It's catching fire...though not as high as some of us would like, Montgomery Country tonight passed a hike in its minimum wage to 11.50 by 2017. Do I hear $15-an-hour please at the federal level, on the way to $20-an-hour?
Just now:
The Montgomery County Council voted overwhelmingly to establish its own minimum wage Tuesday, approving an historic increase that will lift the hourly rate to $11.50 by 2017 --far above the current state and federal minimum of $7.25.
The council’s action, which followed nearly four hours of tense and occasionally acrimonious debate, is part of an unusual regional effort by Montgomery, Prince George’s County and the District. The Prince George’s County Council is expected to vote Wednesday and an initial vote by the D.C. Council is set for Dec. 3.
The Montgomery bill increases the wage annually, to $8.40 in October 2014; $9.55 in 2015; $10.75 in 2016 and $11.50 in 2017.
In a related diary, I've
written earlier about the hike to $15-an-hour for workers in SeaTac, a hike won via ballot initiative.
And:
The legislation, considered one of the most economically influential votes of the year in the region, would boost paychecks for about 83,000 people across the county.
It would mean a 59 percent increase at the end of the four-step process.
This vote, coupled with the SeaTac vote, underscores again, in my opinion, that the $10.10-an-hour increase in the federal minimum wage -- the number being proposed in the Democratic Party's current offer in a bill proposed by Tom Harkin and George Miller, the respective co-sponsors of the bill in the Senate and House-- is not a serious enough effort.
I'll just repeat: If someone works 52 weeks a year, 40 hours a week at $10.10-an-hour (if they are that “lucky” at a minimum wage job to get that many hours), that adds up to a bit over $21,000 a year.
With no pension. Not a single day off. And probably no decent health care.
That $21,000 is BELOW the federal poverty level for a family of four.
Remember this: the federal minimum wage should be $21.72-an-hour if we factor in productivity, which is a fancy way of saying how hard people have worked (most negotiations over wages, at least in the days of normal collective bargaining -- meaning not in the current environment of drive down wages and/or health care cost cuts -- almost always tied wage gains to productivity).
Even $11.50 is not a livable wage, in my opinion --but congrats to the majority on the Montgomery County Council for at least surpassing the mediocre pending proposal in the Congress.
There is a bit of rhetorical momentum underway now.
And it's time to seize that with a demand for a federal minimum wage of $15-an-hour immediately with a targeted increase to $20-an-hour over a short period of time.
It can be done.
It's time.