Raise The Wage

Statewide Push Starts Up

originally published December 20, 2006

A statewide kickoff luncheon to raise Georgia’s minimum wage was held Dec. 11 in Athens, endorsed by some 100 organizations, from religious and social-service ministries to political issue groups and unions. The Georgia Minimum Wage Coalition is backing a bill by state Senator Robert Brown of Macon to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour over two years. It would also peg the wage to cost-of-living increases, and require tipped workers to receive at least half the minimum wage, Brown told the group.

“One of the things many senators were often asked” by their fellow legislators, said Brown, “is ‘Who is affected by this?’ Because in their world, nobody is affected by this…. It’s not that they are callous, they simply do not know…. There is a world out there that people live [in] where they do not come in contact with people who are affected.” He called on participants to put “a human face” on the issue. “That is how we were able to move it through the last time,” he said.

Irene Cole told the group how she’s struggled after losing a job with benefits at WorldCom, which went bankrupt. Now she works day labor jobs at about $6.50 an hour. “I’ve gone from job to job, I work hard to maintain my family and do what I can do for my sons…. It’s been an uphill battle.”

And while it’s likely that the U.S. Congress will raise the federal minimum rate, newly elected state Representative Doug McKillip of Athens told the group, “We need to be progressive in Georgia. We need to get ahead of the federal government.” State governments can raise minimum wages above the $5.15 federal level, and 22 have already done so, participants were told. More than half the people under the federal poverty line actually work low-wage jobs, McKillip said. “Congress has given themselves $30,000 a year in pay raises without a dime going to the minimum wage in the last 10 years…. I am sick of hearing about the ‘free market’ with subsidies and tax incentives and tax breaks for companies,” McKillip said. His Republican colleagues say they are afraid that raising the minimum wage will cause a ripple effect, raising other wages, too, he added.

According to Alan Essig of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, 3.5 percent of Georgians earn the minimum wage. “One of the myths is, it’s only teenage workers, it’s only part-time workers. That’s just not true.” Some 672,000 workers would be affected by a two-dollar wage hike, including those already earning just over $7 an hour, “who would get a bump,” Essig said. Of those affected, most are over 20 years old, and 43 percent are parents, he said. “There’s been a lot of studies talking about will there be job loss or not,” he said, “and truthfully, studies are mixed…. But even the ones that show there might be job loss, the job loss is marginal.” A national statement of support for raising the minimum wage has been signed by over 600 economists, including five Nobel Prize winners, he added.

Reverend Beth Long of Athens’ St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church told the group that, according to the Bible, “God led the people out of slavery in Egypt, and sent the prophets to the kings every time they began to make it hard for ordinary people to survive.” We should want the same good things for our neighbors that we want for ourselves, she said. “If we stand by while others are hungry or enslaved, we are starving or imprisoning our own souls.” About 65 people attended the luncheon rally at the Presbyterian Student Center, including a number of state legislators who were in town for the biennial Legislative Institute held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

Meanwhile, a citizen committee of Partners for a Prosperous Athens (PPA) has spent most of the year working up recommendations to bring about “living wages” locally. Those recommendations, to be found soon at www.prosperousathens.org, are part of more than 100 recommendations to come out of the initiative’s various citizen committees. The PPA steering committee will soon begin winnowing down all of the recommendations - though the full list will be on-line - into a short list that will form the official set of initial recommendations. A town hall meeting to discuss them is planned for March.

jphuie@speedfactory.net

Partner Benefits

A Close Commish Vote

originally published December 20, 2006

Athens-Clarke County (ACC) Commissioners extended county employee benefits to unmarried couples - both gay and straight - Dec. 6 on a six-to-four vote, with some commissioners fearing the benefits could cost the county more than estimated. The extended benefits - basically health and dental insurance, life insurance and a pension plan - would cost the county $22,000–$38,000 yearly if 15 employees sign up for them, as estimated by the ACC Human Resources Department.

“There’s too many unknowns” objected States McCarter, who voted against the measure. And Commissioner Harry Sims - who serves on the county’s pension board - said that “adding little pieces” to county benefits without an overall review “has some unintended consequences that we may not be prepared to deal with.” The proposal as passed will allow a county employee to file an “affidavit of domestic partnership” and other forms in municipal court, so a partner (of either sex) can receive county benefits similar to those married partners already receive.

But retiring commissioner Tom Chasteen said filing (or voiding) such a form is easier than getting married or divorced, and “that in itself is discriminatory.” Some people might apply - even fraudulently - only when they need “some serious medical care,” he said. He suggested that General Motors’ bankruptcy might have been caused by extending such benefits.

But while commissioners addressed only fiscal concerns, some citizens saw wider implications. “I feel that this is not the way to teach our youth, for young people to grow up believing that you can live with someone else,” said Willie James. “This thing should be voted down and never brought up again.” And county employee Edward Focht warned commissioners that, if God’s laws aren’t followed, “the opposite of His blessing will come to Athens-Clarke county, both corporately and individually. I believe, when we stand before Him, he won’t ask us were we good, or were we tolerant, but He will ask us, ‘Did we do what He said?’” John Marsh didn’t like the proposal either: “It creates yet another favored group, and leaves the disfavored groups behind,” he said. “We need to be moving toward equal compensation for the same work” whether employees have families or not.

But Tom Payton urged cool appraisal: “There simply is too much unproven and, in my opinion, alarmist criticism of this proposal, with some suggesting that the sky will fall.” But “it is nothing new in Georgia, and it is nothing new nationally,” he said, with many governments and over half of Fortune 500 companies already providing such benefits. “And I might add, there have not been any disasters reported.”

But Commissioner McCarter thought U.S. companies “are in trouble because they’re giving too many benefits,” and Commissioner George Maxwell didn’t “have a problem with people having their sexual preference. My problem is that we subsidize their sexual preference” with tax money. “Taxes are going up,” he said. “Wages are not going up. Social security benefits are not going up. However, we want to add now another benefit just to serve a selective few that are putting pressure on the mayor and this commission.” But to retiring Commissioner Charles Carter, adding the benefits was “the right thing to do” for county employees. “It’s not about the lifestyle, but they’re out there working and I think they deserve the same benefits as anybody else.”

And to Commissioner Alice Kinman, the extended benefits were “both fiscally responsible and the right thing to do.” Uninsured citizens “are always more expensive to the taxpayer in the long run,” said Kinman (who also serves on the county hospital board). “It comes out of our pockets one way or the other.” Nor had she heard from many citizens, she said: “As far as I can tell, people in District Four don’t have much of an opinion on this.”

County Manager Alan Reddish said information provided by the county’s insurance company suggests that offering domestic partnership benefits has not raised costs in other places.

jphuie@speedfactory.net