Somebody hast to pay for it:

The High Public Cost of Low Wages

Ken Jacobs, Ian Perry and Jenifer MacGillvary April 13, 2015

Low Wages Cost U.S. Taxpayers $152.8 Billion Each Year in Public Support for Working Families

[….]

Even as the economy has at last begun to expand at a more rapid pace, growth in wages and benefits for most American workers has continued its decades-long stagnation. Real hourly wages of the median American worker were just 5 percent higher in 2013 than they were in 1979, while the wages of the bottom decile of earners were 5 percent lower in 2013 than in 1979.1 Trends since the early 2000s are even more pronounced. Inflation-adjusted wage growth from 2003 to 2013 was either flat or negative for the entire bottom 70 percent of the wage distribution.2 Compounding the problem of stagnating wages is the decline in employer provided health insurance, with the share of non-elderly Americans receiving insurance from an employer falling from 67 percent in 2003 to 58.4 percent in 2013.3

Stagnating wages and decreased benefits are a problem not only for low-wage workers who increasingly cannot make ends meet, but also for the federal government as well as the 50 state governments that finance the public assistance programs many of these workers and their families turn to. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of enrollees in America’s major public support programs are members of working families;4 the taxpayers bear a significant portion of the hidden costs of low-wage work in America.

[….]

“…. taxpayers bear a significant portion of the hidden costs of low-wage work in America. ….”

Uh, yep. Taxpayers are left holding the bag whilst someone else profits! Go figure.

There doesn’t appear to be a “trickle up” effect on higher paid workers’ income.

How raising the minimum wage ripples through the workforce

by Ben Zipperer Posted on April 28, 2015 at 7:45 am

….the sharpest wage increases due to raising the minimum wage occur for workers at the bottom five percent of the wage scale, where U.S. minimum-wage workers are most likely to be concentrated. A ten percent increase in the minimum wage raises that 5th percentile wage by about 2.9 percent. The study also finds evidence of ripple effects as the minimum wage increases wages for workers who make more than the minimum-and that these ripple effects dissipate the further one moves up the wage ladder. The same ten percent minimum wage increase raises the wages of workers at the 10th percentile of wages by about 1.6 percent and raises the wages of those in the 20th percentile by a statistically significant 0.7 percent. After the 25th percentile, wage effects are typically very small and statistically indistinguishable from zero.

[….]

Our lowest paid workers (those living at the margins) benefit from a higher minimum wage.

Who benefits from a low minimum wage (or below living wage)?

This past week at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C151125 07/31/2015 MISSOURIANS FOR FAIR WAGES Missouri Restaurant Association 1810 Craig Road Suite 225 Saint Louis MO 63140 7/31/2015 $10,000.00

C151125 08/05/2015 MISSOURIANS FOR FAIR WAGES National Restaurant Association 2055 L Street NW Suite 700 Washington DC 20036 8/4/2015 $20,000.00

[emphasis added]

C151125: Missourians For Fair Wages

  Committee Type: Campaign

Po Box 521

Jefferson City Mo 65102 Established Date: 07/16/2015

[….]

Ballot Measure History

Ballot Measures Election Date Subject Support/Oppose

Raise Missouri’s Minimum Wage 11/08/2016 Statutory Amendment To Chapter 290 Relating To Minimum Wage Version 1/Statewide Oppose

Raise Missouri’s Minimum Wage 11/08/2016 Statutory Amendment To Chapter 290 Relating To Minimum Wage Version 2/Statewide Oppose

Raise Missouri’s Minimum Wage 11/08/2016 Statutory Amendment To Chapter 290 Relating To Minimum Wage Version 3/Statewide Oppose [emphasis added]

Because a living wage is a bad idea?

The summaries of the three pertinent versions (via the Missouri Secretary of State):

Statutory Amendment to Chapter 290, Relating to Minimum Wage, version 1

2016-045

[….]

Shall Missouri law be amended to:

   increase the state minimum wage to $9.00 per hour with a $1.00 per hour increase each year until 2023, when the minimum wage would be $15.00 per hour;

   adjust the state minimum wage based on changes in the Consumer Price Index each January beginning in 2024;

   mandate that the state minimum wage at least equal the federal minimum wage;

   increase the employer portion of tipped employee wages from 50% to 60% of the state minimum wage; and

   increase the penalty for paying employees less than the minimum wage?

Increased state and local government expenses resulting from this proposal may be up to $397 million annually if funding is appropriated.  State and local government tax revenue could increase by an estimated $489 million annually; however, employment decisions made by businesses could impact this estimate.

[emphasis added]

Statutory Amendment to Chapter 290, Relating to Minimum Wage, version 2

2016-046

[….]

Shall Missouri law be amended to:

   increase the state minimum wage to $9.00 per hour with a $1.00 per hour increase each year until 2020, when the minimum wage would be $12.00 per hour;

   adjust the state minimum wage based on changes in the Consumer Price Index each January beginning in 2021;

   mandate that the state minimum wage at least equal the federal minimum wage;

   increase the employer portion of tipped employee wages from 50% to 60% of the state minimum wage; and

   increase the penalty for paying employees less than the minimum wage?

Increased state and local government expenses resulting from this proposal may be up to $125 million annually if funding is appropriated. State and local government tax revenue could increase by an estimated $249 million annually; however, employment decisions made by businesses could impact this estimate.

[emphasis added]

Statutory Amendment to Chapter 290, Relating to Minimum Wage, version 3

2016-047

[….]

Shall Missouri law be amended to:

   increase the state minimum wage to $9.00 per hour with a $1.00 per hour increase each year until 2019, when the minimum wage would be $11.00 per hour;

   adjust the state minimum wage based on changes in the Consumer Price Index each January beginning in 2020;

   mandate that the state minimum wage at least equal the federal minimum wage;

   increase the employer portion of tipped employee wages from 50% to 60% of the state minimum wage; and

   increase the penalty for paying employees less than the minimum wage?

Increased state and local government expenses resulting from this proposal may be up to $73 million annually if funding is appropriated.  State and local government tax revenue could increase by an estimated $189 million annually; however, employment decisions made by businesses could impact this estimate.

[emphasis added]

Work forty hours (or more) a week in that environment and see if your family can get by on the current minimum wage.

Minimum Wage [Missouri]

2015 Minimum Wage

$7.65/hr

Employers engaged in retail or service businesses whose annual gross income is less than $500,000 are not required to pay the state minimum wage rate. Employers not subject to the minimum wage law can pay employees wages of their choosing.

Well, could you?

Today via Twitter:

Blobert Ironside @blobert

Breaking News: American CEO-to-employee pay ratio rises paltry 16% to 373:1 because workers still being paid. #ObamaFailure 8:32 AM – 13 May 2015

From the AFL-CIO:

[….]

….America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, a country where hard work and playing by the rules would provide working families a middle-class standard of living. But in recent decades, corporate CEOs have been taking a greater share of the economic pie while workers’ wages have stagnated.

In 2014, CEOs of the S&P 500 Index companies received, on average, $13.5 million in total compensation-an increase of 15.6% from the previous year-according to the AFL-CIO’s analysis of available data….

[….]

Meanwhile, pichfork and torch futures are also up…

Yesterday evening approximately one thousand people gathered in Theiss Park in Kansas City for a rally and march in support of increasing the hourly minimum wage. The organizers and crowd included a mix of food service and service industry workers, organized labor, university students and adjunct faculty, faith leaders, and Kansas City office holders.

“Justice for janitors.”

The event was organized by Stand Up KC, as part of a national movement:

We are fast food and retail workers from across KC coming together to demand good wages and a voice for low-wage workers.

Today, 48,000 Kansas Citians are employed in some of the world’s largest and most profitable fast food and retail corporations. But they work in our city’s worst paying jobs.

The average fast food worker is now 28 years old and the average retail worker is 38. Both make about $7.35/hour, have no healthcare, no paid sick days or vacation pay, and face daily discrimination. Top brands like McDonald’s make $5.4 billion in profit, pay their CEO $14 million, and have over 500 locations city-wide. It would take the average retail worker 823 years to earn what Walgreens CEO Greg Wasson earns in a year.

But fast food and retail workers won’t accept these facts any longer. Right now fast food and retail workers are sticking together to fight for higher pay so they can afford basic needs, like groceries, housing and transportation.

Stand with us as we stand up for our city and our futures!

Kansas City Mayor Sly James spoke at the rally:

Kansas City Mayor Sly James.

Kansas City Mayor Sly James: ….The one thing that we always must remember is, is that nothing is going to happen unless we act together. If we do not act together we will be picked off one by one, separated, culled from the herd, and nothing will happen.

The only things that have changed the course of history in this country have been when people who believed in something fervently, people who are willing to give up their lives for it, people who are willing to devote their treasure to it, combined with others to do the same thing and stuck together until it happened.

[….]

It is immoral, it is unjust, it is unreasonable, it is unforgivable, it is unexplainable that we all live in the richest, most powerful, best country in the world and people work forty hours a week and cannot feed their families. People work forty hours a week and cannot put food on the table, cannot buy the clothes that they need, cannot take care of their children’s needs, cannot access health care, cannot do things that other people do and take for granted. It is time for us to recognize that and it is time for it to stop.

[….]

“Good jobs and $15 for all.”

“…it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.”

After a relatively brief rally with speeches the crowd marched from the park through the neighborhood and up to the University of Missouri – Kansas City campus.

The start of the march.

“One world, one fight.”

Yesterday:

Expect a 15-cent increase in Missouri’s minimum wage

….The Missouri wage floor rose from $7.35 an hour last year to $7.50 this year and another 15-cent increase, to $7.65, is likely next Jan. 1. State law calls for the inflation adjustment to be based on a July reading of the Midwest Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or Midwest CPI-W for short….

And these comments, via Twitter:

Wayne Johnson ‏@WJohnson68

Take THAT, poverty! “@Weatherbird: Expect a 15-cent increase in Missouri’s minimum wage [….]” 1:05 PM – 2 Sep 2014

Matt Frederick ‏@mattfredstl

@WJohnson68 @Weatherbird Now you can have the PREMIUM ramen noodles for dinner! 1:09 PM – 2 Sep 2014

Wayne Johnson ‏@WJohnson68

@mattfredstl @Weatherbird Ha! Let’s not get too extravagant. Some of that 15 cents has to go to the nest egg! 1:11 PM – 2 Sep 2014

Bryon Evans ‏@stldesktop

@WJohnson68 @mattfredstl @Weatherbird Wow, a whole $6 extra per 40/hr work week! What’s a Happy Meal cost now? 1:11 PM – 2 Sep 2014

It’s not a living.

Previously:

Paying workers an actual living wage would be really nice, too (September 1, 2014)