seattle is right by robert reich

Seattle is Right Thursday, June 5, 2014 By raising its minimum wage to $15, Seattle is leading a long-overdue movement toward a living wage. Most minimum wage workers aren’t teenagers these days. They’re major breadwinners who need a higher minimum wage in order to keep their families out of poverty. Across America, the ranks of the working poor are growing. While low-paying industries such as retail and food preparation accounted for 22 percent of the jobs lost in the Great Recession, they’ve generated 44 percent of the jobs added since then, according to a recent report from the National Employment Law Project. Last February, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that raising the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 would lift 900,000 people out of poverty. Seattle estimates almost a fourth of its workers now earn below $15 an hour. That translates into about $31,000 a year for a full-time worker. In a high-cost city like Seattle, that’s barely enough to support a family. The gains from a higher minimum wage extend beyond those who receive it. More money in the pockets of low-wage workers means more sales, especially in the locales they live in – which in turn creates faster growth and more jobs. A major reason the current economic recovery is anemic is that so many Americans lack the purchasing power to get the economy moving again. With a higher minimum wage, moreover, we’d all end up paying less for Medicaid, food stamps and other assistance the working poor now need in order to have a minimally decent standard of living. Some worry about job losses accompanying a higher minimum wage. I wouldn’t advise any place to raise its minimum wage immediately from the current federal minimum of $7.25 an hour to $15. That would be too big a leap all at once. Employers – especially small ones – need time to adapt. But this isn’t what Seattle is doing. It’s raising its minimum from $9.32 (Washington State’s current statewide minimum) to $15 incrementally over several years. Large employers (with over 500 workers) that don’t offer employer-sponsored health insurance have three years to comply; those that offer health insurance have four; smaller employers, up to seven. (That may be too long a phase-in.) My guess is Seattle’s businesses will adapt without any net loss of employment. Seattle’s employers will also have more employees to choose from – as the $15 minimum attracts into the labor force some people who otherwise haven’t been interested. That means they’ll end up with workers who are highly reliable and likely to stay longer, resulting in real savings. Research by Michael Reich (no relation) and Arindrajit Dube confirms these results. They examined employment in several hundred pairs of adjacent counties lying on opposite sides of state borders, each with different minimum wages, and found no statistically significant increase in unemployment in the higher-minimum counties, even after four years. (Other researchers who found contrary results failed to control for counties where unemployment was already growing before the minimum wage was increased.) They also found that employee turnover was lower where the minimum was higher. Not every city or state can meet the bar Seattle has just set. But many can – and should.

this poem was and is used a lot by peter

travels and life: love this poem: The Paradoxial C:omandments : by Dr. Kent M. Keith                                                                                          ...

travels and life: Commencement Speech by peter barnett at st joseph ...

travels and life: Commencement Speech by peter barnett at st joseph ...:     Graduates you made it.  After much work, study, books read, papers done, miles traveled, missed meals and events, you have made it. Give...

$15/an hour minimum wage in seattle good bold move lets all follow the lead!!!!

Seattle Mayor Details Plan for $15 Minimum Wage By KIRK JOHNSONMAY 1, 2014 Photo Mayor Ed Murray of Seattle on Thursday announced a plan to increase the city’s minimum wage in stages. Washington already has the highest statewide minimum wage in the nation, at $9.32. Credit Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times, via Associated Press SEATTLE — Mayor Ed Murray presented on Thursday what he described as an imperfect but workable plan to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than twice the federal minimum wage and one of the highest anywhere in the nation, through a series of complex and phased-in stages. Just as crucially, he said, the plan has broad political support, with a coalition of labor and business groups ready to push hard for it at the City Council, starting with the first hearings next week. But the plan, which in many other cities might be seen as a liberal Democratic agenda at the frontier of social and economic engineering, was immediately attacked not from the mayor’s right, but from his left. Continue reading the main story Related Coverage Kshama Sawant, a Socialist Alternative Party member who was elected to the Seattle City Council last year on a single-minded drive to raise wages, said the plan had been “watered down” by business interests on the mayor’s 24-member committee on income inequality, of which she was also a member. In a packed news conference at City Hall right after Mr. Murray’s, she called on her supporters to continue their effort to gather signatures for a possible ballot initiative on wages this fall. The campaign might also put pressure on the Council to make the mayor’s plan better for workers, she suggested. “Every year of a phase-in means yet another year in poverty for a worker,” Ms. Sawant said. “Our work is far from done.” Mr. Murray, a Democrat and former state senator, formed his special committee on income inequality this year — headed by a labor union leader and a business executive — and gave them three months to find common ground. While running for mayor last fall, he, like Ms. Sawant, pledged to support a $15 minimum wage. The result, in an agreement reached late Wednesday, with 21 of the 24 members supporting the plan, he said, was a two-tiered minimum-wage structure. Employers with more than 500 workers — no matter where those workers are around the nation — would move on a faster track toward $15 than smaller employers. Tips and employer-paid health care benefits also would be factored in getting to the $15 level for smaller companies, at least in the earlier years of the plan. The result is a disparity, at least in the rate of pay increases, if not the final destination: Some workers would get to $15 an hour as early as 2017, with a cost-of-living adjustment after that tied to the Consumer Price Index, while other workers, at smaller companies, would not see $15 until 2021. Washington already has the highest statewide minimum wage in the nation, at $9.32. “It is complicated, but the situation is complicated,” Mr. Murray said. The end result, he said, would be historic and important, solidly built on the common ground found by business and leaders. Compromise, with no one getting everything they wanted, he said, was the key. “We are going to decrease the poverty rate in the city by raising the minimum wage. We are going to improve lives of workers who can barely afford to live in the city,” Mr. Murray said. “At the same time we’re going to do it in a way that doesn’t harm those folks who are the great job creators of the city — the entrepreneurs, the homegrown businesses.” One of the chairmen of the mayor’s committee, David Rolf, the president of a Seattle chapter of the Service Employees International Union, said the package of compromises in the deal was delicate and could unravel if too much is tinkered with by the nine-member City Council. But he said he thought the chances were good that the plan would pass quickly, possibly deflating the forces led by Ms. Sawant who are trying to take the issue to the voters. All nine members of the Council, Mr. Rolf said, have pledged support in principle to a $15 minimum wage, and two who were members of the income inequality committee supported the package that emerged. “I believe that if the Council passes this agreement within the next few weeks that the public won’t support a ballot measure fight,” Mr. Rolf said. “And certainly the labor movement is not going to support a ballot measure fight.” A version of this article appears in print on May 2, 2014, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Seattle Mayor Details Plan for $15 Minimum Wage. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe Next in U.S. Republicans Weigh Odds in Primaries in Iowa and Mississippi Seattle Mayor Details Plan for $15 Minimum Wage By KIRK JOHNSONMAY 1, 2014

ceo can get huge raises but the workers can not have a decent wage ,how does that make sense???

Big Story Top News Special Coverage Archive ESPAÑOL Video May 27, 5:42 Captains of industry: Comparing CEO pay and performance by Ken Sweet NEW YORK (AP) -- They're the $10 million men and women. Propelled by a soaring stock market, the median pay package for a CEO rose above eight figures for the first time last year. The head of a Standard & Poor's 500 company earned a record $10.5 million, an increase of 8.8 percent from $9.6 million in 2012, according to an Associated Press/Equilar pay study. Last year was the fourth straight that CEO compensation rose following a decline during the Great Recession. The median CEO pay package climbed more than 50 percent over that stretch. A chief executive now makes about 257 times the average worker's salary, up sharply from 181 times in 2009. The best paid CEO last year led an oilfield-services company. The highest paid female CEO was Carol Meyrowitz of discount retail giant TJX, owner of TJ Maxx and Marshall's. And the head of Monster Beverage got a monster of a raise. Over the last several years, companies' boards of directors have tweaked executive compensation to answer critics' calls for CEO pay to be more attuned to performance. They've cut back on stock options and cash bonuses, which were criticized for rewarding executives even when a company did poorly. Boards of directors have placed more emphasis on paying CEOs in stock instead of cash and stock options. The change became a boon for CEOs last year because of a surge in stocks that drove the S&P 500 index up 30 percent. The stock component of pay packages rose 17 percent to $4.5 million. "Companies have been happy with their CEOs' performance and the stock market has provided a big boost," says Gary Hewitt, director of research at GMI Ratings, a corporate governance research firm. "But we are still dealing with a situation where CEO compensation has spun out of control and CEOs are being paid extraordinary levels for their work." The highest paid CEO was Anthony Petrello of oilfield-services company Nabors Industries, who made $68.3 million in 2013. Petrello's pay ballooned as a result of a $60 million lump sum that the company paid him to buy out his old contract. Nabors Industries did not respond to calls from The Associated Press seeking comment. Petrello was one of a handful of chief executives who received a one-time boost in pay because boards of directors decided to re-negotiate CEO contracts under pressure from shareholders. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold CEO Richard Adkerson also received a one-time payment of $36.7 million to renegotiate his contract. His total pay, $55.3 million, made him the third-highest paid CEO last year. The second-highest paid CEO among companies in the S&P 500 was Leslie Moonves of CBS. Moonves' total compensation rose 9 percent to $65.6 million in 2013, a year when the company's stock rose nearly 70 percent. "CBS's share appreciation was not only the highest among major media companies, it was near the top of the entire S&P 500," CBS said in a statement. "Mr. Moonves' compensation is reflective of his continued strong leadership." Media industry CEOs were, once again, paid handsomely. Viacom's Philippe Dauman made $37.2 million while Walt Disney's Robert Iger made $34.3 million. Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes earned $32.5 million. The industry with the biggest pay bump was banking. The median pay of a Wall Street CEO rose by 22 percent last year, on top of a 22 percent increase the year before. BlackRock chief Larry Fink made the most, $22.9 million. Kenneth Chenault of American Express ranked second with earnings of $21.7 million. Like stock compensation, performance cash bonuses jumped last year as a result of the surging stock market and higher corporate profits. Earnings per share of the S&P 500 rose 5.3 percent in 2013, according to FactSet. That resulted in a median cash bonus of $1.9 million, a jump of 12.6 percent from the prior year. More than two-thirds of CEOs at S&P 500 companies received a raise last year, according to the AP/Equilar study, because of the bigger profits and higher stock prices. CEO pay remains a divisive issue in the U.S. Large investors and boards of directors argue that they need to offer big pay packages to attract talented men and women who can run multibillion-dollar businesses. "If you have a good CEO at a company, the wealth he might generate for shareholders could be in the billions," says Dan Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "It might be worth paying these guys millions for doing this type of work." CEOs are still getting much bigger raises than the average U.S. worker. The 8.8 percent increase in total pay that CEOs got last year dwarfed the average raise U.S. workers received. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said average weekly wages for U.S. workers rose 1.3 percent in 2013. At that rate an employee would have to work 257 years to make what a typical S&P 500 CEO makes in a year. "There's this unbalanced approach, where there's all this energy put into how to reward executives, but little energy being put into ensuring the rest of the workforce is engaged, productive and paid appropriately," says Richard Clayton, research director at Change to Win Investment Group, which works with labor union-affiliated pension funds. Investors have become increasingly vocal about executive pay since the recession. This has led to an increasing number of public spats between boards of directors, who propose pay packages, and shareholders, who own the company. These fights become public during "say on pay" votes, when shareholders have an opportunity to show they approve or don't approve of pay packages. Votes are non-binding, but companies sometimes act when there is clear disapproval from shareholders. Petrello was the best-paid CEO largely because the board of directors of Nabors Industries' wanted to end his previous contract. Under that contract, Petrello could have been owed huge cash bonuses, and the company could have paid out tens of millions of dollars if he were to die or become disabled. The board changed his contract following "say on pay" votes in 2012 and 2013 that showed shareholders were unhappy with how Nabors paid its executives. There have been other signs of shareholder concern about CEO pay. This month, 75 percent of Chipotle Mexican Grill shareholders voted against a proposed pay package for co-CEOs Steve Ells and Montgomery Moran. Ells earned $25.1 million in 2013 while Moran earned $24.3 million, a 27 percent rise in compensation for each. Chipotle spent $49.5 million on CEO pay last year, the fourth highest in the S&P 500. "Companies are now taking the time to think through their pay practices and are talking more with shareholders," says Hewitt of GMI Ratings. "There's still a long way to go but pay practices are getting better." To calculate a CEO's pay package, the AP and Equilar looked at salary as well as perks, bonuses and stock and option awards, using the regulatory filings that companies file each year. Equilar looked at data from 337 companies that had filed their proxies by April 30. It includes CEOs who have been at the company for two years. One prominent name not included in the data was Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who is typically one of the best paid CEOs in the country. Oracle files its salary paperwork later in the year, so Ellison was excluded in the 2013 survey data. He was awarded $76.9 million in stock options for Oracle's fiscal year ending May 2013, according to proxy filings. Among other findings: - Female CEOs had a median pay package worth more than their male counterparts, $11.7 million versus $10.5 million for males. However, there were only 12 female CEOs in the AP/Equilar study compared with 325 male CEOs that were polled. TJX's Meyrowitz was the best-paid female CEO in the AP/Equilar study. She earned $20.7 million last year. - The CEO who got the biggest bump in compensation from 2012 to 2013 was Rodney Sacks, the CEO of Monster Beverage. Sacks earned $6.22 million last year, an increase of 679 percent. Monster's board of directors awarded Sacks $5.3 million in stock options to supplement his $550,000 salary and $300,000 cash bonus.

more on the minimum wage

WASHINGTON — With the Republican-led filibuster of a Senate proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 on Wednesday, Democrats moved swiftly to frame the vote as an example of the gulf that exists between the two parties on matters of economic fairness and upward mobility. The question is not just one of money, they said, but of morality. And in doing so the Democrats returned to the themes that were successful for their party and President Obama in 2012 when they convinced swing voters that Democrats were mindful of the best interests of all Americans — not just those who are powerful and wealthy. Continue reading the main story Speaking from the White House shortly after the measure was defeated 54 to 42, with 60 votes needed to advance, Mr. Obama admonished Republicans and called on voters to punish them at the polls in November. “If there’s any good news here, it’s that Republicans in Congress don’t get the last word on this issue, or any issue,” Mr. Obama said. “You do, the American people, the voters.” Photo At the White House on Wednesday, President Obama said it was important to pass the measure to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10. After the measure was defeated, he called on voters to punish Republicans at the polls in November. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times “If your member of Congress doesn’t support raising the minimum wage,” he added, “you have to let them know they’re out of step, and that if they keep putting politics ahead of working Americans, you’ll put them out of office.” But if Democrats thought that the defeat of the minimum wage increase gave them the opportunity to remind voters why they should remain in control of the Senate, Republicans felt just as strongly that Wednesday’s vote was the latest sign that Democratic policies and politics are failing. Senator John Cornyn, the Republican whip from Texas, argued from the Senate floor that raising the minimum wage would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and damage the fragile economy, which is going through such a slow recovery that it grew at only 0.1 percent from January through March, new figures released Wednesday showed. “Let’s talk about the 800-pound gorilla here in the Senate chamber,” Mr. Cornyn said. “This is all about politics. This is all about trying to make this side of the aisle look bad and hardhearted.” A Republican-led filibuster prevented the minimum wage bill from moving forward to a full debate in the Senate. Just one Republican voted with the Democrats who supported the measure. Democrats said Wednesday that it was their intent to bring up the bill again when they had the Republican support to break a filibuster. But they added that they had no qualms about forcing a vote again even if Republicans seemed likely to reject it. That, they believe, would further underscore the Republican resistance to increasing the minimum wage from $7.25, a rate that has been unchanged since 2009. “We’ll be back again and again, and we’ll keep trying until we get this to the president’s desk,” said Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, whose retirement this year has left an open seat that Republicans hope to capture. “I’m confident that if we don’t raise the minimum wage in Congress before the election,” he added, “the American people are going to speak about this at the ballot box in November.” Continue reading the main story Video Play Video|1:22 Times Minute | Minimum Wage Politics Times Minute | Minimum Wage Politics Harry Reid, the majority leader, said after the vote: “This is a moral issue. It’s not who’s going to vote for whom. It’s about whether or not it is right that people who are working 40 hours a week get a fair shot at being able to provide for their families.” Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story Advertisement The minimum wage plan is an underpinning of both the president’s economic agenda and the plan drawn up by Senate Democrats to force Republicans to take votes on a variety of pocketbook issues. One of those, a bill that Democrats said would help close the pay gap between men and women, was defeated in a Republican filibuster a few weeks ago. Continue reading the main story Recent Comments Gary 21 days ago I am a small business owner who has conservative values. The Republicans have repeatedly let me down because they truly are in lock step... koonie 21 days ago This is not a Federal government issue, this is a state by state issue and the BIG GOVERMENT HAND'S should keep out! Each state has it's own... FastGuy 21 days ago It seems to me that due to the great joy the Republicans derive from keeping money from the poor, they are blinded to the obvious next step... The Democrats’ plan, called “A Fair Shot for Everyone,” also includes a bill to help make college more affordable, the next one that is likely to come to a vote, and other measures that would close tax loopholes that benefit corporations with business overseas and provide family and medical leave for workers. Polling shows that Americans overwhelmingly agree that the minimum wage should go up; 62 percent favor an increase to $10.10, a New York Times/CBS News poll found in February. Yet it is unclear whether this will become a voting issue for most Americans in November. The Times/CBS News poll tested the impact that six issues would have on voting, and the minimum wage provoked the least reaction. A majority of registered voters, 52 percent, said they were willing to vote for someone who disagreed with them on raising the minimum wage. The hot-button issue was health care. Some Democrats from more conservative, rural states have expressed reservations about going as high as $10.10. Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas, a Democrat who is locked in one of the tightest re-election fights, has said he does not support the plan voted on Wednesday. But he was not present for the vote. The one Republican who voted to allow the bill to move forward, Bob Corker of Tennessee, said that he disagreed with the policy but favored having a robust debate. But most Republicans said they felt boxed in by Democrats who would not consider a smaller increase. “There’s no interest, apparently, on their side in having that conversation,” said Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio. “This is more of a political exercise.” Correction: April 30, 2014 An earlier version of this article misstated when voters in Alaska will address raising the minimum wage. It will be in November, not August

gop kills minimum wage remember in november

By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans blocked an election-year Democratic bill on Wednesday that would boost the federal minimum wage, handing a defeat to President Barack Obama on a vote that is sure to reverberate in this year's congressional elections. The measure's rejection, which was expected, came in the early months of a campaign season in which the slowly recovering economy — and its impact on families — is a marquee issue. It was also the latest setback for a stream of bills this year that Democrats have designed to cast themselves as the party of economic fairness. The legislation by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, would gradually raise the $7.25 hourly minimum to $10.10 over 30 months and then provide automatic annual increases to account for inflation. Democrats argue that if fully phased in by 2016, it would push a family of three above the federal poverty line — a level such earners have not surpassed since 1979. "Millions of American workers will be watching how each senator votes today. To them, it's a matter of survival," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said before the vote. He pointedly added, "For Republicans, this vote will demonstrate whether they truly care about our economy." Republicans, solidly against the Democratic proposal, say it would be too expensive for employers and cost jobs. As ammunition, they cite a February study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that estimated the increase to $10.10 could eliminate about 500,000 jobs — but also envisioned higher income for 16.5 million low-earning people. "Washington Democrats' true focus these days seems to be making the far left happy, not helping the middle class," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "This is all about politics," said No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas. "This is about trying to make this side of the aisle look bad and hard-hearted." The vote was 54-42 in favor of allowing debate on the measure to proceed, six votes short of the 60 that Democrats needed to prevail. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., was the only Republican to cross party lines and vote "yes." Reid switched his vote to "no," which gives him the right to call another vote on the measure. No other Democrats opposed the bill. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who has been seeking a deal with other senators on a lower figure than $10.10, said Wednesday that she will continue that effort. Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who usually sides with Democrats, said he too favors finding middle ground. But Democratic leaders have shown no inclination to do that — a view shared by unions that favor an increase and business groups that oppose one. "We're not going to compromise on $10.10," Reid told reporters after the vote. In a clear sign of the political value Democrats believe the issue has, Democrats said they intend to force another vote on the increase closer to this year's elections. The White House issued a statement urging the bill's passage and saying the administration wants legislation "to build real, lasting economic security for the middle class and create more opportunities for every hardworking American to get ahead." Supporters note that the minimum wage's buying power has fallen. It reached its peak value in 1968, when it was $1.60 hourly but was worth $10.86 in today's dollars. The legislation is opposed by business groups including the National Council of Chain Restaurants and the International Franchise Association. The National Restaurant Association has hundreds of members at the Capitol this week lobbying lawmakers on several issues, including opposition to a higher minimum wage. 1 2 > GOP blocks Democrats' minimum wage try in Senate GOP blocks Democrats' minimum wage try in Senate TAGS: Associated Press + More View 11 Comments 11 Comments You Might Also Li