Tag Archives: Living Wage

Minimum Wage Earners Would Need To Work Over 100 Hours A Week To Pay The Rent. Anyone Else See The Problem Here?

  By Matt Murray | March 24, 2013 - 10:59 am |
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Unit Housing Minimum Wage

Lately between the state and national battles on raising the minimum wage, people everywhere are talking about the potential impacts of the change.

The people on the right, want you to believe that raising the minimum wage will cost jobs.  This is completely untrue.  In fact according to a recent study done by the Center for Economic and Policy Research they found that “The weight of that evidence points to little or no employment response to modest increases in the minimum wage.”   This does not mean that a few smaller companies would not have to make some staffing adjustments if the wage was increased.  The truth is that most of these companies are already paying employees above minimum wage. In fact over 66% of minimum wage earners work for major corporations (I.E Wal-Mart and McDonalds) not small businesses.

The other common myth that the Republicans are trying to spread is that minimum wage earners are just teenagers working their first job.  Contrary to what they are saying only 13% of minimum wage earners nationally are teenagers.  Here in New Hampshire that number is a little higher at 22%. That is a far cry from a majority of workers, that is not even a quarter of worker.  They are adults, struggling every day to survive.  In fact over  “more than a third (35.8 percent) are married, and over a quarter (28.0 percent) are parents“.  What kind of family life could you possibly have if your being forced to work 100 hours a week to survive?

For everyone, housing is the biggest concern.  Some people must choose to pay the rent before they pay for food.  This is wrong.  To “Live within your means” your housing costs should not exceed 30% of you total income.  This allows you to pay for rent, and any other housing costs without having to sacrifice in other areas, like dinner.

For many low income families this 30% number is just unattainable. In fact according to fair market value of rent (FMR), a person would have to earn $18.79 per hour to afford a two bedroom apartment.  In the federal minimum wage is $7.25 then a worker would have to work over 100 hours a week to pay the rent.  This is an outrage.  Here in New Hampshire, the FMR of a two bedroom apartment is $20.47. That is 113 hours a week at minimum wage.   While the New Hampshire is debating an increase to around $10 an hour, would this really help?  In NH a minimum wage worker would still be required to work 81 hours to afford an apartment.

http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/2013_OOR_Most_Expensive_Jurisdictions_Table.pdfNew Hampshire is far from the worst when it comes to rental prices.  Hawaii comes in at a whopping $32.14 per hour.  The minimum wage in Hawaii is set to the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.  That mean a worker would have to work 177 hours a week to afford a two bedroom apartment. Remember there are only 168 hours in a week.  As you can clearly see below, there is not a single state where a minimum wage earner could live without working 80 hours a week.

Unit Housing Minimum Wage

We must not let partisan politics and party rhetoric get in the way of doing what is best for the millions of workers struggling every day to pay their rent. We can do better, we should do better.  Congress should raise the minimum wage and chain it to inflation so it will continue to rise automatically. Then  state can determine if they need to add to the federal minimum to adjust for local costs of living.

The NH Debate Over Minimum Wage Rages On: Both Sides Go Head To Head On ‘The Exchange’

  By Matt Murray | February 28, 2013 - 3:20 pm | ,
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NH jobs

Tuesday on the Exchange, Laura Knoy spoke with Dave Juvet (New Hampshire Business and Industry Association) and Jeff McLynch (NH Fiscal Policy Institute). They went back and forth weighing the pros and cons of raising the minimum wage.

Jeff McLynch started off by stating that minimum wage workers in New Hampshire are far behind what it would take to actually survive.

“The living wage for a single worker is  $9.68 per hour.  For a married couple is about $15 per hour. If someone is a single parent trying to raise a child it is $21 per hour.”

“NH is the only state with a minium wage at the federal level”

Jeff McLynch also explained that a minimum wage is not a ‘living wage’.  The living wage is what local people would need to be able to afford housing, food, and other items in their area.  The living wage is a more local and precise number than the national poverty wage that does not take into account local cost of living.

NH jobs

After hearing all of these things from Jeff, now we get to hear from the lobbyist who is pushing against a wage increase.  Dave Juvet wants people to believe that because New Hampshire has the lowest minimum wage in New England this put them “ahead of all of those other states.”  He continues by saying the vast majority of jobs in NH do not pay the minimum wage, and he is right.  They actually pay less than the minimum wage because they are tipped employees.

After trying to get people to believe that there are very few people working on minimum wage, he pushed another common business lobbying fallacy that “minimum wage workers are teenagers and retired people looking to pick up extra income.”  This is an out right lie.  In fact research from the Economic Policy Institute, shows that nearly 80% of people working on minimum wage in New Hampshire are older than 20 years of age.  The EPI continues by saying that “more than a third (35.8 percent) are married, and over a quarter (28.0 percent) are parents.”

The best line of all was when Laura Knoy asked “Is the argument Dave, against a minimum wage no matter what, or is the argument $7.25 is good lets not raise it?”

Dave Juvet’s response, “Some would argue the government should not be in the business of setting wages for the private sector…” In my opinion that is his way of saying no we do not need or want a minimum wage.  Yeah lets go back to the slave wages that we have before the minimum wage was introduced, that worked out great for everyone.

In closing I want to talk about one more point that Dave Juvey tried to hammer in.  He said that raising the minimum wage would hurt small businesses and would cause people to loose their jobs.   This is simply not true.  In fact, over 66% of minimum wage workers are employed by companies that have over 100 employees.  The biggest abusers of minimum wage workers 1. Walmart 2. Yum Foods (Taco Bell,  KFC) 3. McDonalds.

We also know that state and federal governments are supplementing these low wages with food and housing assistance programs while the corporate giants are raking in hundreds of millions of dollars.

So if raising the minium wage would help thousands of Granite Staters to earn a living wage while reducing their dependance on government assistance programs, WHY HAVE WE NOT PASSED THIS YET?

 

Listen to the entire episode

NH AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie Pushes For A Higher Minimum Wage For NH Working Families

  By New Hampshire Labor News | February 28, 2013 - 7:00 am | ,
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NH AFL-CIO Logo

For Cost-Effective Economic Development, Consider the Minimum Wage
By President Mark MacKenzie

President Obama raised the hopes of thousands of Granite Staters when he called for raising the minimum wage in his State of the Union address.

His words should also raise the hopes of our state leaders. We’ve seen intense debate in our Legislature and town halls over the past few years about how to strengthen our economy after the Great Recession and help working people get back on their feet.

For thousands of Granite Staters living on the edge, the minimum wage determines whether their jobs pay enough to make ends meet. Yet it isn’t just workers who have a stake in the minimum wage. The small businesses they patronize and the communities they live in all stand to gain from reestablishing New Hampshire’s minimum wage. If our leaders are serious about encouraging New Hampshire’s economic development, they will consider reestablishing the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation.

Throughout the recession, Granite Staters relied increasingly on low-wage jobs to support their families. We lost nearly 6000 jobs between January 2012 and December 2012, according to the New Hampshire Economic & Labor Market Bureau.  Alarmingly, the largest losses were in construction, healthcare, education, local government and manufacturing – all sectors that historically pay a living wage. And of the sectors that added jobs, one third paid an average of $10.85 an hour.

This is not an isolated trend. Contrary to popular belief, changing the minimum wage will not just impact teenagers and semi-retired people. As wages for working families have fallen and breadwinners come to rely on low-wage jobs to support their families, the minimum wage plays an increasingly critical role in determining whether a job gets a family out of poverty or keeps them in it.

Most businesses in New Hampshire are small employers whose wellbeing is intimately tied to the strength of their local economy and the fortunes of their customers. Lower wages mean fewer nights out, fewer ice cream cones bought for our children, fewer gifts at Christmas and birthdays. They mean waiting another year to fix the muffler on our car or replace our old winter coat. Ultimately, by paying their employees more, local businesses fare better.

It’s been argued that raising the minimum wage will force employers to reduce hours for their employees or lay them off. That this will happen to a degree large enough to hurt our economy is, at this point, simple speculation. A 2010 study from economists at the University of North Carolina, University of Massachusetts, and University of California-Berkeley found “no detectable employment losses from the kind of minimum wage increases we have seen in the United States”.

The reason for that is quite simple – a minimum wage means customers with more money in their pockets.

As Governor Hassan and our Legislature come to an agreement over the state budget, they will be asked to make a lot of tough decisions on how to foster economic development in New Hampshire with the resources we have available.

What they choose to fund is ultimately a reflection of their priorities. Yet they should keep in mind that the minimum wage offers a simple way to foster economic development without spending resources from the state.

Ultimately, the debate over the minimum wage comes down to the type of economy that we want. Do we want an economy that relies on subsidizing the employers who pay their workers the least? Or do we want one that recognizes that every worker’s toil is worthy of a living wage?

Jobs should keep Granite Staters out of poverty, not in it. It is time to reinstate the minimum wage and create a path to prosperity for workers and their families.

Why Raising Th Minimum Wage Is A No Brainer

  By Matt Murray | February 20, 2013 - 7:10 pm |
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from http://standupfl.org/event/national-raise-the-wage-day/

What do we want? A stronger middle class! When do we want it? NOW!

Every politician made claims that they want to strengthen the middle class. Now it is time to put up or shut up!

Durning the State of the Union address the President made a call to raise the minimum wage to $9.00 an hour by the end of 2015.  A raise that is far overdue.

Workers have been pushed down for too long, and now the middle class is shrinking.  Overall wages have been stagnent and by not raising the bottom line all workers have been effected.  Raising the minimum wage will in turn lift all wages.

Raising the minimum wage will automatically boost the wages of 15 million people.   Locally that would help at least 15,000 minimum wage earners.  The numbers vary because there are 42,000 tipped employees who are currently paid $2.13 per hour as a base.  Lifting the wage will ensure that working families do not live in poverty.  Isn’t that what the minimum wage law was designed to do?

I also agree with President Obama that we need to create an automatic increase to the minimum wage to ensure that wages rise with inflation.  President Obama proposes that we tie minimum wage to the cost of living index.

Since everyone agrees that poverty is a major issue in the United States, raising the minium wage should be the first thing we do to combat poverty.

Raising the wage should be a no brainer for both sides of the aisle.  Republicans want people off government assistance programs and Democrats want people to earn a living wage. Raising the minimum wage will do both.  It will also increase the taxes coming into the government, while decreasing spending on assistance programs. It is a total win-win.

Now that people are no longer living in poverty our economy will start to improve on its own, because people once again have money to spend.

Time To Raise NH Minimum Wage (from InZane Times)

  By Arnie Alpert | January 30, 2013 - 10:05 am | ,
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money lock

Republished from InZane Times, By Arnie Alpert and Judy Elliot.

Judy and I wrote this one together.  It was published yesterday in the Concord Monitor.  We both testified at the public hearing, along with other advocates for low-wage workers.  The full force of the business lobby and the House Republicans were arrayed on the other side.  This is a good time to contact members of the House Labor Committee to support raising the minimum wage.

When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, the minimum wage went up in 10 states. But not New Hampshire, where the minimum wage is stuck at the federal level and the state’s minimum wage was abolished by the Legislature two years ago. Without change at the state level, thousands of New Hampshire workers will have to wait for the gridlocked Congress to raise the federal minimum wage above the current rate, $7.25 an hour.

What does it mean to live on $7.25 an hour? If you work 40 hours a week every week of the year, your annual income will be $15,080. Enough to live on? Not by a long shot. You’ll earn $4,000 less than the poverty-level income for a family of three. And even the poverty income is less than you need to keep a roof over your head. At the minimum wage, you’d have to work 106 hours a week to afford a typical two-bedroom New Hampshire apartment, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Help could be on the way.

Two bills coming before the House Labor Committee today would re-establish the state’s authority to set a minimum wage and raise it above the federal level. Rep. Tim Robertson of Keene is sponsoring House Bill 241 to establish a New Hampshire minimum wage of $9.25. HB127, co-sponsored by Reps. Peter Sullivan of Manchester and Timothy Horrigan of Durham, would set the minimum wage at $8 per hour.

In 1949 New Hampshire established a state minimum wage, though it seldom rose above the federal rate. But the state law was repealed in 2011. “There is no reason for New Hampshire to set ourselves higher than the national average and make ourselves less competitive for these workers who need to gain experience,” then-House Speaker Bill O’Brien said at the time.

No detectable employment losses

But would employers really hire fewer workers if the wage went up? Research suggests otherwise. Recent research by a team of economists from the Universities of California, Massachusetts and North Carolina “suggest no detectable employment losses from the kind of minimum wage increases we have seen in the United States.”

Why? Wouldn’t higher wages make it harder for businesses employing low-wage workers to earn a profit? Not necessarily. Raising wage rates tends to reduce employee turnover, reduce the costs of recruiting and training, and raise productivity. As Henry Ford discovered a century ago, increasing wages can be profitable.

Some opponents say it is mainly teens who earn minimum wage. Not true. Many of New Hampshire’s lowest-wage workers have families to support. Although we lack state-level statistics, we know that teens comprise only a quarter of minimum wage workers nationally.

Who will benefit from an increase? While most New Hampshire workers earn more than $8 an hour, plenty of workers would see their incomes rise. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 14,000 New Hampshire workers earn $7.25 per hour or less.

Raising the wage also will help thousands of workers now earning above $7.25 per hour. For example, a worker who currently earns $7.75 per hour will get a raise if the minimum wage goes up to $8.

Even people with somewhat higher wages will benefit. This is because many employers intentionally keep their pay a certain margin above the minimum in order to compete for employees.

HB 127 has an important additional feature, a process to raise the minimum wage as the cost of living increases. This is critical. The federal minimum wage would be $10.58 per hour now if it had kept up with inflation over the past 40 years.

Two more minimum wage bills – one in the House and one in the Senate – will come up soon.

Raising the minimum wage will not eliminate poverty in New Hampshire. But it will make a concrete difference in the lives of thousands of people struggling to earn a living. Every New England state except New Hampshire has a minimum wage above the federal level. Our workers deserve better pay for their hard work.

Bills to Increase NH Minimum Wage Heard Today by Susan Bruce

  By New Hampshire Labor News | January 29, 2013 - 10:23 pm | ,
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Minimum Wage Vs Rent

NH Minimum Wage: HB 127 and HB 241

The two bills were lumped together in a January 29, 2013 hearing in the Labor, Industrial, and Rehabilitative Services Committee.

Both bills call for an increase in the minimum wage. Last legislative session, the NH specific minimum wage was eliminated. NH complies with the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. The federal minimum wage has been increased exactly 3 times in the last 30 years.

HB241 would increase the state minimum wage to $9.25 an hour. HB127 would increase it to $8.00 an hour.

There are some 14,000 minimum wage workers in NH. 78.8% of them are over the age of 20.  Contrary to what many believe, fewer than a quarter of them are teenagers. More than a third of them are married, and over a quarter are parents. These are people who are earning $15,080 annually, if they work a steady 40-hour week.
Minimum Wage Vs Rent
The number of states (and NH counties) where a min. wage worker can afford a 2-bedroom apartment?  ZERO.

The chances that a minimum wage worker is a woman? 64 in 100.

If minimum wage kept up with increases in CEO pay, it would be over $23 an hour.

It was obvious that some of the committee members as well as those offering testimony today believe that minimum wage is the sole province of teenagers, but the facts from the Economic Policy Institute prove otherwise.

Rep. Shawn Jasper testified (in opposition) on behalf of House GOP leadership. He said that what NH needs is a training wage, and repeated several times that not everyone who is earning minimum wage is living on minimum wage. It is Rep. Jasper’s assertion that no one is worth $8 an hour when they’re 8 years old or even 13. The minimum wage does not help our youth, it does not allow them to push a broom or move up the rungs of the employment ladder. In fact, Jasper asserts, teens are unemployed BECAUSE of the minimum wage. Thanks to the min. wage, those jobs aren’t being created. He reiterated that there are a substantial number of people who do not need to live on the minimum wage.

Quick diversion: an informal poll of my friends with kids shows that teenaged babysitters are earning somewhere between $7 and $10 an hour.

Also, the reason for teen unemployment is simple. There are still millions of adults out of work. The teens are competing with them for jobs. It has nothing to do with minimum wage, and everything to do with what we’re still not calling a depression.

Businessman Steve Grenier of Rye has a seasonal ice cream business. He lives year round on those earnings. He states that he would be adversely affected, and would have to raise his prices. It wouldn’t be fair to the kids who worked their way to higher wages, if new kids came in at this new entry-level minimum wage. His employees are all students.

Representative Daniels from the committee wondered how many of the minimum wage workers are under 18 and still living at home. He also wondered how many are working min. wage jobs as a second job, “just for something to do.” Apparently those who work second jobs don’t merit higher pay.

Chris Williams of the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce opposes both bills. He told us of several small businesses that have closed in Nashua recently (which had nothing to do with this, btw) as a warning example of what will happen. Of course, if people earn more, they spend more at those small businesses – but that isn’t factored in to the thinking of business/industry groups and their lobbyists.

Another thing to consider: if wages don’t go up, than the cost of safety net services do.

Dan Juday (not at all sure of the spelling) of the BIA testified in opposition. This will have a ripple effect on all employers, increasing labor costs across the board. This is why we have outsourcing – because of labor costs. Also, he told us that an increase in minimum wage could bankrupt the unemployment insurance trust fund. This is no time to burden employers with more costs.

Beth Mattingly of the Carsey Institute pointed out that the federal poverty guidelines were developed in the 1960’s, based on the cost of food. They do not factor in the cost of housing or childcare, which are the biggest expenses for today’s working people. A single person would need to earn $9 an hour just to reach the federal poverty guidelines. Naturally, there were other folks there to speak in support of increasing the minimum wage. For me, today, the focus is on those who defend sub-poverty wages.

There are some wage subdivisions in place already. Restaurants are allowed to pay tipped workers substantially less than minimum wage. These are also people who don’t get paid sick days, so they come to work sick, because they have to, and then handle your food. Achoo!

There is a mechanism in place to pay people with developmental disabilities less than minimum wage. The business lobby would love to create a “training wage” in order to pay kids (and probably adults too) slave wages.

Curtis Barry of the Retail Merchants Association described the minimum wage working base as students and “retired people, looking for a little extra money.” Apparently those older people don’t deserve a decent wage, either. Fortunately no one mentioned housewives working for “pin money.”

There was almost no respect expressed for workers at this hearing. That was disheartening.

I did hear from a bill sponsor that there is a lot of support for an increase in the minimum wage. On behalf of 14,000 NH workers, let’s hope that there will be one.

CROSS POSTED with permission from Susan The Bruce Blog