Clinton/Sanders - Minimum Wage

Dear Friends,

The minimum wage has been getting more attention since there have been large protests primarily by fast food workers and their supporters demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage.  President Obama has called for an increase in the Federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour but has not exactly gone all out trying to achieve that increase.

Senator Warren has been a huge advocate for increasing the minimum wage.  She has given great visibility to how the minimum wage has failed to keep up with other increases.  There is short article in The Huffington Post (here) that describes Senator Warren's comments in a Senate committee meeting last spring.  Two of the points that she made were:

If the minimum wage had risen at the same rate as worker productivity since 1960, it would now be $22 an hour.  Since the minimum wage is now $7.25, that means that the other $14.75 an hour has gone to increased profits.

If the minimum wage had risen at the same rate as the incomes of the top 1% of Americans, it would now be $33 an hour.  That is over 4.5 times what the Federal minimum wage is today. Yet another of the ever growing statistics demonstrating the huge and increasing disparity in wealth and income in this country.

Individual cities and other municipalities are raising the minimum wage.  San Francisco raised its minimum wage above the Federal level over a decade ago, and it is now at $10.74.  A study done by the University of California, Berkeley demonstrated that there is no adverse impact on employment by raising the minimum wage at least up to $13.00 per hour.  The Seattle Times has an article about the study that is very interesting (here).  Seattle, of course, has decided to raise the minimum wage to $15 in increments, and most recently Los Angeles has raised its minimum wage to $15.00.

So do not let it be said that we cannot raise the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour so that no American working full time will be forced to live in poverty.

Bernie Sanders has been an outspoken advocate for a $15.00 per hour Federal minimum wage.  Hillary Clinton has now adopted the populist language of Senators Warren and Sanders on this subject.  In April she tweeted,

Every American deserves a fair shot at success. Fast food & child care workers shouldn't have to march in streets for living wages.

It is much easier to adopt the language than it is to actually indicate what you think the Federal minimum wage should be.  Senator Clinton has refused to say what she thinks the Federal minimum wage should be.  CNN Money published an article earlier this month on the subject (here).  After going through Senator Clinton's support for the idea of raising the minimum wage. The article concludes

Just how high a wage hike Clinton supports, however, remains a mystery. The candidate has not provided a figure yet. Her campaign did not return a request for comment Sunday night.

This issue sums up the problem that I have with Hillary.  She is walking a tightrope between the liberal wing of the Democratic party and the Wall Street and big business money that she courts and is rapidly becoming part of.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal