California Republican gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari did a stunt spending a week homeless in Fresno looking for a job, then wrote about it in the Wall Street Journal. It turns out–shock!–that getting a job isn’t as easy as asking for one, and–double shock!–relying on our patchwork safety net doesn’t exactly deliver results or human dignity.

Kashkari supposedly spent six nights sleeping outdoors getting rousted off park benches by cops, and getting his meals from a homeless shelter during his supposedly fruitless job search. His upshot? That California is over-regulated and over-taxed, that he didn’t need government programs, that all he needed was a job, and everything would have been just fine. No, really. He wrote that.

I walked for hours and hours in search of a job, giving me a lot of time to think. Five days into my search, hungry, tired and hot, I asked myself: What would solve my problems? Food stamps? Welfare? An increased minimum wage?

No. I needed a job. Period. Like others, I have often said the best social program in the world is a good job. Even though my homeless trek was only for a week, with a defined endpoint, that statement became much more real for me. A job was the one thing that could have solved my food, housing and transportation problems.

California’s record poverty is man-made: over-regulation and over-taxation that drive jobs out of state…

Any normal person would have come away from the experience saying, “Whoa, there but for the grace of god go I.” Or perhaps “what the hell is wrong with the economy that no one will even hire me for $9/hour to sweep floors or wash dishes?” But not Republicans like Kashkari. They immediately assume that taxes and regulations must be to blame for all of it.

But Kashkari’s experience would have been far more instructive if he had actually gotten a minimum wage job. It would have been far more interesting to have seen Kashkari’s reaction to trying to find an apartment, decent food and workable transportation on $9 an hour. Methinks just “getting a job” wouldn’t have really solved his problems.

Maybe that can be his next stunt. He could even learn from Democrats who have documented their own time “living the wage” that just having a job doesn’t really cut it.

Cross-posted from Digby’s Hullabaloo

Big win for California’s workers

by Brian Leubitz

Those working at the minimum wage have to work several jobs to get by in most of California’s communities. The Governor helped that somewhat today:

Gov. Jerry Brown this morning signed legislation to raise California’s minimum wage by 25 percent, from $8 an hour to $10 an hour by 2016.

The bill, celebrated by Brown and his labor union allies at an event in Los Angeles, promises the first increase in California’s hourly minimum since 2008, when the minimum wage was raised 50 cents to $8. …

Assembly Bill 10, by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, will raise the minimum wage from $8 to $9 an hour on July 1, 2014, and to $10 on Jan. 1, 2016. (SacBee)

Now, under the current minimum wage, the average Californian needs to work 129 hours to pay for an apartment in the state. To be clear, that is working about 18.5 hours per day, seven days per week. And forget about some of the more expensive communities, like San Francisco where one bedrooms can go up to $3,000 per month for a standard unit in the eastern half of the city.

This bill will help somewhat with this issue, but clearly we need to encourage more affordable housing within easy transit distance of our city cores. And we haven’t even gotten to providing greater access to healthy food and quality schools…

All that being said, this is a positive first step for millions of Californians. Congratulations to Gov. Brown, Asm. Alejo, and all those who worked to get this bill passed.

by Steve Smith, California Labor Federation

California made history last night. With the support of California’s unions, the Legislature voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $10, the highest minimum wage in the country. The wage will be implemented in two steps: an increase to $9 per hour in July of next year, followed by another one-dollar increase to $10 in January of 2016. Gov. Brown has agreed to sign the bill, AB 10, authored by Assemblymember Luis Alejo.

The wage increase will affect more than 2.3 million California workers, according the Economic Policy Institute. It means that single moms will have a little extra to support their families. It means seniors who’ve been forced to re-enter the workforce will have a little more to help pay for prescription drugs. And it means that all low-wage workers have received validation that their work is worthy of dignity and respect.

California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski:

Raising the minimum wage isn’t just an economic necessity. It’s a moral imperative. For far too long, low-wage workers have toiled for far too little.

The minimum wage deal came together with the strong support of Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders.

Gov. Brown:

The minimum wage has not kept pace with rising costs. This legislation is overdue and will help families that are struggling in this harsh economy.

The wage increase is expected to provide a significant economic boost to California. By providing an estimated $2.6 billion in additional wages to the state’s lowest-paid workers, California will reap $1 billion in new economic growth as workers spend their increased wages. Job growth will expand as businesses hire to meet the increased consumer demand.

Even at $10, low-wage workers will still struggle. We must continue to do everything possible to decrease economic inequality and provide opportunities for low-wage workers to move up the ladder. But the wage increase that passed last night establishes California as the national leader in supporting low-wage workers. That’s exactly where we should be.

Senate President pro Tempore Steinberg:

For millions of California’s hard-working minimum wage employees, a few extra dollars a week can make a huge difference to help them provide for their families. They deserve a modest boost and after six years; an increase in California’s minimum wage is the right thing to do.

Check out our Top 10 Reasons to Support a $10 Minimum Wage.

Last minute legislation is pouring through both chambers

by Brian Leubitz

Session is technically scheduled to start at close of business tomorrow. However, with Yom Kippur starting tomorrow at sunset, legislative leaders are hoping to close up shop tonight. There are a number key piece of legislation in play today. Here are a few highlights:

• Gun safety – You can find a quick summary of the gun safety legislation in this WaPo article. Forgive the journalist his folly saying that the legislators could face political blowback. Apparently he thinks that the politics in Colorado is somehow a reasonable analog for California. It is not. However, here are a few highlights from the “LIFE ACT” (PDF):
  
  • require gun owners to report stolen guns within a week
  • further limits who can own a gun, and requires gun owners lock up their guns around people who aren’t eligible
  • limits assault rifles: semi-automatic magazines limited to ten rounds, increases registration requirements
• Minimum wage – Luis Alejo’s AB10 to increase the minimum wage to $10 by 2016 has the support of both legislative leaders and the Governor.
• Domestic workers – Asm. Tom Ammiano’s AB 241 domestic workers bill of rights would provide all domestic workers who care for California’s homes and families with some of the basic labor protections they have been denied for decades. The Senate passed it yesterday, but the Governor has not said anything about the bill. Which way he will go is unclear.
• CEQA – It looks like at least some reform will get done. Sen. Steinberg’s SB 743 doesn’t completely overhaul the system, but it does ease restrictions on infill projects, especially ones close to public transit.
• Bay Bridge – The Legislature passed a resolution to rename the Bay Bridge in honor of Willie Brown. The governor opposed it, on the basis that our names for the bridges are good enough as they are. However, as it is a resolution, the Governor doesn’t have a veto.

As somebody who uses the Bay Bridge frequently, I tend to agree with the Governor on this last one. It isn’t a new road, the name has been the same for the better part of three generations. While Willie Brown is certainly a legend to the state and the region, I liked the name Bay Bridge. I have to imagine that the old name won’t go away quickly.

There will surely be more to come as the legislative session wraps up this evening; I’ll try to update with anything major.

By Roxana Tynan

On Sunday the Los Angeles Times published a story about the important successes of campaigns to pass local minimum wage and living wage laws. However, while highlighting new developments that will impact local economies and the lives of workers, the Times missed the real story and forces behind this growing trend.

The piece focused on two ballot-box victories for living wage laws: a minimum wage for hotel workers in Long Beach and a citywide minimum wage increase in San Jose.

“The victories put these two California cities on the cusp of an emerging trend,” wrote Wesley Lowery. “Ballot initiatives, labor experts say, have the potential to rewrite labor’s playbook for how to win concessions from management.” Throughout the piece, Lowery presented the minimum wage ballot measures as a tactic put in place and managed from behind the scenes by labor leaders.

In fact, both measures were conceived and carried to victory by broad coalitions of people and organizations interested in improving their cities – together with key labor partners who see their role as improving the lot of all workers’ lives. The San Jose measure germinated in a San Jose State University class, whose students – none of them yet labor leaders to my knowledge – studied the concept in 2010 and presented what was to be taken up by a citywide movement. Groups such as the United Way of Silicon Valley, the NAACP of San Jose and the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley probably didn’t see themselves as puppets dancing on the strings of labor leaders; they no doubt saw themselves as partners with union members and leading organizations, such as Working Partnerships USA, in pursuing shared missions to mitigate poverty, address inequality and improve the lives of working people.

As with Long Beach, the labor movement was not “behind the scenes” but out front in partnership with community allies with a vision about how to improve our economy.

Dozens of small businesses jumped on board to support the Long Beach minimum wage for hotel workers. They recognized that higher pay for low-wage workers would immediately translate into more money spent locally – a natural stimulus for an economy struggling to leave the recession behind.

Long Beach residents felt that large hotels owed something to the community, since their success was supported in part by millions of dollars in taxpayer investment and development subsidies. In Long Beach, as in San Jose, students also played an important role. Students from Long Beach State University and local colleges and high schools bucked their generation’s reputation for political apathy, joined the movement and took leadership in shaping their communities.

Far beyond seeking “concessions from management,” supporters and voters saw these measures as concrete ways that voters could use to address economic problems and set their cities on a better course. At least as important as the narrative of these measures as a growing tactic is the story of the overwhelming support they found with the general public. The San Jose measure, which raised the minimum wage from California’s $8 to $10 per hour, passed with 58 percent of the vote, despite the opposition outspending supporters two to one. The Long Beach measure, setting a minimum wage of $13 per hour for workers in large hotels, passed with more than 64 percent of the vote.

These totals represent massive public support – it should be noted that every ballot measure starts with an uphill climb to pass it, as voters’ default vote is usually “No.” The biggest takeaway from Long Beach and San Jose should be that voters – residents, students and business owners – don’t find the status quo acceptable. Long Beach and San Jose voters, like all of us, live in an economy marked by extreme inequality and wages that don’t keep up with living costs, despite record profits for employers. When given an option of making concrete change — and shown the way forward by an energetic and diverse coalition – voters will embrace it.

Crossposted from our Main Street blog.

Living on the minimum wage is difficult, to put it mildly. According to the Economic Policy Institute’s Heidi Shierholz,

At its peak in 1968, a full-time worker earning the minimum wage made $18,890 in May 2009 dollars, enough to keep a family of three over the poverty line. With a minimum wage of $7.25, a full-time worker earning the minimum wage will make $14,962, about a $4,000 pay cut from the 1968 level and well below the poverty threshold.

The inability of today’s minimum wage to alleviate poverty is even more striking when one considers that poverty researchers regard the poverty threshold as currently calculated to be vastly outdated and an inadequate measure of the income needed to make ends meet. Poverty experts often use twice the poverty line as a more accurate threshold for material deprivation. Another measure, developed by the Economic Policy Institute, is the “basic family budget,” or the amounts a family needs to feed, shelter, and clothe itself, get to work and school, and subsist in 21st century America. It is a paycheck-to-paycheck no-frills budget that includes no savings for retirement or college, no restaurant meals, and no funds for emergencies. A typical basic family budget for a family with one parent and two children is $40,273, about three times the income of a full-time minimum-wage worker.

So imagine you’re a minimum-wage worker…and you’re not even getting the minimum wage. A new study by Ruth Milkman, Ana Luz Gonzalez, and Victor Narro of the UCLA Institute on Labor and Employment found that in Los Angeles, almost 30% of low-wage workers had been paid less than the minimum wage in the preceding week. And we’re not talking pennies here:

The minimum wage violations were not trivial in magnitude: 63.3 percent of workers were underpaid by more than $1.00 per hour.

Think about that: You’re working. You’re there when they need you, doing what needs to be done. The wage you’re supposed to be getting would still leave you under the poverty line if your job is full time. And you’re being stiffed for a dollar an hour.

That’s not all. More than a fifth of the workers surveyed had worked more than 40 hours in the week for a single employer, and should have been getting overtime. Nearly 80% of those had not been paid the legally required overtime rate. That’s if they were paid at all – 17.6% had worked outside their scheduled shifts, and 71.2% of them hadn’t gotten paid for that time.

Again, this makes a difference to people’s ability to survive:

The various forms of nonpayment and underpayment of wages take a heavy monetary toll on workers and their families. L.A. respondents who experienced a pay-based violation in the previous work week lost an average of $39.81 out of average weekly earnings of $318.00, or 12.5 percent. Assuming a full-year work schedule, these workers lost an average of $2,070.00 annually due to workplace violations, out of total annual earnings of $16,536.00.

Think about what you can do with $2000. Now think what $2000 means if it’s 12% of your income. Or think how you’d feel if your boss was screwing you out of 12% of the income you were legally entitled to. I don’t know about you, but I’d be pissed.

Partial good news here is that we have a Secretary of Labor who actually cares about this, and wants to stop it.  

Soon after she became the nation’s labor secretary, Hilda Solis warned corporate America there was “a new sheriff in town.” Less than a year into her tenure, that figurative badge of authority is unmistakable.

Her aggressive moves to boost enforcement and crack down on businesses that violate workplace safety rules have sent employers scrambling to make sure they are following the rules.

–snip–

Garnering less attention, she just finished hiring 250 new investigators to protect workers from being cheated out of wage and overtime pay. She also started a new program that scrutinizes business records to make sure worker injury and illness reports are accurate. And she is proposing new standards to protect workers from industrial dust explosions – an effort the Bush administration had long resisted.

But given the scale of the violations the UCLA study found in LA alone, even 250 investigators is probably only a drop in the bucket of what’s needed.