Even With The Recent Increases Offered By The Dems, The Minimum Wage Excludes The Most Needy

Migrant Farm Workers in Ohio Threaten to Sue For Higher Minimum Wage

The minimum wage is an important issue for me. I know a lot of people that are among the working poor. These people often fill some of the toughest jobs and work under the most exploitive conditions. Seldom are they offered any flexibility in their schedule and even more seldom are they offered benefits. Many are poorly educated--or at least under-educated--and work in hotels, restaurants, repetitive manufacturing or processing jobs, or in our agricultural fields.

Restaurant workers, parking attendants, hotel workers and others that depend upon tips are subject to a reduced minimum wage in all but seven states. This is nothing less than a subsidization of restaurant owners, hotel operators, parking garage owners (who charge outrageous hourly prices in the big cities) and an outrageous injustice to some of our neediest workers and their families. Migrant field workers and seasonal agricultural workers are also treated differently under these regulations and standard by reducing the wages required by significant amounts. Additionally, US territories and protectorates are treated differently under the minimum wage regulations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, even under the proposed changes in 2006 and 2007.

Like our immigration laws, the minimum wage laws and standards are unfair and are used to institutionalize some degree of prejudice. Indeed, many workers in hotels, restaurants, farms and agricultural businesses are migrants, under-educated,or immigrants. Many of the workers in the US Marianna Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico and other US territories or protectorates work in the textile, fishing (cannery) or other manufacturing endeavors in what amounts to almost sweat shop conditions. Since work is hard to find for many within these populations (for a myriad of reasons including place of origin), there are not many options for these workers. In effect, we use our minimum wage laws to keep people poor, discriminate on the basis of place of origin, and to deny those in the lower socio-economic strata health care and/or a decent standard of living. It is odd that the jobs these folks take are often some of the hardest, or longest hours, among all the jobs we have to offer.

Then, of course, the minimum wage we have to offer has not kept pace with inflation. Accordingly, the minimum wage in 1960 bought a whole lot more than the minimum wage of 2006, or even the proposed minimum wage increases for 2009.

So when I read this article about Latino migrant workers threatening to file suit in order to reverse some of these unjust exemptions that only serve to discriminate, subsidize certain industries (many, like the restaurant industry, do not need the subsidies because their businesses are very lucrative and profitable), and to keep a certain segment of the population below a living wage. While this article addresses the minimum wage laws in Ohio, the same issues and dynamics exist with the federal statutes and regulations.

It is high time that we begin to think in terms of a "living wage" and a "just wage" rather than a "minimum wage." For those people among the ultra-conservative Religious Right (especially the Christian Right) and the GOP that argue for people to "bootstrap" themselves up to achieve the "American dream," I refer them to the words of St. Paul: "The laborer is worth his wages." Our failure to pay a just living wage and assure a minimum of reliable health care benefits is a sinful disregard and depraved indifference for the plight of the least empowered among us. Again, for those entrenched in the ultra-conservative mind set, I refer you to the words of Jesus Christ: "When you do this for the least among you, you do this for me."

Below are several links that provide specifics and insight regarding the minimum wage and the issues associated with it:

* -
Economic Policy Institute: Minimum Wage Issues
* - Almanac of Policy Issues: Minimum Wage
* -
US Department of Labor: Fair Labor Standards Act Compliance Assistance
* - CATO: The Economics Of Minimum Wage Legislation - Revisited
* - `Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007' as sent to the Senate
* - Federal Minimum Wage Rates, 1955–2006 (with equalization for current value)
* - The Sneak Attack on Restaurant Workers, Parking Attendants, Hotel Maids, and Other Workers Who Depend on Tips

Latino migrant farm workers yesterday threatened to sue Ohio if legislators don't reverse a law that exempts them from the state's higher minimum wage that went into effect Jan. 1.

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee said it will organize politically and work with the Ohio AFL-CIO and church leaders to fight what it characterizes as a discriminatory policy affecting as many as 5,000 short-term, piece-rate crop harvesters, about half of whom are illegal.

"We are not going to keep quiet this time," said Lupe Williams, a Spanish language and Hispanic culture lecturer at Ohio State University.

Just before the legislative session ended in December, the General Assembly, solely with Republican votes, passed legislation to implement the new minimum-wage constitutional amendment approved by 57 percent of voters on Nov. 7.

The amendment raised Ohio's minimum wage from the federal level of $5.15 to $6.85 this year and set the stage for annual cost-of-living adjustments thereafter.

In defining "employee" as affected by the law, the General Assembly exempted home health-care, amusement park, fishing industry, and some agricultural workers from the hike.

The bill was signed by Republican Gov. Bob Taft as his term ended, much to the chagrin of his successor, Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland.

Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said the governor "feels [the exemptions] undermined the will of the people. He is talking with others who share that viewpoint as he weighs his options."

The issue could be resolved in Washington, where the new Democratic majority in the U.S. House rushed through a bill to raise the federal minimum to $7.25 an hour by 2009. The measure has slowed in the Senate over a dispute over business tax breaks.

Mr. Valasquez said migrant farm workers are covered under the current federal minimum wage law, as well as Michigan's new minimum, currently at $6.95 as part of a multiyear phase-in toward $7.40.

"We are not beggars nor social parasites, and we are not asking for a handout, but rather a fair day's pay for a fair day at work," said Baldemar Velasquez, the farm workers' union president from Toledo. "The new minimum wage does not even reflect a just wage for our occupation, but we are grateful to the citizens of Ohio for giving us a higher safety net."