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Living Wage

Living Wage. Changing our Standard of Living By: Audelia Solorio and Devin Griffin. History. The first minimum wage in the US proposed in 1912 in Massachusetts The idea spread to several states throughout the next decade

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Living Wage

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  1. Living Wage Changing our Standard of Living By: Audelia Solorio and Devin Griffin

  2. History • The first minimum wage in the US proposed in 1912 in Massachusetts • The idea spread to several states throughout the next decade • National Industrial Recovery Act (1933) establishes first national minimum wage, is brought to court and declared unconstitutional

  3. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 • Reestablishes the national minimum wage • $0.25 an hour, about $4 adjusted to inflation • Upheld by United States v. Darby Lumber Co. • Establishes standard 40 hour work week • Includes child labor laws • A part of New Deal legislation

  4. Wages in the Workforce • National minimum wage starts about $4/hour • Highest minimum wage (adjusted) is 30 years later, about $11/hour • Currently $7.25/hour • Significant wage inequalities exist in the US • The top 1% experiences higher average increases in income than lower wage earners • There is also a pronounced gender wage gap

  5. Minimum Wage • Federal Minimum Wage is currently $7.25 an hour • The value of the federal minimum wage has fallen 30% • Despite 2007-2009 economic increases, the minimum wage remains too low to sustain working families • Working poor exceed 47 million due to • steep erosion • economic decline

  6. Living Wage • A wage rate required to meet minimum standards of living An approximate income needed to meet a family’s basic needs • Enabling the working poor to achieve: • financial independence • maintaining housing and food security

  7. Seattle • In June 2014, Seattle voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour from the $7.25 federal minimum • Large employers of 500 employees or more will be paying their employees the new $15 minimum by 2017 • Small businesses of 500 employees or less enacting the new $15 minimum by 2021

  8. Working on Progress • Progress is the advancement towards growth and development • Rhetoric of the conversation is that of positivity and improvement • Raising the standard of living will make the lives of the masses more desirable, lifting thousands out of poverty • If we consider the cost of living, the minimum wage does not support an individual much less a family

  9. Then and Now • Then: A federal minimum wage in 1968 could have lifted a family of three above the poverty line • Now: A federal minimum wage in 2013 cannot support a parent with one child • working full-time • 40 hours a week • 52 weeks a year • assuming there is no time off

  10. State of Living in 2014 • The minimum wage does not provide a living wage for the average American family • the living wage exceeds the poverty threshold • the living wage varies based on the cost of living and taxes where families reside • The cost of housing and childcare for families with children exceeds all other expenses

  11. Works Cited • Badger, Emily. “Minimum Wage Was Once Enough To Keep a Family of 3 Out of Poverty.” The Atlantic CITYLAB. (2013). Web. 26 Oct. 2014. • City of Seattle. Office of the Mayor. 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014 • Economic Policy Institute. Research and Ideas for Shared Prosperity: Minimum Wage. EPI, 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. • Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Living Wage Calculator. MIT, 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014. • National Employment Law Project. Living Wage and Minimum Wage. NELP, 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. • Peralta, Katherine. “Minimum Wage Capturing Political Center Stage.” U.S. News & World Report. (2014). Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

  12. Works Cited • “Raising the Minimum Wage to $10.10 Would Benefit 4.7 Million Moms.” Economic Policy Institute. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. • The Women’s Foundation of California. Bridge to Living Wage. WFCA, 2012-2013. Web. 26 Oct. 2014. • United States Department of Labor. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage. DOL, 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. • U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 2015 Fair Market Rent Documentation System. FMR, 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

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