Santa Rosa Press Democrat
September 4, 2006

We should commend Governor Schwarzenegger for supporting an increase of the state minimum wage from $6.75 to $8.00 an hour by 2008. Wealth and income inequalities have reached levels not experienced in California since the 1930s. Raising the minimum wage can ease problems such inequities create.

The federal government has refused to address the widening economic divide and this has fueled movements in the states and at the local level to raise the wage floor for 15.5 million low-wage workers.

A recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California reveals declining living standards for California's poorest families. Between 1969 and 2004 the inflation-adjusted family income for the bottom 10th percentile of working families--about $15,600 in 2004 dollars--decreased by 12%, and income for the bottom 25th percentile decreased by 4%. The top 25th percentile received a 41% increase, and the top 1% received a 59% increase during this period.

According to the California Budget Project, one in three families with children in California in 2002 were among the working poor, and did not make incomes sufficient to provide for basic needs. The decreasing purchasing power of the state's minimum wage, first adopted in 1913, is one of the main causes for growing inequality. The value of the state minimum wage peaked in 1968, and if annually adjusted for inflation, the minimum would be $10.05 an hour today.

Congress has not increased the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour to offset the rising cost of living since 1997. This is the second longest period Congress has failed to raise the wage floor since the federal minimum wage was established in 1938. During this same period, Congress raised their own pay seven times: members now earn an annual salary of $165,200.

To counter the policy paralysis at the federal level twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have raised their minimum wage above the federal level. Currently seven states have minimum wage levels above $7 an hour including Washington at $7.63 and Oregon at $7.50 an hour. Both these states have indexed their minimum wage to inflation. Statewide ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage were overwhelmingly approved by voters in Florida and Nevada in 2004 and similar ballot measures will likely pass in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio, Montana, and Nevada this fall.

The AFL-CIO and organized labor, as well as citizen organizations like ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, and the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, comprised of seventy faith, labor, and community organizations, are leading a grassroots mobilization to raise federal and state minimum wages. In a recent public opinion survey the Pew Research Center concluded, "raising the minimum wage has broad public backing that crosses all social, regional, and political categories."

Driving the movement to reverse the rising economic inequality at the local level are campaigns to implement living wage laws. During the last decade more than 140 cities and counties have implemented living wage legislation that requires local government and firms receiving a government contract or subsidy to pay a living wage to their employees. Wage levels are set at twice or more the federal minimum wage and vary as supporters calculate basic family budgets for a given region including costs of food, housing, healthcare, transportation, and childcare.

Living wage campaigns initiate a public dialogue about what is a self-sufficiency wage for a particular region and the costs of growing inequality and working poverty such as increased demands by low-wage workers for income supports like Food Stamps and Medi-Cal. Most importantly, living wage campaigns make a moral appeal that rightly resonates with most Americans: work should be fairly compensated and a job should not trap you in poverty, but provide a ladder out it.

In California more than twenty-five cities and counties have implemented living wage legislation. Two cities in Sonoma County, Sebastopol and Sonoma, have passed living wage laws and the City of Petaluma is currently considering an ordinance which would require the City and city contractors to pay workers $11.70 an hour.

Americans are not powerless during eras dominated by the concentration of wealth and power: reforms to regulate business and labor markets, such as prohibiting child labor, mandating minimum wage and maximum hours, and implementing workplace health and safety standards, started at the state and local levels and then shaped national policy. Governor Schwarzenegger did the right thing, and his actions are best seen as a response to a growing grassroots movement seeking economic justice for low-wage workers.

Martin J. Bennett teaches American history at Santa Rosa Junior College and serves as Board Chair of New Economy, Working Solutions (NEWS) http://www.livingwagesonoma.org, and Co-Chair of the Living Wage Coalition of Sonoma County. http://www.neweconomynorthbay.org. He can be contacted at mbennett@vom.com.