The bill was read to the committee on November 20, 2013. In general the bill reads:
Section 6(a)(1) of
the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (
29 U.S.C. 206(a)(1)
) is amended to read
as follows:
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| Photo by SeattleTimes.com |
OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - A voter initiative to enact a $15 minimum wage for thousands of workers in a Seattle suburb that houses the region's main international airport won a narrow victory on Tuesday that proponents hailed as a signal moment in the nationwide fight for livable wages.
The measure mandates that some 6,300 workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and nearby hotels, car rental agencies and parking lots receive a minimum hourly wage more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
"It shows that people are tired of waiting for corporate CEOs or Congress to deal with income inequality and that they can use democracy to make a change," said Heather Weiner, spokeswoman for the union-backed Yes For SeaTac campaign.
The measure won by a margin of 77 votes with about 6,000 ballots cast, and King County election officials certified the outcome on Tuesday after weeks of uncertainty.
Opponents who fear the measure will slow the region's economy and drive businesses away said they plan to request a manual recount, for which they will have to foot the bill unless the result is reversed.
Four major California airports operate under ordinances similar to the SeaTac measure, including one guaranteeing workers at San Jose airport $13.82 an hour plus health insurance, and another mandating that Los Angeles airport workers earn $10.91 per hour plus health benefits.
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| Meme by "Raise The Minimum Wage" |
While The Purchasing Power Has Fallen Sharply - The Rich Have Grown Far Richer
The Minimum Wage Should Be Raised - Huffington Post - 11/10/2013First established under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the nationwide minimum wage was designed to lift millions of American workers out of poverty and to stimulate the economy. Unfortunately, however, it was not indexed to inflation, and big businesses -- hostile from the start -- fought, often successfully, to prevent congressional action to raise it. As a result, over the past 40 years, the purchasing power of the minimum wage has fallen sharply. If Congress had kept the minimum wage in pace with inflation over this period, it would today be $10.74. But, in fact, it is $7.25 -- about two-thirds of its previous purchasing power.
A major consequence is that increasing numbers of workers and their families live in poverty. The annual salary of a full-time American worker employed at $7.25 per hour is $15,080 -- less than the official federal government poverty level for a family of two. The poverty level for a family of four is $23,550 -- considerably beyond what a minimum wage worker earns.
At the same time, the rich have grown far richer. Between 1968 and 2012, as the minimum wage declined in value, the top 1 percent of households doubled their share of the nation's income. The typical CEO of a big business received a 16 percent raise in 2012 -- to $15.1 million. That year, the pay of Wal-Mart's CEO, Mike Duke, rose 14 percent, to $20.7 million. By contrast, Wal-Mart -- the largest employer in the United States - pays its sales associates an average wage of $8.81 an hour. It is much the same story at McDonald's, which employs large numbers of the nation's low wage workers. In 2012, the CEO of McDonald's was paid $27.7 million. Although his income roughly tripled in 2012, the income of McDonald's fast food workers remained abysmal. Thanks to this pattern, the United States now has the most unequal distribution of income in the industrialized world.
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| Costco CEO Craig Jelinek at the Costco store in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) |
COSTCO CEO "Raise Minimum Wage to $10 - March 2013 - Huffington Post
Costco CEO and President Craig Jelinek came out in support of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, which aims to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, then adjust it after that for inflation.
"At Costco, we know that paying employees good wages makes good sense for business," Jelinek said in a statement. "We pay a starting hourly wage of $11.50 in all states where we do business, and we are still able to keep our overhead costs low."
"An important reason for the success of Costco’s business model is the attraction and retention of great employees," Jelinek added. "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."
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| Photo by www.americansunitedforchange.org |
Obama's $10.10 Minimum Wage Would Fundamentally Change America
Obama's $10.10 Minimum Wage Would Fundamentally Change America - Huffington Post - 11/08/2013President Barack Obama announced his support for legislation introduced by two Democratic senators that, if passed, would mark the first significant increase to the federal minimum wage in more than four years. Obama's statements showed that he's ready to go farther than his February proposal to push the minimum wage to $9, which many criticized as not a significant enough boost.
A leap to $10.10, however, could be enough to push a large number of the working poor -- a group defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as those who fall below the poverty line despite working (or searching for work) at least 27 weeks per year -- out of poverty.
