Well, the President framed the next BIG debate: Middle Class Economics.
We'd be fools, to not press the issue for all it's worth ...
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Of course, nothing helps families make ends meet like higher wages. That’s why this Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work. Really. It’s 2015. It’s time. We still need to make sure employees get the overtime they’ve earned. And to everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.
If we don't put
Worker's Pay, front and center -- in the next Election Cycle, well ...
Much of the work force will keep working for 'subsistence wages' -- just like the GOP likes it. Just like the GOP thinks we deserve.
It would seem that some CEOs are getting the message, even if the GOP is not:
The case for higher wages: It's smart business
by Scott Martelle, LATimes.com -- February 6, 2015
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But more important, he said, it is the right thing to do. “Companies are not just money-making machines,” Bertolini [Aetna Chief Executive] told the New Yorker’s James Surowiecki. “For the good of the social order, these are the kinds of investments we should be willing to make.”
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But it’s also an acknowledgement that the current economic system has wobbled out of balance under greed’s massive gravitational force. As Moo Cluck Moo co-founder Brian Parker told Crain’s Detroit, “I’m taking less money personally. … My question is, how much do we have to make? How big of a pile of money do CEOs have to sit on? … I’m not altruistic, but I’m also not trying to extract as much money as possible out of the restaurant.”
That’s the crucial bit: An approach to business that focuses not on wringing every last penny of profit from the enterprise but on sustaining the business and treating workers as part of the effort, not as just another cost center.
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Then there's this objective analysis of "Supply Side" Economics, and its supposed depressing effect on Wages:
CSI–Wage Trends: The Myth of Unmet Demand
by Jared Bernstein, jaredbernsteinblog.com -- June 4, 2012
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Source: BLS
The three lines are yearly growth rates for average hourly, weekly, and manufacturing (hourly) wages over the last few years. The two hourly wage series both slump down to around 1-2% and stay there—no evidence of wage pressure. I included the manufacturing series because that’s where you frequently hear the claim made that employers can’t find workers. Well, at least by this evidence, they may be saying that but they don’t seem to mean it.
The weekly wage series does seem to grow faster for awhile back there around the second half of 2009. But that’s purely a cyclical effect of average weekly hours. Average hours per week fell with demand in the heart of the downturn. When output began to rise, 2009q3, hours went up too, and that showed up in faster weekly wage growth, which has since flattened, so no evidence of unmet demand there either.
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It would seem that contrary to the "Supply Side" theory:
Wages paid do NOT merely reflect the scarcity/abundance of available talent.
It would seem that "other factors" impact, how that Profit-Pie keeps getting sliced:
Image Source: EPI
Image Source: Daily Kos Labor, Laura Clawson
Bakers need not take a slice ... Hands Off their Pie!
Or so the Supply-Siders insist, with their latest cries of the "Economics of Envy."
"If you don't like the Rich -- then get out of their Kitchen!"
Image Source: CHART: Top U.S. Corporations Outsourced More Than 2.4 Million American Jobs Over The Last Decade, thinkprogress.org
States are getting the "Middle Class Economics" message too.
If you don't stand up for your workers -- then what do you really stand for?
13 states raising pay for minimum-wage workers
by Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, USAtoday.com -- Dec 30, 2013
larger image
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"2014 is poised to be a turning point," Temple says. "States are seeing the unemployment rate is going down but job growth is disproportionately concentrated in low-wage industries. (They're) frustrated that Congress is dragging its feet."
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"You're coming out of a deep recession, and people are landing jobs, but they're low-paid," says state Rep. Ryan Winkler, sponsor of the House bill.
The legislative movement has been partly fueled by walkouts this year in at least 100 cities by fast-food workers who are calling for $15-an-hour pay and the right to form unions. Wal-Mart workers have staged similar protests.
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Proponents of minimum-wage hikes note that low-wage jobs have dominated payroll growth in the 4-year-old recovery, and increases over the past four decades have not kept pace with inflation.
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Insisting of a Fair Wage
is NOT a matter of Envy -- it is a matter of Reality!
If you don't think so, then YOU should try living on only 15,000 per year.
After Rent, Food, Utilities, and Gas -- you'll have enough left over to buy a slice of Pizza, if you're lucky.
And if you're not so lucky ... well maybe you're living in the wrong place. Or backing the wrong Candidates.
The State of the Union and the Minimum Wage
by Teresa Tritch, blogs.nytimes.com -- January 20, 2015
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A call for $10.10 an hour at some future date is behind the times in other ways, as well. Six states, Washington, D.C., and several cities already have or soon will have minimums at or above $10 an hour. The federal minimum is supposed to raise the standard for the nation, not merely ratify standards that have already been established. Similarly, widespread public support for a higher minimum and activism among low-wage workers for $15 an hour have expanded the realm of the possible. It would be politically tone deaf for Mr. Obama to stick with “$10.10 a few years from now” when an informed public wants and deserves more.
A minimum wage that is too low would also undercut the president’s new agenda to rebuild the middle class. When the lowest-paid workers earn more, workers modestly above the lowest ranks also tend to get raises. Such boosts can put the middle class within reach, especially for the many married couples in which one or both spouses is currently at or near the minimum wage. For those reasons, Mr. Obama should abandon the $10.10 benchmark in favor of a bolder goal that is in keeping with economic and political realities -- and with his promises to restore the middle class.
The realities of trying to make it on $15K per year -- if you're "Lucky."
"Envy Economics" has nothing to do with it -- making the Rent, and staying afloat, is what this Workers Fight should be all about.
Of course, if Republicans actually lived in the "Real World" -- they'd already know these plain economic facts.
Image Source: Political cartoon by Nick Anderson -- The Houston Chronicle. Raise the minimum wage now, by Harry Targ, The Rag Blog -- April 1, 2014