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Legislation & Politics | ||
Letter to Senators urging them to pass H.R. 2, a clean minimum wage bill.
On behalf of the 1.4 million members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), I strongly urge you to pass a clean minimum wage bill, H.R. 2, with no strings or poison pills attached. H.R. 2 was approved by the House of Representatives by a large bipartisan margin (315-116), and would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over a 26-month period. AFSCME urges you to vote for cloture on H.R. 2, the clean minimum wage bill. Raising the minimum wage to $7.25 would provide a financial boost to 13 million Americans, 5.6 million directly and 7.4 million indirectly. This would benefit 7.7 million women, 3.4 million parents, and 4.7 million people of color who would earn an additional $4,400 a year when the bill is fully phased in. At $5.15 an hour, millions of Americans working full-time and year-round are actually forced to live in poverty. A worker working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year earns only $10,712 a year –nearly $6,000 below the poverty level for a family of three. A minimum wage increase to $7.25 is particularly important at a time when America’s families have seen their real income drop by almost $1,300 since 2000, while the costs of health insurance, gasoline, home heating, and attending college have all increased by almost $5,000 annually. Polls show that an overwhelming majority of Americans support raising the minimum wage. In 2006 voters in six states approved state ballot initiatives to raise their state minimum wage raise above the federal minimum. A total of 28 states now have a minimum wage that is above the long frozen federal minimum wage level. It is time for the Senate to recognize this need as well. In the past 10 years, a majority of the Senate has supported tax cuts for millionaires but has denied any raise to the lowest wage workers despite their increased productivity on the one hand and the inflation that has eaten away at the real value of their wages on the other hand. The output per hour of all persons has increased over 29 percent between 1997 and the third quarter of 2006 while the value of the 1997 increase has been fully eroded by nearly 10 years of inflation. The real value of today’s minimum wage is less than it has been since 1951. It is time for the Senate to put aside the long discredited arguments and excuses and pass a clean minimum wage increase. It is also time for the Senate to defeat the plethora of poison pills that will once again be offered in an effort to deny minimum wage workers their long overdue increase. Poison pills that should be defeated include all anti-worker amendments as well as the line item veto amendment. The line item veto would grant excessive power to the executive branch by unfairly shifting power away from Congress, without ensuring any greater fiscal discipline and would likely be misused to protect special interests and punish others. Other poison pill amendments that should be voted down include eliminating the 40-hour work week by substituting an 80-hour work period; restricting the states’ ability to set their own tip credit levels that are higher than the federal tip credit level; permitting employers who offer child care or health benefits to pay less than the federal minimum wage; and making professional employer organizations (PEOs) sole employers of leased employees for purposes of employment taxes. I urge the Senate to give minimum wage workers a long overdue raise to $7.25 an hour by voting for cloture on H.R. 2. Sincerely, Charles M. Loveless
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