ON LABOR DAY - $15 Minimum Wage

"How does the fight for $15 affect the labor market?" PBS NewsHour 9/7/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Three years since a small group of fast-food workers began protesting in demand of higher pay and better conditions, a minimum wage of $15 an hour is becoming a reality for many across the country.  Jeffrey Brown gets two perspectives from Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  It was just three years ago when more than 100 fast food workers in New York City first began walking off the job to demand higher wages and better working conditions.  Now a $15-an-hour minimum wage is becoming a reality for many low-wage workers across the country.

Jeffrey Brown has our Labor Day look.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  This summer has been a big one for the movement.  Los Angeles officials agreed to raise the minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15.  Mayors of eight other cities near San Francisco, including San Jose, are expected to soon endorse a similar plan.  And New York State is moving toward a $15-an-hour wage for all fast food workers; $15 has already been signed into law in other cities, including Seattle, with wages hiked gradually, depending on the city, between 2017 and 2021.

We look at the movement’s growing success and questions about its impact.

Robert Reich is former secretary of labor and now professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley.  He led a workers walkout at a McDonald’s in April.  His new book is called “Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few.”  And Michael Strain is an economist who studies labor market and wages.  He’s a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

And I want to welcome both of you.

Robert Reich, let me start with you.

Overview first.  Is it fair to see this movement as taking real hold and why do you think it has picked up so much momentum?

ROBERT REICH, Former U.S. Labor Secretary:  Jeff, I do think that it is taking hold.

I think it’s picked up momentum because, for one thing, the minimum wage in real terms, adjusted for inflation, keeps on dropping.  If we had the same minimum wage we had as in 1968, adjusted for inflation, it would be over $10 today.

I think a lot of people who are middle class, lower middle class and poor are just saying, look, this is just simply unfair.  And, finally, you have got a lot of middle class who are people are saying, we’re paying more and more taxes to keep working people out of poverty, which is effectively a subsidy to all of these low-wage employers.  And that’s not fair either.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Michael Strain, how do you assess the strength of the movement and what is behind it?

MICHAEL STRAIN, American Enterprise Institute:  Well, I think there’s no question that the movement is strong and seems to be growing stronger and, by their metrics of success, they have racked up some real victories.

I think if we raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour or similar levels in these cities, it will create winners, it will create losers.  In my judgment, there are going to be more losers than winners.  I think it’s a very risky strategy.  But I certainly understand what’s motivating these workers and these organizers, and I admire the goal, which is to help the working poor and working class Americans.

LABOR - CBO Report Sees Decrease in Labor Supply Because of ACA

Of course Republicans see this as more proof that ACA is bad, but listen to the full video and you see that that is a miss-reading of what the CBO says.  Some workers will leave the labor force because the job they had are ONLY so they could get health coverage through their employer, in other words they were ready to  retire.  Which, by the way, would leave more jobs open for others.

On the whole, the report is bad news for Republicans.

"New report forecasts health care reform law will decrease U.S. labor supply" PBS Newshour 2/4/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In the Congressional Budget Office’s economic outlook report for 2014, analysts predicted that as many as 2.3 million will stop working or work less as a result of the Affordable Care Act.  Gwen Ifill talks to NPR’s Julie Rovner about the findings and the political reactions coming from the White House and congressional Republicans.

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  So, there’s a distinction to be drawn between this affecting job supply and worker supply.

JULIE ROVNER, NPR:  That’s right.  This is all on the supply side, not the demand side.  These are fewer — in fact, I will read the line that the CBO said:  “The estimated reduction stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses’ demand for labor.”

So these are fewer workers in the work force, not fewer businesses hiring.

JOBS - New U.S. Labor Secretary on Jobs and Wages

"Labor Secretary Perez:  'Level Playing Field' Needed for American Workers" PBS Newshour 9/3/2013

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JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  Jobs numbers in the United States are due later this week, and they're expected to show hiring continues at a moderate pace.  But, even as the economy recovers slowly, there are other worries, including a lack of progress on wages.

That was the subject when Ray Suarez sat down with the secretary of labor recently.

RAY SUAREZ (Newshour):  Labor issues frequently don't capture the top headlines, but the question of a living wage is moving front and center of late.

Protests by fast food workers have helped raise the profile of the issue.  In the largest demonstration yet, workers from 60 cities walked off the job last week.  They're seeking $15 an hour and the right to unionize.  Many restaurant owners say those added costs would make it too difficult to maintain their businesses.  For his part, President Obama has called for raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour, up from the current level of $7.25.

Labor Secretary Thomas Perez is a key voice for dealing with these and other issues.  He was just recently confirmed by the Senate.

WORLD - Cambodia's Clothing Factories

"Are Western Consumers Willing to Pay More for Apparel?" PBS Newshour 6/14/2012

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JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Next, labor unrest in Cambodia's clothing factories. Workers are calling for fewer hours, better conditions and higher wages. That raises a question: Are Western consumers ready to pay more for apparel?

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO (Newshour): Back in the 1990s, Cambodia, impoverished and rebuilding after its genocidal Khmer Rouge years, took steps to give its new garment industry a competitive leg up. It agreed to a system of labor standards, with minimum wages and a limit on working hours, union representation and freedom of expression.

All would be open to international inspection. Today, there are perhaps 400,000 garment workers in more than 300 factories in and near the capital, Phnom Penh, subcontractors to retailers and brands across Europe and North America.

Beginning from scratch less than two decades ago, Cambodia's garment industry has grown into the largest export earner for this country. Three out of four dollars that come into Cambodia come from the garment factories.

The key question is how much all this has benefited workers, almost all of whom are female, or, if you listen to the unions, whether it has benefited them at all.

Many factories have been plagued by labor unrest. Occasionally, it has been violent. There have been frequent reports of workers fainting on the factory floors.

Union leader Chey Mony blames unhealthy conditions and workers weak from malnourishment.