Washington, DC (CBS) - In the battle over the minimum wage, low-wage workers are getting a helping hand from corporate America.
Dozens of executives and business owners are meeting with members of Congress Wednesday and Thursday, urging them to support a proposed hike of the baseline wage to $10.10.

While raising the minimum wage has backing from President Obama and congressional Democrats, it’s facing tough opposition from some corporate interests and conservatives. Among those fighting to keep the wage at $7.25 an hour is the National Restaurant Association, which has argued that a pay raise would result in job losses. But others in the business world, including Costco (COST) president Craig Jelinek and Ben & Jerry’s founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, are coming out in favor of the hike, arguing that near-poverty level wages sap the economy and taxpayers.
Raising the minimum wage “will provide a tremendous boost to the national economy,” notes Jon Cooper, the president of Spectronics, a Westbury, N.Y.-based maker of ultraviolet equipment. “Companies that pay their workers poverty wages of $7.25 are in effect subsidized by other businesses and taxpayers, because those workers are the most likely to turn to government programs to get by.”
What’s Cooper referring to? The fact that employees earning rock-bottom wages often qualify for government support in the form of food stamps and other aid. A single Wal-Mart Supercenter store in Wisconsin may suck $1.7 million per year from taxpayers, or about $6,000 per employee, because those workers quality for public aid, according to a study from congressional Democrats last year.

Cooper, who spoke with CBS MoneyWatch before setting off to meet six senators on Wednesday and another 16 on Thursday, said he’s part of a delegation of 26 executives meeting with both Republican and Democratic senators to make their case for a wage hike. Leo Hindery, managing partner of InterMedia Partners and the former head of TCI, will be joining the group on Thursday, according to Smart Capitalists for American Prosperity.

The meetings come after dozens of business owners and executives have thrown their support behind two pro-hike groups: Business for a Fair Minimum Wage and Smart Capitalists.

These days may be the toughest yet for workers trying to make ends meet on minimum-wage earnings. The inflation-adjusted federal base pay rate actually peaked in 1968, when it stood at $10.56 an hour. It has lost almost 6 percent of its purchasing power since 2009 as inflation has increased.

Back when his father started Spectronics in 1955, the minimum wage stood at $8.63 in today’s dollars, Cooper notes. His company’s 150 workers now all earn more than minimum wage, although a handful earn less than the proposed $10.10 rate.

“Nearly 71 percent of our 150 employees have been with us for over 10 years,” says Cooper, who adds that he believes paying above minimum wage helps retain workers.

Even though the segment of the workforce earning minimum wage or below stands at only 3 percent of hourly and salaried workers — a decline of two-thirds since 1979 — a boost would likely have a “ripple effect,” with businesses setting their wages just above the new minimum, Goldman Sachs economists Michael Cahill and David Mericle wrote in a Tuesday report.

Nevertheless, Cooper notes that he’s realistic about the struggles of convincing lawmakers to agree to a wage hike.

“There is very broad support across party lines and with the public, but it only goes so far with Congress,” he says. “They need to hear that business owners support increasing the minimum wage.”

As the White House releases a report that documents the impact raising the minimum wage would have on women, women in low-wage jobs march to the Capitol.

Several dozen female low-wage workers and their families braved a cold, windy Washington afternoon on March 26 to tell Congress that the least they can do is pass legislation that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

In fact, several of the demonstrators said that the government should go even farther and called for a “living wage” of $12.50 or more – the minimum wage that a single parent would need to rent a basic apartment and pay for necessities in a high-cost city like Washington.

The march from Union Station to the U.S. Capitol was organized by the group One D.C. and the Service Employees International Union. It was staged on the same day that the White House released a report that documented the impact that raising the minimum wage would have on women.

An increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour is especially important for the millions of women who are the backbone of the services sector yet struggle to provide the basics for their families. Plus, it would begin to narrow the earnings gap between men and women, the report said.

More than half – 55 percent – of the workers who would benefit from an increase of the minimum wage to $10.10 are women, the report said. That is because women are disproportionately concentrated in low-wage service sectors of the economy.

More than 2 million of the women who would benefit are single mothers, and if they are raising two children while working full-time at a job paying the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, they are below the poverty line of $15,730 for a family of three.

Included among those who would benefit are those in the tipped-wage sector, which is 72 percent comprised of women. These include restaurant workers and those in other occupations where workers rely on tips. That’s because the tipped minimum wage – $2.13 an hour – has not been increased since the 1990s, and legislation that would set the $10.10 minimum wage would also set this tipped minimum to 70 percent of the minimum wage. Both would then be indexed to inflation.

Despite decades of efforts on behalf of equal pay for women, women still earn on average 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. Legislation increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 would narrow that gap by 5 percent, the report said, citing analysis from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

The report also argues that the $10.10 minimum wage “can also be a powerful tool in helping women work their way out of poverty and into the middle class.” The report notes that as the buying power of the minimum wage has failed to keep up with the cost of living since the 1980s, the income gap has widened between women at the bottom of the wage scale and those at the median.

This report comes as congressional Republicans continue to stall on bills in both houses that would implement the wage increase. In particular, the House bill, by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), has yet to even come up for a hearing before the House Education and Labor Committee.

Almost 70 percent of the public supports the $10.10 minimum wage, but House Republicans are still not hearing the voices of the majority. For that to change, we will have to be persistent. Join the more than 60,000 people who have signed our petition to raise the minimum wage.

Washington, DC (CBS) - In the battle over the minimum wage, low-wage workers are getting a helping hand from corporate America.
Dozens of executives and business owners are meeting with members of Congress Wednesday and Thursday, urging them to support a proposed hike of the baseline wage to $10.10.

While raising the minimum wage has backing from President Obama and congressional Democrats, it’s facing tough opposition from some corporate interests and conservatives. Among those fighting to keep the wage at $7.25 an hour is the National Restaurant Association, which has argued that a pay raise would result in job losses. But others in the business world, including Costco (COST) president Craig Jelinek and Ben & Jerry’s founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, are coming out in favor of the hike, arguing that near-poverty level wages sap the economy and taxpayers.
Raising the minimum wage “will provide a tremendous boost to the national economy,” notes Jon Cooper, the president of Spectronics, a Westbury, N.Y.-based maker of ultraviolet equipment. “Companies that pay their workers poverty wages of $7.25 are in effect subsidized by other businesses and taxpayers, because those workers are the most likely to turn to government programs to get by.”
What’s Cooper referring to? The fact that employees earning rock-bottom wages often qualify for government support in the form of food stamps and other aid. A single Wal-Mart Supercenter store in Wisconsin may suck $1.7 million per year from taxpayers, or about $6,000 per employee, because those workers quality for public aid, according to a study from congressional Democrats last year.

Cooper, who spoke with CBS MoneyWatch before setting off to meet six senators on Wednesday and another 16 on Thursday, said he’s part of a delegation of 26 executives meeting with both Republican and Democratic senators to make their case for a wage hike. Leo Hindery, managing partner of InterMedia Partners and the former head of TCI, will be joining the group on Thursday, according to Smart Capitalists for American Prosperity.

The meetings come after dozens of business owners and executives have thrown their support behind two pro-hike groups: Business for a Fair Minimum Wage and Smart Capitalists.

These days may be the toughest yet for workers trying to make ends meet on minimum-wage earnings. The inflation-adjusted federal base pay rate actually peaked in 1968, when it stood at $10.56 an hour. It has lost almost 6 percent of its purchasing power since 2009 as inflation has increased.

Back when his father started Spectronics in 1955, the minimum wage stood at $8.63 in today’s dollars, Cooper notes. His company’s 150 workers now all earn more than minimum wage, although a handful earn less than the proposed $10.10 rate.

“Nearly 71 percent of our 150 employees have been with us for over 10 years,” says Cooper, who adds that he believes paying above minimum wage helps retain workers.

Even though the segment of the workforce earning minimum wage or below stands at only 3 percent of hourly and salaried workers — a decline of two-thirds since 1979 — a boost would likely have a “ripple effect,” with businesses setting their wages just above the new minimum, Goldman Sachs economists Michael Cahill and David Mericle wrote in a Tuesday report.

Nevertheless, Cooper notes that he’s realistic about the struggles of convincing lawmakers to agree to a wage hike.

“There is very broad support across party lines and with the public, but it only goes so far with Congress,” he says. “They need to hear that business owners support increasing the minimum wage.”

Stepped Up Support For $10.10 Federal Minimum Wage; $12:50 D.C. Minimum Wage Initiative Also Announced

Demonstrators Call On Congress To “Stop Minimizing Women” As It Considers Minimum Wage Discharge Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Scores of women and their children shared stories of dwindling hope and poverty as the Congress prepares a discharge petition to force a vote on the Fair Minimum Wage Act. More than 100 women and children, low-wage workers and their supporters rallied at the West Front of the Capitol demanding that elected officials raise the nation’s minimum wage from a meager $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. Families also called on District residents to support a voter initiative that calls for a minimum wage of $12.50 in the District of Columbia as the cost of living skyrockets above national averages here.

Supporters point to the fact that millions of people get up and go to work each day for pay that doesn’t allow them to provide for their families. The average yearly income from a minimum wage jobs comes out to roughly $15,000 a year, $7000 below the poverty line for a family of four.

“For me and my family an increase in the minimum wage would mean the difference between not having to choose between basic necessities,” say’s La Shawn Brown. “My husband and I have eight children; I shouldn’t have to worry about my children going hungry.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a $10.10 minimum wage would increase the take-home pay of 16.5 million workers and lift 900,000 above the poverty level. The White House says 33,000 District workers would benefit.

The women called on Congress and local officials to “Stop Minimizing Women.” An estimated 19,000 women earn minimum wage in the District of Columbia; many are heads of households and almost all are handcuffed to poverty by low wages. The National Women’s Law Center reports that two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women.

Activists spoke about economic inequality and advocated for an increase in the federal minimum wage in rallies Wednesday outside the offices of U.S. congressional representatives in Corning and Binghamton.

The 11-state “Give America A Raise” bus tour, sponsored by Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Change and supported by other organizations including Citizen Action of New York, wants to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10, as President Barack Obama asked Congress in his State of the Union address in January.

The bus tour made its only two New York stops on Wednesday — Corning and Binghamton. The office of Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, was visited in the morning, and an appearance at Binghamton office of Rep. Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld, was in the afternoon. Both congressmen oppose increasing the federal minimum wage.

“American workers need a raise,” said retired Methodist minister Gary Doupe, of Bainbridge, as the bus was parked outside Binghamton’s Metrocenter, which houses Hanna’s office.

“Our social compact is broken,” Doupe said. “We need to re-establish a covenant of economic mutuality in which the needs of the least powerful become first priority for us all.”

Though New York has a minimum wage of $8 per hour, which is scheduled to increase to $8.75 at the end of this year and to $9 at the end of 2015, protesters said the state minimum is too low.

“You can’t talk minimum wage without talking about poverty,” said Andy Mazzella, of Catholic Charities Steuben County, during the stop in Corning, adding that the state’s minimum wage is not a living wage.

“There’s a growing tendency to disparage the poor and blame them for their own circumstances,” Mazzella said. “The vast majority of people we see at Catholic Charities are struggling because of decisions and circumstances beyond their control.”

Citing calculations by the Council of Economic Advisers, Obama’s supporters say 28 million Americans will see wage increases if Congress raises the federal minimum wage.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in February released an estimate that if the minimum wage increased to $10.10 per hour in the second half of 2016, 16.5 million Americans would earn about $31 billion in additional money, while some Americans would lose their jobs.

In the estimate, the CBO said there was a two-thirds chance that the effect of a minimum-wage increase would range from a very slight decrease in employment to the loss of 1 million jobs. Their “central estimate” is that about 500,000 jobs would be lost.

The people on the tour dispute the estimate.

“We are allowing the rich to starve the poor,” said Becca Forsyth, of Elmira, a mother of three who has worked for minimum wage for most of her life, during the Corning stop. “We need to demand that we can provide for our children without having to worry and choose which necessities we can afford.”

Joe Sempolinski, Reed’s district director, invited the demonstrators inside to warm up.

As he spoke to the protesters, Sempolinski cited the CBO estimate as the reason Reed will oppose a minimum-wage increase across the nation.

“A wage increase may work in one state, but an across-the-board hike would cut half a million jobs,” Reed said in a statement provided to reporters after the tour. “These are jobs we can’t afford to lose.”

After the Binghamton stop, about a half-dozen people went inside the Metrocenter to Hanna’s office, where they spoke with Terre Dennis, Hanna’s regional director.

Renee Gamela, a spokeswoman for Hanna, also said the congressman’s stance has not changed.

“Given New York is increasing its own minimum wage, Rep. Hanna is not inclined to support a federal minimum wage hike,” Gamela said by e-mail. “As always, he’s open to a debate on the topic.”

By Zachary Lester, Afro News

Tena Weedon’s daughter, Jeanae, an aspiring school principal, received scholarships to pay for all but $2,000 per year of her tuition to Spelman College. However, even covering the balance is difficult for Weedon.

As a worker who has always made minimum wage or only a little more, she is constantly facing financial challenges. Each month, she struggles to pay for basic necessities and has even fallen behind on the monthly payments for her subsidized apartment. She was recently laid off from her job as a part-time retail clerk at a hardware store where she made $8 per hour.

Weedon said her most difficult challenge is figuring out how to take care of her daughter’s needs. Like most parents, she is willing to do without for herself, but finds it painful when she can’t even afford to send her daughter $20 for spending money.

“It hurts,” said Weedon, 48, who lives in Southeast Washington. “She knows I struggle, so she won’t ask me when she needs something. When I do get a little extra money and I try to send her something, she doesn’t want to take it because she knows how it is.”

Weedon is among a group of low wage-earning women scheduled to participate in a walk to protest for a hike in the minimum wage on March 26. The protest, organized by OurDC, is being held to ask that the minimum wage in D.C. be increased to $12.50 per hour. A spokesman for OurDC said the higher wage would “begin to lift low-wage workers out of poverty.” The group is also urging passage of an increase in the national minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. The federal wage hike is supported by President Obama.

“When your house is on fire you dial 911. Who do you call when your daughter’s future is going up in flames because you earn minimum wage?” Weedon asked.

“A high school teacher pays the rest because I just couldn’t afford it. I’ll be marching for a decent wage so I can help my child. Right now, I can’t.”

According to statistics from the National Employment Law Center, there are about 19,000 women workers in the District who earn minimum wage. Many of them are women of color who are heads of their households, said James Adams, the spokesman for OurDC.

“Almost all are handcuffed to poverty by low wages,” Adams said. “The White House said almost 33,000 District workers would benefit from a $10.10 per hour federal minimum wage.”

Weedon told the AFRO she has always found it difficult to find higher-paying jobs. She dropped out of Cardozo High School in the early 80s, but returned in 2000 to earn her diploma from Ballou High School so that she could keep her $7.75-per hour job as a teacher’s assistant. The highest she has ever made at a job is $9 per hour, when she worked at Dulles International Airport.

At $9 per hour, she earned $720 each two-week pay period. By the time taxes were taken out, she took home $575 and she was grateful for the job.

“When I was working security, I made minimum wage,” she said. “When I was working most of the other jobs I’ve had, I’ve made minimum wage. If you aren’t working in the government or own your own business or work in something like the news, you make minimum wage in D.C.”

Expenses can add up quickly. She can’t remember the last time she bought herself a dress or had her hair done. Her only recent personal purchase was buying a pair of sneakers a few months ago. Since she can’t afford a car, she often walks where she needs to go to save on bus and Metro fares.

On a recent afternoon, her refrigerator held nine eggs, a pack of bologna, three pieces of Kraft American cheese, a pack of ramen noodles, a half gallon of tea and a bottle of water. There were two packs of frozen chicken wings in her freezer.

She had purchased a few pieces of fruit when she went shopping a few days earlier, but it was gone quickly. “I get $189 per month in food stamps,” she said. “I was splitting them with my daughter so she could get something to eat down at school.”

The march is one of a series of actions scheduled to urge lawmakers on Capitol Hill to pass legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to benefit workers like Weedon, Adams said.

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) has been invited to walk at the head of the group on March 26. Organizers expect 200 women and children, as well as men who are also low wage workers.

Adams said the event was planned to coincide with the return of congressional leaders from their March recess. The March 26 protest will begin at 4 p.m. at Columbus Circle in front of Union Station. The group will march to the west front of the Capitol for a 4:30 p.m. rally and news conference.

She wants legislators considering measures to increase the minimum wage for workers like her to understand that they want to work. They just need to make a fair wage, Weedon said.

“I just wish they would close their eyes and put themselves in our shoes,” she said. “They need to picture their daughters and sons and what it would be like to not be able to feed them or take care of them. I want them to image their family in that situation and tell me what they think then.”

Avis Thomas-Lester contributed to this report.

Demonstrators Call On Congress To “Stop Minimizing Women” As It Considers Minimum Wage Discharge Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Led by nearly 200 women and children, low-wage workers and their supporters will march from Union Station on Wednesday March 26, at 4 p.m. to the Capitol for a 4:30 p.m. rally and press conference. The women will call on Congress and local officials to “Stop Minimizing Women.” Two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women. An estimated 19,000 women earn minimum wage in the District of Columbia; many are heads of households and almost all are handcuffed to poverty by low wages.

“The District’s recently passed minimum wage increase doesn’t go far enough fast enough and Congress has done nothing to help working single mothers like me,” says Tena Weedon, whose daughter is attending Spelman College. “When your house is on fire, you dial 911; who do you call when your daughter’s future is going up in flames because you earn minimum wage?

“My daughter earned all but $2,000 in scholarships. A high school teacher pays the rest of her tuition because I just can’t afford it,” Weedon says. “I’ll be marching for a decent wage so I can help my child, right now I can’t.”

Scores of women with similar stories will share their struggles on the minimum wage at the press conference.

As Congress returns from its March recess, there will have been many actions across the country on raising the minimum wage. The bulk of the jobs added to the economy during the recovery were low-wage jobs. The federal government’s $7.25 minimum wage supports continued poverty for working men and women. In the District, an estimated 33,000 workers would benefit from a $10.10 federal minimum wage.

WHAT: “Stop Minimizing Women March and Rally”

WHO: Women, Children, Low-Wage Workers, Community Groups, Clergy

WHEN and WHERE: March 26, 4:00 p.m. Assemble at Columbus Circle, Union Station, march to 4:30 p.m. press conference and rally at Capitol

Minimum wage-earners in the D.C. area continue to face an uphill battle for housing, needing to work the equivalent of about three full-time jobs to make rent on a two-bedroom home in D.C., Maryland and Virginia according to a new study released today by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

• Renters in the District of Columbia need to work 137 hours per week at the minimum wage of $8.25 an hour to afford a Fair Market Rent of $1,469.
• Renters in Maryland need to work 138 hours per week at a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to afford a Fair Market Rent of $1,297.
• Renters in Virginia need to work 115 hours per week at the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to afford a Fair Market Rent of $1,088.

If the Fair Market Rent numbers seem lower than what most renters could expect to pay in D.C., it’s because they are. FMR represents the 40th percentile of gross rents for typical units — it is a measure used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for housing-voucher programs. The study’s definition of affordability may also be different than that of a typical D.C. resident; it classifies “affordable” as no more than 30 percent of a household’s gross income.

Increases in minimum wage on the way

Lawmakers have been busy addressing both sides of the issue since similar numbers were released in a report last year.

In November 2013, the D.C. Council approved an increase in the minimum wage to $11.50, which will be phased in over three years. Similar bills were passed in neighboring Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, and an effort to raise the statewide wage to $10.10 has stalled in the Maryland state senate.

If you factor in a minimum wage of $11.50, D.C. minimum wage earners would still be looking at a 98-hour week to make rent, and workers in neighboring Maryland would be looking at nearly 87 hours a week.

An effort to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 at the federal level stalled in Congress last year, though President Barack Obama brought up the issue again this year in his State of the Union address. He also issued an executive order dictating that companies with new federal contracts must pay workers at least $10.10.

“While increasing the federal minimum wage would benefit millions of low income workers, it would not solve the affordable housing problem as households would still not earn enough to find affordable rental homes,” say the study’s authors. They further note that even at $10.10 and factoring in a one-bedroom apartment instead of two, only in Arkansas, Kentucky and Puerto Rico would a household be able to subsist at minimum wage.

Affordable housing squeeze

The other side of the problem is that demand for rental housing is booming. In 2012, there were more than 40 million renter households, according to a study by the Joint Center For Housing Studies, with 1.1 million joining the ranks in just one year — double the rate of growth in decades past.

“Renting has become more attractive to people in all demographic groups, appealing across age and income groups,” write the study’s authors. “While some opt for rental housing because of the flexibility it provides, many others are boxed out of homeownership due to tight credit.”

The market has grown tighter for all renters, but the shortage is especially glaring for low income households. Last year, the District closed its waiting list for public housing, which had more than 70,000 families waiting decades for a spot in one of just 8,000 units.

Mayor Vincent Gray has committed to building or preserving 10,000 affordable units by 2020. In his State of the District speech this year, he said 5,000 affordable units have been created already with “thousands more” in the pipeline.