FIGHT FOR 15

Even if you can't be out in the streets today with the striking fast food workers, you can still support a livable wage for all workers.

Call your Congress Person.  (Call, don't email or write.)  Make sure to tell them if you are a registered voter, and your name, address, etc.  They've never called me back, and neither MO (R) Roy Blunt (573-334-7044)  or MO (D) Claire McCaskill (573-651-0964) has ever added me to their mailing list, even though I have called and emailed with my address.  But part of this process is to tie up their phone lines and time, and make them at least pretend to listen to their constituents.

Call the locals too- your mayor, state representative, etc. It's important to jam the phone lines as much as possible on this issue.  Remember, the person answering the phones might be making minimum wage, too. 

Call the Corporate Headquarters of Fast Food and Retail Giants:

McDonalds  1-800-244-6227
Burger King 1 866 394 2493
Taco Bell 1-800-822-6235
Jack In the Box 1-858-522-4716
KFC 1-800-225-5532

Fortune 500 list of top corporations in the US
National Retailers list of top 100

Wal-Mart  1-800-925-6278
CVS 1-800-746-7287
Apple 1-800-692-7753
Kroger 1-800-576-4377
Walgreens 1-888-782-8443
Target 1-800-440-0680
Lowes 1-800-445-6937
Home Depot 1-800-466-3337
Amazon 1-866-486-2360
Best Buy 1-877-415-3487
Safeway 1-877-723-3929
Family Dollar 1-866-377-6420

When you call you can simply say:
"I support a living wage for all workers in the USA.  Raise the minimum wage to $15.  And I believe all workers should have the right to form a union."

But you don't have to stop there. (And if you are reading this after 10 November 2015, you can call anytime.) You can also say:

"I support raising the minimum salary requirement for exempt employees to $131,000 a year."  (Note: after doing the math I realized $75k is too low, if you read previous posts where I was supporting that. I think that figure came from a proposal by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.  $75k is still too low.
168 X $15 = $2520.  Yearly = $131,040.  See below.) 

Exempt employee salary minimum is currently $23,660 a year, or $455 a week.  That is what McDonalds pays their store managers.  In a state like Missouri, with almost no workers rights, that means that McD's can legally require that employee to be available for work 168 hours a week, with no breaks allotted for sleep or time off.

They can also deduct up to half the weeks pay if the exempt employee is unavailable for work for PART OF one day.  (Read the FLSA exempt employee rules here: http://www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/ )

168 hours in a week X $7.65 per hour MO minimum wage =  $1285.20 per week, which is a yearly salary of $66,830.40

This shouldn't even be legal right now. If an exempt employee is REQUIRED to always be available for work, then they should be paid minimum wage for every hour of the week.

(Yes, that's right, they don't have let you take any breaks in Missouri, even to go to the bathroom.  There is a state mandate for 6 hours of night relief for sleep in nursing homes and residential care facilities where the manager lives on the premises, but the employer can stipulate a waiver of that in the employment agreement.)

You can also bring up Executive to Worker salary ratios.  Ask "What is the average pay of a McDonald's worker?  What is the average pay- with bonuses- of McDonald's executives?"

Ask them how much their corporation pays in taxes to the US government every year?  Ask if they have actually paid that amount or if the payment has been deferred?

Ask them what their company's net profits were? How many minimum wage hours their company paid in that same year.  If your calculator can handle the numbers do the math. IE,  total non exempt, minimum wage employee hours paid (that means all the hours worked by all the minimum wage employees) times the additional $7.50 per hour with the wage increase = a number probably too big for a calculator.  Then subtract that number from the $5-29 Billion in net profits McD's made in 2014.

Remind them that the minimum wage hasn't not increased with inflation since 1970. Worker productivity has increased and with that factor the minimum wage should really be closer to $20. Remind them that what has increased since 1970 is corporate profits, executive salaries and bonuses, and credit card debt. Remind them they are paying $17-20 in other countries like Denmark and Australia. Ask them why American workers don't deserve a livable wage?

And don't let anyone get away with "well those people should know that is a character building job" or "those people should get a college degree and a real job."  Fast food and retail are the biggest job markets, and are in every neighborhood.  If these jobs are so unimportant why are there so many of them.  If we all become nurses and lawyers and secretaries, will we stop eating fast food?  Who will serve it and cook it?

These big corporations get subsidies for development and construction from state and local governments.  Local governments give them sales tax breaks for moving in and "creating jobs".  Local retailers and restaurants do not get those tax breaks or development funds.

Retailers like WalMart make huge profits from food stamp sales, and many of their full time workers are on public assistance.  Don't like welfare? Raise the wage.

Some pink and white collar workers that make $15 an hour think it is unfair that fast food workers will receive the same pay.  It's likely that other wages will increase once the minimum wage goes up.  And don't forget, this is not just about fast food.  This is about nursing assistants, home health workers, 911 dispatchers in many states.  Pink and white collar workers, please be honest and ask yourself some questions.  Is the only thing that makes your $15 an hour job worthwhile is that you are making more than the current minimum wage?  And the fear that you will be a minimum wage employee if your company doesn't raise your pay after the wage increase?

Shouldn't you be fighting for more too?  Better wages, more benefits, unions and workers cooperatives.  The entire relationship between employers and employees has to change.  It cannot be "corporate profits over people" or "shareholders over employees."

If a business can't survive without paying poverty wages maybe that business should close.  Many small businesses are just as bad WalMart and Amazon and Exxon in terms of what they pay versus what they keep for the executives.  And small businesses generally have fewer benefits, and close more frequently.

Workers need to take more control of the workplace.  Hiring needs to be transparent on both sides.  Employers should be drug tested, credit checked, and payroll accounts should be transparent.  Employers should have more qualifications than simply having the money to start a business.  They should have to demonstrate that they know what they are doing!

Take the first step today and make some calls!  Demand a better world for all of us! Demand a working relationship with your employer!  Demand a living wage!

Anyone who works full time deserves a livable wage.  $15 IS the minimum wage.  It's just not THE LAW... yet.  These companies are not going to give it to us.  We have to demand it. 

PHILADELPHIA TRANSIT WORKERS STRIKE BECOMES PRESIDENTIAL EMERGENCY

This is what happens when you have a Republican governor.  The Philly transit workers had barely declared their strike when they were ordered back to work via declaration of a "Presidential Emergency".

The real emergency is the appalling lack of worker's right in the world's richest nation.  The real emergency is the collapse of unions and the rise of "Right To Work" legislation. 

The transit agency should have been forced to mediate to stop the strike- not the other way around!

I hope the Philly transit workers won't back down.  They deserve better!

We all do!

http://news.yahoo.com/philly-rail-resumes-obama-intervenes-100013464--finance.html

MAY 15TH: OCCUPY A MINIMUM WAGE OF $15 AN HOUR!

On May 15th in 150 cities, including St. Louis and Show Me 15!, fast food workers will be on strike for a higher minimum wage.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/07/1297522/-Fast-food-strikes-to-spread-around-the-world 

Join the strike: http://lowpayisnotok.org/strike-kit/
Sign the Petition: http://lowpayisnotok.org/mcpriceless-sign/


According to Raise The Minimum Wage website, if minimum wage had risen with inflation, it would be $10.86.  (In 2012 I read a study that said $13.38, but I can't find the link.)
http://www.raisetheminimumwage.com/facts/entry/amount-with-inflation/

And according to a study covered by HuffPost, if the wage had increased with worker productivity, it would be $21.72.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/minimum-wage-productivity_n_2680639.html

$15 really is the minimum.  $10.86 is still too low.  $21.72 is very justified though.

Consider this:

Employers have been under-paying their employees for forty years.  Productivity is up, so they are paying less for more.  Do I need to make the point about where those big executive salaries are coming from?

The ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay is 273-1, down from a high of 383-1 in 2000, but up from 20-1 in 1965.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/26/congrats-ceos-youre-making-273-times-the-pay-of-the-average-worker/

At the beginning of Reagan's presidency our country had the least unequal income gap in the world, now we have the greatest income gap.

From the same article:

CEO pay has increased faster than wages to high-skilled workers, suggesting that the salary market isn't very efficient. "Consequently, if CEOs earned less or were taxed more, there would be no adverse impact on output or employment," the report concludes.

We are doing the work- and doing it faster and better- but we are not getting any benefit.

You  know what grew instead of worker's earnings?  Credit cards and credit card debt.  If you are over 50 you probably remember when credit cards were American Express and Diner's Club for rich people and executive expense accounts (back when their salaries were only 20 times bigger than the average worker's).

Unions have been losing strength since Reagan.  The "Right To Work" states are union-busting.  Right to work means "you have the right to work as a non-union employee at a union shop".  For non-union wages, that is.  It's not right, it is totally wrong!  (Every job should have a union! http://occupyurlife.blogspot.com/2014/04/occupy-right-to-work.html

And now with the economic collapse in 2008, things just keep getting worse.  This statistic tells the whole story:

The National Employment Law Project reports that that low wage industries employ 1.85 million MORE workers now than at the start of the recession while mid-and higher-wage industries employ 1.83 million LESS. 
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/corporate-profits-bigger-than-ever-so-companies-can-afford-to-raise-the-minimum-wage--henry-blodget-142907469.html

Basically, all of the people that lost their white collar jobs are taking over the low wage jobs.  (This explains the 200 applications a week for part-time mall jobs.)

Did you know that wealth grows at a faster rate than economic growth? The rich get richer, no matter what happens to the rest of us. 

As a general rule wealth grows faster than economic output, he explains, a concept he captures in the expression r > g (where r is the rate of return to wealth and g is the economic growth rate). Other things being equal, faster economic growth will diminish the importance of wealth in a society, whereas slower growth will increase it (and demographic change that slows global growth will make capital more dominant). But there are no natural forces pushing against the steady concentration of wealth.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/05/economist-explains

(You might like this, too, on Piketty's book: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/28/thomas-piketty-capital-surprise-bestseller)

There is no shortage of work.  There is plenty to do.  And there is no shortage of money, either.  No executive deserves 273 times the amount of money his employees make.  That is ridiculous.

And as for this argument that it will "hurt" small businesses.  Well, low wages are already hurting their employees, and a higher minimum wage would actually help in weeding out unprofitable businesses.  Too many people with a little inherited wealth start businesses that are really hobbies.
(And then there are places like this: http://www.kmov.com/news/crime/-Metro-East-health-clinic-raided-by-federal-authorities-258572511.html )

The people at the top-- the wealthy people, and job "Creators"-- are not going to give us decent pay of their own accord.  Take Metro for example. The CEO of Metro, John Nations, makes 5 times what his drivers do (and while that isn't 273 or even 20 times what they make, this is public transit agency, not a Wall Street brokerage).  Metro drivers have been working for 6 years without a new bargaining contract or a raise.

CEO John Nations is fond of reminding everyone that he is only at Metro to prepare his political career as governor or senator.  He promises Right To Work will be first on his agenda, I've been told by five or six people that know him personally.  Basically, we the people are paying him to advance his own interest.

I don't think these people should be running our society or keeping such big chunks of the money for themselves.  I don't think a business of any size, large or small, should ask workers to live below the poverty level.

Do you?

If you agree that things need to change, support the worker's by not eating fast food on May 15th.  Call the corporate headquarters of McDonald's, Taco Bell, etc, and tell them you stand with the striking workers.  Call Mayor Slay and tell him you support $15 an hour in St. Louis.

Seattle will have a $15 minimum wage in three years. Let's put St. Louis on the map.  SHOW ME 15!

OCCUPY $15 AN HOUR MINIMUM WAGE!

More reasons not to eat fast food: http://naturalhealthwarriors.com/chef-jamie-oliver-proves-mcdonalds-burgers-unfit-for-human-consumption/

You might also like this post, on my Occupy Your Life blog:
http://occupyurlife.blogspot.com/2014/04/occupy-work.html