The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) is required under Wisconsin law to establish minimum wages for most classes of Wisconsin workers. Under that law, the DWD is charged with making sure that “every wage paid or agreed to be paid by any employer to any employee” (with exceptions for sheltered workshops for people with disabilities) “be not less than a living wage.”
In other words, the Wisconsin minimum wage is required, by law, to be a living wage.
A related section of the Wisconsin state statutes allows any worker or class of workers to file a complaint with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development to verify that, in fact, their wages will “enable the employee to maintain himself or herself under conditions consistent with his or her welfare."
When a complaint is filed, the DWD has 20 days to investigate and respond. If the wage is determined not to be a living wage, the DWD is required to establish a commission to accept input from the public to establish a living wage.
Late last month, about 100 low-wage Wisconsin workers, in coordination with Wisconsin Jobs Now, filed living wage complaints with the office of Governor Scott Walker.
In a letter dated October 6th, they got their answer from the Walker administration. Walker’s appointed administrators at the DWD found “no reasonable cause to believe that the wages paid to the complainants are not a living wage”:
Wisconsin Jobs Now responded immediately:
“It is outrageous for the Walker administration to claim that there is no reasonable cause to believe that $7.25 (the minimum wage) is not a living wage. To issue this determination without even so much as a follow-up phone call to question or clarify any of the over 100 Wisconsin workers who filed complaints is not only appalling, it is irresponsible.
“Governor Walker might be the only person in the entire country who actually thinks that anyone in today’s economy can survive solely on $7.25 an hour. His political stance against raising minimum wage is one thing. But for the governor to brazenly say to the working families of Wisconsin that $7.25 an hour is enough to sustain themselves is not only misguided, it is incredibly ignorant and willfully obtuse.
“The law in Wisconsin is very clear: ‘every wage paid by any employer to any employee shall not be less than a living wage.’ Anyone who works a full and honest day’s work should make enough money to pay for the basics. The fact that Governor Walker thinks that $290 a week is what it costs to cover the basics of life in Wisconsin is beyond comprehension. This decision makes it unequivocally clear that Scott Walker is more than out of touch: he is brutally neglectful of a huge percentage of his constituents.”