[Winona Online Democracy]
The subject of a "Living Wage"was brought up earlier and I thought it would
be relevant to explore it further since, yesterday, Santa Monica, CA just
passed the first Living Wage ordinance that applies to businesses that have
no government connection (raising their minimum wage to $10.50/hour). For
more information, read:
http://www.smmirror.com/volume2/issue49/council_amends_approves.asp
It is an interesting issue because of the apparent conflict between raising
wages and creating jobs. The Employment Policies Institute has some
background research online at http://www.livingwage.org. I haven't read
enough to know how balanced the information is, but it appears to provide
some good background info.
What do people think . . . do local communities have a responsibility to
provide a living wage to the lowest paid workers or should marketplace wages
prevail? Do these types of ordinances put communities at an economic
disadvantage or do they improve the overall quality life in the community?
Does anyone know of any examples in which living wage ordinances have had an
impact (positive or negative) on a community?
-Steve Kranz
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dwayne Voegeli" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2001 8:28 AM
Subject: [Winona] Winona Quality of Life and Low Wages
> [Winona Online Democracy]
>
> Hello Winona Online Democracy,
>
> Here is an article that will appear in the Star Tribune.
>
> It deals with the low wages that dominate Winona, Minnesota, and the whole
> country. I don't know about you but many of my family and friends work at
> jobs like those described in the article.
>
> In the past, some members of the local Green Party have talked about
having
> a community forum on the subject of a living wage ordinance. (A living
> wage law is very different than our pathetic minimum wage laws. It deals
> with the wages a parent or family would have to be paid to live a basic
and
> decent life.) Would anyone else be interested in a community forum about
> that topic? The forum could be a coalition planned event.
>
> Anyone interested?
>
> This is a central quality of life issue for Winona, Minnesota, and
everywhere.
>
> Dwayne Voegeli
>
> =============================
>
> Author Barbara Ehrenreich To Discuss Low-Wage Workers In Visit
>
> Jean Hopfensperger
> Star Tribune
>
> Monday, May 21, 2001
>
> ---------------------
>
> Barbara Ehrenreich is a nationally acclaimed social critic and author, but
> when she came to Minnesota last year, she became a Wal-Mart retail clerk.
>
> The reason: She was doing undercover research for her latest book, about
> the status of low-wage workers in America. Minnesota was to be her last,
> and the most "easy" stop.
>
> Instead, Ehrenreich found herself in a frustrating and ultimately
fruitless
> search for affordable housing during her one-month stay. And in the
regions
> she visited, the Twin Cities became the toughest in which to make ends
meet.
>
> Ehrenreich will return here Tuesday to speak at Macalester College in St.
> Paul and at a labor rally, where the results of a study of low-wage
> workers in Minnesota will be released.
>
> "When I came to Minnesota, I thought it would be easy to find a job,
> housing, a congenial neighborhood to live in," said Ehrenreich, the author
> of a dozen books and frequent contributor to publications ranging from
Time
> to the New Republic. "I was shocked at the housing shortage and high
rents."
>
> Her $7-an-hour job could barely cover the cost of the cheap motel rooms
she
> ended up renting and the fast-food restaurants and delis she relied on.
> "And I didn't have any kids," she said in a recent telephone interview.
>
> The study that will be released Tuesday calculates that a single parent
> with two children would need to make $16.36 an hour to support the family
> adequately. The study was conducted by the JOBS NOW Coalition, a group
that
> advocates for low-wage workers and has more than 100 member agencies and
> organizations statewide.
>
> But only 27.8 percent of women working in Minnesota earn that much, the
> report found. It also found that about half of working men in Minnesota
> earn enough to support a two-parent, two-child family adequately. That
> figure is $14.65 per hour. (The reason single parents must earn more is
> because they need to pay for child care.)
>
> "That's what's important about 'Nickel and Dimed' [Ehrenreich's new
book],"
> said Kris Jacobs, executive director of the coalition. "It opens this
veil
> of invisibility over the population of workers barely making ends meet."
>
> 'Wal-Martian life'
>
> Ehrenreich selected Key West, Fla., which she lives near, Portland, Maine,
> and the Twin Cities to do her research on low-wage workers. She chose the
> subject to test the premise behind national welfare changes, namely that
a
> full-time worker should be able to support a family.
>
> Posing as a homemaker reentering the work force, she would show up in
town,
> rent an inexpensive car, and search for a job and housing. She worked as a
> waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing home aide, and a
> Wal-Mart clerk. And along the way, she caught a glimpse of life of the
> working poor.
>
> Several memories of Minnesota stand out.
>
> While going through an eight-hour orientation at Wal-Mart, one of her
> fellow job-seekers had her husband and son wait for her in the store
> because they couldn't afford the gas for a round-trip home. (Ehrenreich
> will not reveal at which Wal-Mart she worked.)
>
> While visiting a social service agency to get a housing referral, the
woman
> helping her kept confusing her with another Wal-Mart worker who had just
> come in seeking emergency relief.
>
> While driving home from her suburban job, "I'd see so many people sitting
> in the bus stops, so far out of town. That staggered me. I tried to
imagine
> what it would be like to add three hours a day of commuting to my
schedule."
>
> But it was the housing, or lack thereof, that brought her down. Unable to
> find an affordable apartment, she wound up -- as many low-income workers
do
> -- living in a series of cheap motels. She moved out of one of the more
> depressing ones -- a place with no screens on the window, no bolt on the
> door, no sense of safety.
>
> "I was shocked I could not find any apartment for under $800 a month,"
> Ehrenreich said. "I was surprised at how hard you have to work to remain
in
> poverty."
>
> The report
>
> The JOBS NOW report doesn't measure poverty; that's done by the federal
> government. But it does give social service agencies and policymakers a
> yardstick to measure a "basic, no-frills budget," Jacobs said.
>
> The figures were calculated by using standards from federal and state
> agencies. They cover food, housing, health care, transportation, child
> care, clothing and other necessities and net taxes. They don't cover
> vacations, savings accounts, restaurant meals, movies and other
> nonessentials.
>
> The report found:
>
> The average annual cost of meeting basic needs for a single person with
one
> child in Minnesota is $29,000, or $13.94 an hour. That's 2? times as high
> as the federal poverty line of $11,610. And it's twice as much as the
> welfare system's "exit level," which is $13,932 for a mother with one
child
> leaving the system.
>
> Living expenses in outstate Minnesota are 16 percent lower than in the
> seven-county metro area, but wages in outstate Minnesota are 31 percent
> lower.
>
> In the four western-most regions of the state, living costs are 20 percent
> lower than the metro area. However the average wages in those four regions
> are 42 percent lower.
>
> "The report shows that cost of living is outpacing the [pay] raises that
> people are getting," Jacobs said. "Even though we're looking at some very
> good years, [1998-2000] it's still a [financial] challenge for a large
> group of people."
>
> To learn more about the report, go to http://www.jobsnowcoalition.org.
>
> -- Jean Hopfensperger is at [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
>
> © Copyright 2001 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
>
> =====================================
>
>
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