Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 13:11:00 -0500 From: Charles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Living Wages MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII "Fighting for a Living Wage" by Dr. Manning Marable "Along the Color Line" January 1999 According to most economists and corporate investors, 1998 was a banner year for capitalism. Rebounding from its disastrous decline last summer, the stock market roared back to record a 16 percent gain for the year. The stock market had netted even higher gains in the previous three years, above 20 percent annually. This means that more than two trillion dollars in equity has been produced -- at least on paper --in this recent bull market. Economists like to point out that 150 million Americans are invested in the stock market, mostly through their retirement plans, pensions, and individual stock accounts. What this fails to add is that the lion's share of this wealth is owned by a very small number of individuals. Statistically, about 10 percent of the U.S. population owns or controls more than 70 percent of the nation's total wealth. That figure includes all stocks, bonds, real estate, and all assets of any kind. The top 1 percent of the U.S. population actually owns about 40 percent of all wealth. Simple arithmetic tells us that the overwhelming majority of Americans, the 90 percent that have less than 30 percent of the capital and resources, have very different lives than most at the top. It is in this latter group that one finds nearly all African Americans, Latinos, single-parent households, working class and poor people. The great majority of American citizens have no expectations or aspirations for great wealth and opulence. We have nothing in common with the televised "lifestyles of the rich and shameless." We pay our bills setting aside money to buy a home or to put our children through college. Those of us fortunate enough to have job security can plan for our retirement, and perhaps even take a vacation once a year. To achieve these modest goals takes at least a "living wage," the basic level of income necessary to provide the most basic personal consumption needs of a family of four: food, housing, transportation, utilities, clothing, taxes and co-payments for health care and child care. A commitment to a living wage should guarantee Medicare benefit, to all workers, from their initial date of employment through the end of the periods covered by unemployment insurance, plus coverage for their spouses partners and dependent children. Unfortunately, despite the billions of dollars generated on Wall Street, the capitalist economy has conspicuously failed to produce living wage jobs for millions of Americans. A recent study by the National Priorities Project, in collaboration with Jobs With Justice, illustrates the problem by focusing on New York. The study first determined that a truly livable annual wage for a family of four in New York, using the criteria outlined above, was about $36,600. Using this wage benchmark, the study found that 70 percent of the jobs with the most growth in New York pay less than the livable wage. For example, the average secondary school teacher in New York has an annual salary of $32,883, or about 90 percent of the livable wage. Keep in mind that the livable wage is about one-third less than the average family income in New York State. This means that the livable wage is essentially a subsistence budget, with little or no money for "luxuries." Clerical supervisors in New York earn an average wage of $27, 872, or approximately three-fourths of the livable wage. Other occupations at less than the livable wage include janitors and cleaners, $21,320 (58 percent of the livable wage); receptionists, $20,342 (56 percent); and teachers aides, $19,261 (53 percent). Beneath this group of workers are those whom sociologist William Julius Wilson described as the "truly disadvantaged." These are millions of working people whose wages are actually below the federal government's poverty level, which is now about $14,500 for a family of four. For example, according to the National Priorities Project study, the fastest growing occupation in New York State today is in retail sales. The average annual wage for retail salespeople is only $14,248. The typical food preparation worker earns only $11,939 a year, about 33 percent of a livable wage, and well below the official poverty level. Cashiers in New York receive average wages of $11,586; waiters and waitresses, $11, 336. These economic trends in New York are shared throughout the country. For the bottom 80 percent of all wage earners, real hourly wages have fallen steadily, about 20 percent in the last 25 years. Conditions are predictably worse for African-Americans workers. By 1995, almost 40 percent of black workers earned less than poverty level wages. What is to be done? Since the capitalist economy and Wall Street clearly cannot produce jobs at livable wages, we need to take matters into our own hands. All over the country, more than a dozen cities have passed "living wage ordinances." We must support state referenda that would raise the minimum wage. But perhaps the most important reform would be to close the vast gap between the salaries of the corporate elite vs. most working people. What about limiting the corporate tax deductibility of executive compensation to 25 times that of the lowest-paid fulltime worker in a business? Any amount of executive pay over that level would be subject to taxation, saving millions of dollars. The time for economic justice is long overdue. The fight for a living wage must be taken both to Wall Street and Congress. Dr. Manning Marable is professor of history and director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, New York City. "Along the Color Line" is distributed free of charge to over 325 publications throughout the U.S. and internationally. --------------------------------
