Oh me, oh my, what big crocodile tears we cry, Representative Kingston! Since you're whining so much about family values and the length of your work week, I took a look at your record of advocacy on behalf of working families. Let's see how you did with voting for minimum wage, shall we?
Here's the Project Vote Smart page with your voting record, with the list of votes for what looks like the last 10 years. In July, Kingston's vote on the minimum wage bill was (are you ready for this?) Against:
07/29/2006 NO Death/Estate and Minimum Wage Bill of 2006 (more voting history below fold)
Minimum Wage basics
Minimum-wage: $5.15/hour
8-hour day: $41.20/day
40 hour work week: $206/week
4 1/3-week month: $892/month
12-month year: $10,704/year.
Let's compare that with Congressman's take, plus more "family values math" & minimum wage facts...
Okay, so what does Kingston make?
According to this congressional pay fact sheet, he makes $165,200/year.
That breaks down to:
$13,766.67 per month.
$ 3,441.67 per week
$ 688.33 per day (5 day week)
$ 86.04 per hour (5 day week)
$ 1,720 per day (2 day week)
$ 215 per hour (2 day week)
So, how do these figures stack up for Family Man Jack Kingston and the minimum wage worker?
Representative Kingston earns more in one month than a minimum wage worker earns in a year.
In one day of a 5-day week, Kingston earns 77% of what a minimum wage worker earns in a month.
In one day of a 2-day week, Kingston earns 209% of what a minimum wage worker earns in a month.
In one hour of a 5-day work week, Kingston earns 201% of what a minimum wage earner earns in one day.
In one hour of a 2 day work week, Kingston earns slightly more than a minimum wage earner earns in one week.
While the WaPo article about Whiners from the Do Nothing (tm) Congress cites a total of 103 days worked, I'm assuming in the 2-day work week that Congress worked a total of 104 days. So my figures are slightly inflated over the actual work done this year.
More Fun Facts about Minimum Wage! Minimum Wage earners are Family People, too!!
From the Economics Policy Institute's report on minimum wage (November, 2006).
Minimum wage increases benefit working families.
- The earnings of minimum wage workers are crucial to their families' well-being. Evidence from an analysis of the 1996-97 minimum wage increase shows that the average minimum wage worker brings home more than half (54%) of his or her family's weekly earnings.
- An estimated 1,395,000 single parents with children under 18 would benefit from a minimum wage increase to $7.25 by 2008. Single parents would benefit disproportionately from an increase — single parents are 9% of workers affected by an increase, but they make up only 7% of the overall workforce. Approximately 3.9 million parents with children under 18 would benefit.
- Adults make up the largest share of workers who would benefit from a minimum wage increase: 80% of workers whose wages would be raised by a minimum wage increase to $7.25 by 2008 are adults (age 20 or older).
- Over half (54%) of workers who would benefit from a minimum wage increase work full time and another third (30%) work between 20 and 34 hours per week.
Minimum Wage has not kept up with inflation and cost of living!
What is the current minimum wage like, compared to years past, once adjusted for inflation? Why, low, low, low! Like 1955-era low. "After adjusting for inflation, the value of the minimum wage is at its lowest level since 1955."
The pay of Congresspeople HAS kept up with inflation and cost of living!
Of course, those poor, poor 2-day-a-week working stiffs in Congress have received cost-of-living increases almost annually. How nice to have the power to vote your own pay increases at taxpayer expense, hm?
But what about helping the minimum wage worker keep up with inflation?
The inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage is 30% lower in 2006 than it was in 1979.
- The effect of the last minimum wage increase in 1996-97 has been completely eroded by inflation.
- $5.15 today is the equivalent of only $3.95 in 1995 — lower than the $4.25 minimum wage level before the 1996-97 increase.
Over at Obsidian Wings, there's a good discussion of factors surrounding the minimum wage, complete with notes on this Report.
Paying for those essential expenses on your earnings
Further, Obsidian wings highlights the plight of recently-striking janitorial workers. Earning minimum wage, there's no way to afford to buy a car. A car would have made Angelina Quintanilla safer. She would have probably avoided an assault and its injuries.
Kingston's salary includes sufficient funds to pay for flights back and forth from DC to home district. Oh, and it includes health benefits, too. Do you think that minimum wage comes with health benefits that pay for a jaw wired shut from that assault?
How many people need to work more than one job to (not quite) make ends meet? How do those people spend quality time with their spouses? How do those conditions affect the quality of their marriages and family lives?
What sort of support does Jack Kingston's voting record provide for the family values of these workers? I showed the most recent vote: AGAINST minimum wage increase. What follows are the dates and summaries of other bills about minimum wage that range back to 1996. (The 1996 one is kind of strange, as there are, in quick successions, a vote FOR, then AGAINST an amendment, then no vote, and later a vote AGAINST the bill.)
Jack "Family Values Whiner" Kingston voted against increasing minimum wage.
- 03/09/2000 NO Minimum Wage Increase bill
HR 3846: To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase the minimum wage, and for other purposes. Increases the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $6.15 per hour by April 2001
- 03/09/2000 NO Minimum Wage Increase-Two Year Raise
H.AMDT.594 to HR 3846: Amendment provides for increasing the minimum wage by $1 over a 2-year period. Increases the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $6.15 per hour by April 2001.
- 08/02/1996 NO Minimum Wage Increase bill
HR 3448: To provide tax relief for small businesses, to protect jobs, to create opportunities, to increase the take home pay of workers, and for other purposes. Increases the minimum wage rate from $4.25 per hour to $4.75 per hour during the year beginning October 1, 1996 and to $5.15 per hour beginning September 1, 1997.
- 05/22/1996 YES Minimum Wage Increase bill
HR 3448: To provide tax relief for small businesses, to protect jobs, to create opportunities, to increase the take home pay of workers, and for other purposes. Increases the minimum wage rate from $4.25 per hour to $4.75 per hour during the year beginning July 1, 1996, and to $5.15 per hour beginning January 1, 1997
- 05/23/1996 NO Minimum Wage Amendment
H Amdt 1084 to HR 1227: An amendment to increase the minimum wage by 90 cents per hour, thereby raising the minimum wage from its current level of $4.25 per hour to $5.15 per hour in two increments: by July 1, 1996 the wage would become $4.75 per hour and by July 1, 1997 the wage would be increased to $5.15 per hour.
- 05/23/1996 NV Minimum Wage Increase bill
HR 1227: To amend the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 relating to the payment of wages to employees who use employer owned vehicles.
Jack "Whiner" Kingston does not support family values. He does not support any kind of economic benefits that truly strengthen working families.
And when you look at these kind of conditions, it's pretty easy to understand why people earning minimum wage have so little energy left over to follow how the actions of those out-of-touch fat cats in Washington affect their lives. They're just scraping, and the time to stay on your Congressman or -woman is a luxury that they cannot afford.