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Living Wage Fight Revitalized in New York City
Activists representing low-income communities are rallying behind legislation that would boost the wage floor for workers at city-subsidized projects. The pending bill would set the minimum pay at $10 per hour for workers at development sites that benefit from city financial support.
That essentially covers any new development project receiving a city tax break or subsidy, from malls built with municipal tax credits to “redevelopment” schemes in gentrifying neighborhoods. Employers would also have to offer health insurance or pay an extra $1.50 per hour, and the wage would grow with a periodic cost-of-living adjustment.
If the legislation finally passes the City Council (previous attempts at legislating a living wage have foundered), it could be one of the most comprehensive fair-wage policies in the country.
The opposition says the mandate would deter developers. Mayor Michael Bloomberg dismissed the bill on Monday as prohibitively costly for corporations. "It's a nice idea but is poorly thought out and will not work," he told the New York Daily News. "The economics don't work if you have to pay more."
True, the economics don't work--unless you think it makes sense to pay sales clerks, cashiers and janitorial workers enough to live on. Retail work, the city's largest source of low-paying jobs, relegates legions of New Yorkers to poverty-level wages and leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. A 2008 report by the Fiscal Policy Institute found that 44 percent of retail workers earned less than $10 an hour. And these weren't just teenagers looking for extra spending cash:
The vast majority—78 percent—are 25 years or older, and half are 35 years or older. Four out of five work fulltime. In many cases, their earnings are vital to their families’ well being. In families with children, retail workers’ earnings contribute on average 56 percent of the family’s earned income, and more than a third of these workers are their family’s sole provider. Ninety thousand children in the city have parents employed in retail.
Reflecting the low-income population of the city overall, people of color make up most of the retail workforce, and about half are immigrants. They're especially vulnerable to common workplace abuses, “including failure to pay the minimum wage and overtime pay, discrimination against women, underpayment of undocumented immigrants.”
On Bloomberg's rejection of the living wage proposal, Paul Sonn, legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project, reflected on the Mayor's idiosyncratic approach to regulation:
One can understand the billionaire mayor being cautious about regulating business. But his caution is plainly selective (witness his innovative interventions to regulate everything from restaurant menu calorie counts to guns). And around promoting decent jobs for the city’s low-income communities, he clearly had a blind spot.
The reality that urban job growth is concentrated in low-wage industries is hollowing out the middle class that cities need to thrive.
John Petro of the Drum Major Institute said that the growth of the retail industry poses a “threat to the city's economy”—one that city tax dollars should have no part in fostering.
“This bill really does challenge the status quo of how development is done in New York City,” Petro told In These Times. By tying development to a wage standard, “instead of transferring these subsidies directly to these select developers, we're also making sure that the benefits are shared more broadly by the city as a whole and the communities where these projects are completed.”
A living wage, which enables families to actually spend money to stimulate the local economy, is especially needed now that real wages have been eroded by the recession, soaring health and housing costs, and the collapse of Wall Street. Crain's New York reports that overall, eight in ten of the city's private-sector workforce saw their wages gutted during the Recession.
So far, community advocates have had some success in negotiating adequate wages with developers, but in the absence of a firm citywide standard, the agreements have been on an individual project basis, creating uncertainty for both businesses and workers.
As we reported last December, a major development plan known as the Kingsbridge Armory Project has stalled due to disputes over the community's calls for living wage jobs.
Nationwide, other cities have built job and wage standards into development plans, either on a project-by-project basis or through cityordinances, according to the National Employment Law Project. Los Angeles, for example, has applied a combination of citywide living wage mandates and project-based wage negotiations for developments receiving subsidies or operating on city-leased property. These deals cover restaurant servers at LAX airport, hotel housekeepers and cashiers at Trader Joe's.
The New York City living-wage bill has been coupled with another bill that would require prevailing wages, which are generally higher than both the minimum and proposed living wage, for building service workers at city-subsidized developments. Together, the two bills could have a broad ripple effect on pay scales throughout the private sector, since so many developments have absorbed millions in city subsidies over the years.
As for concerns about the economic impact of wage mandates, advocates point out that taxpayers already supplement the income of low-wage workers—indirectly, through public assistance. So the city can either let employers shaft poor workers today and leave the public to pick up the tab tomorrow, or compel privileged business to spread their wealth in the form of decent paychecks.
Meanwhile, critics question the value of the lavish deals between the city's Economic Development Corporation and big names like Jet Blue. Investigations by Gotham Gazette and Good Jobs New York have revealed that despite government giveaways, some projects have fallen short of expectations for job creation. Nationwide, labor activists warn that many corporate-friendly development subsidies do not benefit, and may even harm, local commerce and job creation.
In reality, it takes far more than $10 an hour for a family to survive in the city, but the wage levels proposed in the bill would at least give workers more leverage to negotiate higher pay or benefits at the collective bargaining table. Jeff Eichler, director of retail organizing project for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, said that raising the wage floor would strengthen the union by showing what labor organizing can accomplish through grassroots pressure.
In the current labor landscape, he said, “the problem of pushing towards a real living wage is that we start from such a low floor.... And all the pressure is downwards. So to establishing a floor helps us to go beyond the floor. So in terms of collective bargaining, that would be a real help.”
The living wage mandate would be a step toward a new social contract in the city's dealings with big business: New York is awakening to the idea that economic development isn't just meant to help corporations sponge off taxpayers, but to enable communities to leverage their labor and land to support growth that works for them.
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17 Comments so far
Show AllWhat the so-called conservatives want is for employers to have the authority to shaft the low paid workers without having to pay taxes to support the public services that pick up the slack. They believe the underpaid should be happy they're getting anything and have no right to complain, that assisting them in any way is "socialistic communism" and is somehow un-American.
Want to watch them go crazy? Call them on this and try to get them to cop to this point of view without the name calling and bluster that is their chief offensive defense.
"assisting them in any way is "socialistic communism" and is somehow un-American."
But the rich go further than that. They claim that putting the money at the top is good for society because it "trickles down" to the people at the bottom. Hubert Humphrey once described trickle-down economics with the comment that it is equivalent to saying that if you feed the horses, eventually the birds will get something to eat.
This country NEEDS Democratic Socialism to level the playing field.
http://www.dsausa.org/pdf/widemsoc.pdf
Bloomberg can rot in hell. Those with more money than brains (and that is pretty much ALL of them) should NEVER be allowed near gov't in ANY way. All they do is screw things up, and somehow they make money off of their failures, too. Unfortunately, it ALWAYS comes out of OUR pockets and goes right into theirs.
If you go to the Univ of CA at Santa Barbara's library website, you will find their collection of cylinder recordings (all prior to 1927, when Edison stopped making cylinders). In that collection, you will find a recording of Teddy Roosevelt talking about the need for a living wage, decent working hours (no more than 10 hours a day) and the need for workers to be treated as human. Here we are over 100 years later and the exact same topic is STILL unsettled. The rich are STILL intent on stealing as much from everyone else as possible. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I'm hoping that someday soon, people will wake up and realize that being rich is not anything to strive for if it destroys your humanity in the process. Look at the rich, look at their lives, their lack of humanity, their selfishness, their greed, the fact that their kids are sick and twisted past the point of believability, the damage they do to the rest of the world and ask yourself if it's REALLY a good thing to want to be like that. I think it's not.
Bloomberg is a perfect example of why. He's so much more worried about profit than people's ability to actually LIVE, he has NO humanity left in his soul. He is dead inside. I suspect that by the time he dies, he won't even notice it happening, he will have been dead for so long. Shame on him, but of course, he has none.
On NY One, I heard Bloomberg say that New York corporations can't afford to pay a living wage, and with those words, he quickly dismissed the idea. Now into his 3rd term as mayor of NYC, due to his own rigging of the system, Bloomberg could care less about anyone but his cronies -- in banking, real estate, media and other corporations in the city. As long as they all prosper, and profits rise, nothing else matters.
Right now, NYPL is under siege, again, with threats of cutting back to being open 4 days-per-week. In July of 2009, 1/3 of the NYC library staff were fired. In August of 2009, I talked to a librarian at Lincoln Center who told me that all remaining librarians and clerks fear for their jobs, and in turn, fear for their lives. Evidently, this was only the beginning of the dismantling of the NYC public library system. The 42nd Street Library on 5th Avenue is regarded as one of the great research libraries in the world, and is currently undergoing a facelift, with Steven Schwartzman's name now engraved on the front of the library. Schwartzman is one of the corporate raiders, a billionaire many times over, like Bloomberg. Recently, Schwartzman bequeathed an enormous amount of money to the Library. Philanthropy is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? Schwartzman has his name on the library, but the library will soon close to the public three days a week -- a facelift at the expense of services. Of course, some of you who live in the city know that the CEO of NYPL, Paul LeClerc, a so-called public servant, is paid $800,000 per year, as reported by Katha Pollitt in the Nation Magazine. I wonder if he will take a pay cut!?
With at least 1.5 million people out of work in the city, the cuts continue. When the new Penny's store opened last year, 15,000 people applied for about 400 jobs. And, the 15,000 number does not include those who were automatically disqualified by the personality tests applicants had to fill out before reaching the actual application. Personality tests usually serve to weed out independent thinkers, according to William H. Whyte in his 1956 book, The Organization Man.
I don't have kids in the NYC public school system, but the public school system is also on the chopping block, with Bill Gates and his "Race to the Top" soon to add massive privatization and charter schools to the city. I can't help but think that busting unions might be the focus of the charter school movement. I think others on CD have talked about this issue.
The authorities are hitting us from every possible angle, with the deck stacked firmly against us.
I read that Wal-mart is planning to set up shop in the city for the first time in Brooklyn. What's the news on that?
I'm glad I'm not attending the NYC public school system today. It worked well when I was a student there decades ago, with mostly dedicated teachers, but the changes over the past ten years have turned me off.
From what I understand, Wal-Mart is looking at the Jamaica Bay area in Brooklyn. However, according to what I have read, protests are already in progress.
Anyone who has walked around in Manhattan, can attest to empty commercial spaces in just about every neighborhood in the city, big spaces, small spaces and in some cases, entire blocks are empty of businesses. More banks are popping up, though. As if we need more banks in this city.
The living wage in Portland, Or. is calculated to be $11.80 hr. for a 40 hour week. It just has to be more expensive to live in NYC than here; we have no sales tax for one thing. I cannot for the life of me understand why you're not asking for $13-14.00 an hour, plus bennies. There needs to be another " Poor People's March " and soon. The masses are reaching the tipping point everywhere. It's gonna get uglier real soon. Can you say " double-dip recession " 3 times real fast?
I think it should be $22 an hour. No shit. At least most of the minimum wage jobs out there are stressful and difficult.
Millions in bailout for Wall Street but poverty wages for folks working for the city.
One of Bloomberg's incubator internet businesses offered only no pay jobs.
linkwray and others have pointed out why illegal immigration is so insidious. It allows businesses to circumvent a living wage. It is also why there should be severe penalties for any business caught employing undocumented workers. It has to be a federal effort, though, and the penalties have to have teeth.
One way we can get those here illegally to come out of the shadows is reward them with work permits if they rat out their employer. Then give the employer a choice: either pay for their permits and/or naturalization, and a smaller fine, or a big fine and go to jail. Employers would soon realize that it is not worth the risk or possible extra expense if caught, and hire legal residents and citizens.
While the Arizona law is an attempt to stem the tide of illegal immigration, they have the wrong target.
It's getting to be more and more about survival in this harsh economic climate, and most of us can hardly get along with one roommate to share expenses; our culture encourages competition and selfishness. Those who can harmonize and work with others will be much better off than those who cannot. And I believe cultural isolation is a big reason why the powers that be have been able to play us against one another. We say: "I don't need anything from you, I can do it myself..." or "You need to pull yourself up from your bootstraps, like I did..." There are few 'bootstraps' left on this uneven playing field, and opportunities continue to dwindle. Many will soon realize (if they haven't already) that they need to work with others if they are to survive.
I purposed an increase to the minimum wage to $12.00 an hour with wage multipliers like banking (fractional reserve banking) multipliers of 8 to 1, in 2004 as the Reform Party candidate for president. In another words the employee puts into his payroll account only $1.50 an hour to create the $12.00 wage.
The system is so corrupt, the city and state of New York under the 9th and 10th amendment to the US Constitution should:
1) print money like the FED (Federal Reserve dollars) and pay for the deficits.
2) set-up their (NY State) own Constitutional Supreme Court to overturn the US Supreme Court.
Thank you for this article, Michelle Chen. New York City has become almost unliveable for its workers. If it were not for the unions - municipal, teachers, transit, hospital etc. - almost everyone doing a useful job would soon be reduced to desperate poverty as paying for the economic collapses would be totally shifted onto them. The Mayor and the Governor never say anything about the war waste and the banks and stockbrokers giving back through even slight increases in their taxes. These annoying rich boy pols immediately look to cut wages and hours of people who are barely getting by.
Rents and other costs are very high. Public higher education has gone from totally free when I was young to very expensive.
I also endorse everything Kay Johnson has said about our local politics, which are just a fractal image of our national politics. Libraries are so important. They are our primary senior centers. If you see the libraries in immigrant and poor communities, they are filled to the brim with kids doing homework and reports after school and on Saturdays. They serve as de facto places for safe and wholesome child care for working parents. And of course librarians rock; as a profession they have resisted government invasion into the thoughts of our citizens by refusing to turn over borrowing and reading records.
Joe
I found this online:
Save NYC Libraries Postcard Campaign and Urban Librarians Unite Announce
We Will Not Be Shushed: A 24-Hour Read-In
June 12 and 13, 2010
5:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
Brooklyn, New York--May 2010 --Save NYC Libraries Postcard Campaign and Urban Librarians Unite announce We Will Not Be Shushed: A 24-Hour Read-In in support of New York City's public libraries, to be held June 12-13, 2010, on the steps of Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, New York, USA. Official website: www.savenyclibraries.org
The We Will Not Be Shushed 24-Hour Read-In brings New Yorkers together for 24-hours of continuous public reading to bring attention to the budget cuts faced by New York City's public libraries. From 5PM Saturday to 5PM Sunday, in 20 minute increments, public library supporters and staff will read aloud from books of their choosing. As a reflection of the wide range of information to be found in libraries, readings will span multiple genres, and include late-night scary stories and a Sunday morning storytime for children.
New York City's three library systems serve 8 million residents from a combined 212 locations, numbering over 43 million visits in FY'09.Since the economic crisis began, library use has been at an all-time high, with many New Yorkers depending on their local library for access to the information, resources, and programs necessary to conduct job searches, complete their education, navigate the Internet, and access public services.
Mayor Bloomberg's Executive Budget for FY'11 calls for a reduction in funding of $16.9 million for Queens Library, $20.6 million for Brooklyn Public Library, and $37 million for New York Public Library. This represents a cumulative 30% decrease in funding since 2008. If enacted, the budget cuts will result in the closure of 40 libraries citywide, 30% of library staff will be laid off, and library service hours for many branches will be reduced to 2-3 days. Unless the City Council votes to restore funding, libraries' ability to provide New Yorkers with job search help, afterschool tutoring, computer access and instruction, English classes, and research assistance will be sharply reduced by July 1, 2010.
For more information on the Read-In, please contact savenyclibraries@gmail.com.
Thanks, cc1944, for posting the information! We really need people to write letters to the mayor, their city council members, etc.
Thanks, Joe!
If you get back to this, I just read an article on counterpunch about the privatization of U.S. Schools. Maybe, you've already read it.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cooke06022010.html
Since I don't watch much TV, until recently, I hadn't seen the ads running -- against the teachers unions in NYC. Disgusting! Now, there are ads running, pro-union and teachers, in rebuttal. If you hadn't talked about it in one of your posts, I wouldn't have known to write a letter to my city councilman. Thanks!