Emboldened by key primary wins last week that propelled State Senators Marilyn Moore and Ed Gomes, the Connecticut Working Families Party is pressing Governor Dan Malloy to support legislation requiring large companies to pay a state fee for employing workers less than $15 an hour, arguing low-wage workers must rely on public aid programs that amount to taxpayers subsidizing corporate profits.
More on this from the Hartford Courant’s Daniela Altimari:
On Friday, the labor-backed party will kick off a petition drive aimed at convincing Malloy to support its call for a levy on big companies that employ low-wage workers.
The move is part of a larger push to raise taxes on the wealthy, increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and establish paid family and medical leave that will likely play out at the state Capitol next year.
“Right now, large profitable corporations are systematically underpaying employees and offering few or no benefits,” Connecticut Working Families Party Executive Director Lindsay Farrell said in a video accompanying the petition drive. “Their workers are forced to rely on public aid programs and as taxpayers, we are subsidizing their profits.”
Full story here.
The economy of Malloy’s Connecticut is so hobbled, and the business climate and employment prospects so weak, it doesn’t make sense to mount such an initiative at this time in Connecticut aimed at Hartford and Malloy. It makes a lot more sense to play into the national $15/hour movement in a strong way. Connecticut needs to be recognized as an economic basket case by the presidential campaigns, in the context of being a bastion of political discontent not willing to support establishment candidates or their policies. We should make it clear we expect big economic incentive offers from the campaigns in return for our votes.
We should play into the national $15/hour effort. Malloy’s Connecticut cannot meaningfully respond to a home-directed $15/hour effort, especially in the context of being a donkey hitched to Hillary’s cart.
Again Jeff, you are wrong.
The easiest way to lift the minimum wage is to either force the largest businesses to do so or make them pay a price.
If they raise their wages then others will follow. If not at least this will create a new revenue stream for the state to offset current costs forcing those businesses that can afford to pay.
Better something than nothing.
Keep up the good work, WFP!!!
Bob. It is stupid to try to ramp up wages in a state that is as economically-hobbled as Connecticut. Unemployed people can’t benefit from such a movement. The energy used chasing our tails in Connecticut could be better used nationally in leveraging a commitment for economic stimulus for our state from Washington and playing into national $15/hr efforts Connecticut isn’t Washington (and Bridgeport isn’t Seattle). We don’t have Boeing or Microsoft or …
Vote for Hillary, Bob. When she signs the TPP and exports a few million more jobs overseas, all the additional millions of unemployed people in the US (including Connecticut) can demand $15/hr for all of the non-existent jobs.
(Maybe Hillary can appoint Dan Malloy as her Labor or Commerce Secretary, since he has performed so well in Connecticut in promoting commerce and the interests of labor.)
Or maybe Hillary can hire a few million people at $15/hr to work for her family foundation. (I wonder what the rank-and-file workers make working for her foundation.) Maybe she’ll even move the operations of the Clinton Foundation to Bridgeport.
All real Democrats should vote for Jill Stein. Send a message to the Trump and Hillary campaigns and the Republicans and Republicrats that their tenure as the dominant political forces in the US is winding down.
Jeff, so you are saying those at the top are not making enough so let’s keep those at bottom staying there until those at the top get what they want and to hell with those at the bottom because the State will take care of them.
And Ron, this legislation targets the big companies like Walmart and Target. I guess Jeff feels their stores in Connecticut are feeling the economic pain also.
Let’s help Walmart continue to reap big profits by shifting the cost of benefits to the state while deflating wages.
Thank you Jeff for your meaningful input.
Ron: Try reading my passage again, for understanding, not as the basis for argument. When you understand what I’m saying, and sensibly make the case you do, I’ll be glad to expand on my concept from that point for you. And then you can explain it to Bob.
Also, Bob and Ron: $15/hour still falls far short of a real living wage in CT; but a $15/hour wage would push a lot of workers out of food stamp and Husky insurance eligibility, if it didn’t push them into part-part-time work. We have to go a lot farther than just $15/hour. To expend so much political energy and reach an end game having shot the whole political load for an inadequate, meaningless or unenforceable result would just be stupid. A serious, well-thought-out effort would go for real results in a serious way, not for bs political show. Shouting at Dan Malloy and the idiot CT GA is just political show. and asinine show at that, during a presidential election year (especially after the conventions). Silly, bs show.
If the WFP is serious they’ll fill up buses and demonstrate at Hillary rallies all the way up to Election Day. Without federal economic development assistance and federal political encouragement, Connecticut labor will keep losing ground and a $15/hour minimum wage will be unattainable. Target and Walmart and other retailers aren’t dependent on tiny Connecticut when they have the rest of the world to exploit.
What is the dollar figure you feel people should be paid for an unskilled job?
Andy: Full-time workers in the civilized developed countries of Europe and in Canada have full medical coverage for medical essentials, and can afford adequate housing, food, clothing and essential transportation. I’m not sure what the per-hour wage for that would be in the US. As you know, it varies from state to state, with Connecticut being in the top 5 most expensive states, and the last in job development and employment (as a Third-World state, maybe Mississippi is worse in this regard).
Maybe Bob and Ron and the WFP can provide stats on what measures and minimum wage would be necessary to put all Connecticut full-time workers at a level of income where they could actually be able to afford the essentials of modern life through their labor. I’m only guessing, but I would guess it would be closer to $30/hour for the breadwinner of a family of four, if health insurance were also provided by the employer.
We know the poverty figures in Bridgeport. Most Bridgeport families, including working families, are below or near the poverty level.
There is some very heavy lifting to do in this country if the American Dream is ever to become more than a nostalgic expression again. But forget the American Dream; there is some very heavy lifting to do just to make sure the average American can think of a decent, dignified survival-level existence in the years to come.
Jeff. Collecting buggies in the Walmart parking lot was never meant to be a career. No minimum wage job was meant to be a career choice. If minimum wage is the highest wage your skill set can demand the problem is not the level of minimum wage. When asked ‘what you want to be when you grow up,’ who answers bag boy? If that is the best job you can get and you are barely managing to stay there, you have a problem.
BTW, just so you know. Walmart starts at $14-29/hour. Minimum wage jobs would be more like mom & pop shops.
Okay, we start paying unskilled people $30. What do we now pay skilled labor such as plumbers and electricians or ironworkers? I think what you are talking about is socialism.
This is utter foolishness. The city has any number of positions that pay less than $15/hour and most unions are giving furlough days because the city cannot afford to pay the wages it already has.
How about this? Why doesn’t the city and state pop their minimum wage to $15/hour and companies in CT will follow suit. Sure this means the income tax and mil rate will have to go up but all wages are paid by the consumer anyway. YOU are paying for these raises.
Most workers who work and receive benefits are under an earning cap. If you earn too much the benefits stop. These people will cut their hours to stay under that cap. Their income will stay the same and they will not have to work as long. You really think someone is going to lose $600 in benefits and their insurance for a $200/week raise?
This ‘across the board’ wage increase that is not based on cost or productivity will have an instant effect on inflation. Once the inflation adjusts to the new minimum wage all the people who received the wage increase will have the same buying power they had before the increase. Those who did not receive an increase will have less buying power. Everyone gets poorer.
The only groups that make out are the state and federal governments. As income taxes are based on income, there will be a rise in tax revenue. There will also be a rise in payroll taxes (Social security, medicare, etc). It costs an employer $12/hour to pay a worker $10/hour. It will cost that same employer $18/hour to pay that same worker $15/hour. As employers raise their product cost to pay these wages the state will see an increase in sales tax revenue. A 50% increase for the bulk of my work force means I will have to raise prices by close to 50%. So a $10 item is now $15. The sale tax on that item goes from $0.60 to $0.90.