Hello everyone -
I have not seen any response yet on the GPCA web site to the Gov announcement below. It really bother me ! Didn't we talk about this at the plenary ?
I suggest a strong and aggressive answer from the Green Party in 3 points:
1) $7.25 by 09/2006 and then $7.75 by 7/2007 is pure demagoguery and electoralism. The minimum wage must be raised NOW, not weeks before elections.
2) The current minimum wage is at an historic low, to the point that it has become "inoperative" as described by Mr Greenspan himself. The last numbers available in CA show that the lowest percentile of hourly paid workers is already in the $7.50 range. Nothing less that $8.00/hr is necessary to bring the CA minimum wage back to the level it should be ( around 50% of the average hourly non-supervasory pay)
http://www.cbpp.org/9-1-05mw.htm
3) After being arm-twisted by the powerfull CA unions in November 2005, the governor kneels and abjure right-wing / Greenspan's "supply and demand" labor cost and market ideology ! Hurray ! http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20050919&s=greider
4) It no time to drop the Green Party sponsored proposition to get a REAL raise for the minimum wage. $8.00 by 1/1/2007 damn it ! The SF minimum will already be $9.00 by that time.
That's it. Here I got my second minute of plenary comments and analysis.
Pierre.
Susan King <funking(a)mindspring.com> a écrit :
Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose raising the state's minimum wage by $1 in his State of the State address next week after vetoing a similar measure two years in a row.
The move is the latest signal that the Republican governor is trying to rehabilitate his image with moderate voters who soundly rejected his special election proposals this past November.
The proposal also may be an attempt by the governor to begin to mend fences with labor unions, who were his fiercest critics this past year and the most vigorous opponents of Schwarzenegger's special election measures.
"This is the new Arnold, the one that is willing to compromise," said Ken DeBow, a political science professor at Cal State Sacramento. "I still think most voters are pretty centrist. Things are going to rebound in his favor if he is seen making a good-faith effort to make reasonable compromises with the Legislature."
Under Schwarzenegger's proposal, the hourly wage would increase from $6.75 to $7.25 in September 2006 and to $7.75 in July 2007, said an administration official who provided the information on the condition of not being identified.
Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill earlier this year that would have provided the same wage increase but also mandated automatic boosts to keep pace with inflation. In his veto message, the governor said he believed it was time to raise the minimum wage but did not support the annual increase.
The new proposal does not include an automatic yearly increase, which has been pushed by Democrats and organized labor.
Democrats were quick to stake out a negotiating position, praising the proposed wage hike but insisting the governor's plan doesn't go far enough.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, called the proposal "a good start.''
Núñez said a $1 increase "doesn't really satisfy the needs of the people who are one paycheck away from the street.''
The Assembly's top Democrat said he would push for a provision that would allow for future automatic wage boosts as the cost of living increases or for further raises in future years so that any minimum wage legislation signed this year would have more far-reaching effects.
DeBow said Democrats who control the Legislature must be careful not to appear they are being obstructionist when Schwarzenegger is making these proposals.
"He's put them on the defensive here," he said. "They have to be constructive and make a good-faith effort, too."
Núñez noted he had met "numerous'' times with Schwarzenegger since the special election, and said the minimum wage proposal was indicative of the governor's newfound willingness to work with the Legislature.
"This is not the governor we were dealing with last fall,'' he said. "Gone are the days when we were dealing with each other in such a combative way.''
DeBow said he suspects more moderate advisers within the administration may be having an influence.
"He's clearly thrown away the Pete Wilson playbook," he said, referring to the former Republican governor. "He's trying to get back to that broad-based appeal that got him where he is in the first place. And that's what voters want."
Democratic Treasurer Phil Angelides, who is running for governor, said Schwarzenegger's move is two years too late.
Schwarzenegger's proposal is about the same as legislation he vetoed during his first full year in office in 2004. At that time, he described a minimum wage increase as a detriment to job growth, saying "now is not the time to create barriers to our economic recovery'' in his veto message.
"He was wrong to veto the minimum wage bill twice, and now all he is trying to do is cover his tracks," Angelides said. "It is two years too late for the hard-working people of California who desperately needed help."
Business groups that had opposed the minimum wage increase in the past said Friday that they supported the governor's proposal.
"I think most small businesses will be in support because it doesn't have indexing," said Scott Hauge, president of Small Business California, a San Francisco-based advocacy group.
San Francisco's minimum wage is $8.62. San Francisco businesses benefit when the wage is raised in the rest of the state because they aren't at such a competitive disadvantage, Hauge said.
Washington's minimum wage is the highest state rate in the country, rising to $7.63 an hour on Monday. The federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour.
It was unclear Friday how Schwarzenegger's proposal might affect a push by a coalition of labor unions and social welfare groups to put a minimum wage increase on the November 2006 ballot. Campaign officials were unavailable for comment.
Two initiatives have been introduced: One would incrementally boost the minimum wage to $7.75 per hour by 2008, and the other goes further, increasing the wage to $8.75 per hour by 2009.
Both measures also call for the minimum wage to be increased annually in the future based on the state's inflation rate.
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Wage increases
California's minimum wage since 1997:
$7.75 July 2007 (proposed)
$7.25 September 2006 (proposed)
$6.75 January 2002
$6.25 January 2001
$5.75 March 1998
$5.15 September 1997
$5.00 March 1997
Source: California Department of Industrial Relations
E-mail the writers at lgledhill(a)sfchronicle.com and markmartin(a)sfchronicle.com.
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