Want To See Biden Vanquish Trump And The Democrats Take Back The House? There's A Weapon...

I can’t imagine that there are any DWT readers who would disagree with Patriotic Millionaires' assertion that Biden and congressional Democrats have a winning issue on hand if they choose to use it: raising the minimum wage to a livable wage. They reminded their members that "Last week 22 states and 38 localities across the country “officially increased their minimum wages, which will give 10 million workers a total of $7 billion in increased wages. By the end of the year, 85 jurisdictions in total will have increased their minimum wages. This is a victory that has been years in the making for fair wage campaigners, and it’s nice to see their efforts paying off in such a significant way. Unfortunately though, there is still work to do when it comes to fair and livable wages in America. The federal minimum wage remains stagnant at just $7.25 an hour, where it has been for the last 15 years, and no fewer than 20 states have a wage floor equal to the federal standard. According to estimates from the MIT Living Wage Calculator, there is not a single county in the US where a full-time worker making $7.25 an hour– which comes out to $15,080 a year– can afford basic essentials. Workers making minimum wage and supporting even one child fall below the federal poverty line. (The poverty line itself is a woefully inadequate and misleading measurement based on wildly outdated formulas, but that’s a topic for another time.) These workers need significant help, and Congress must come to their rescue by raising the federal minimum wage to a level that allows them to actually sustain themselves and their families.”

Jerrad Christian is running for Congress in rural Appalachian Ohio. He grew up in a poor family and knows exactly what it’s like living paycheck to paycheck. “In a country as wealthy as ours,” he told me, “it's heartbreaking to see full-time workers unable to afford basic necessities on the current federal minimum wage. The recent local and state wage increases show progress, but they also highlight a clear national issue, that millions are still left behind. Congress must act with empathy and urgency to raise the federal minimum wage, ensuring that no member of our society is condemned to poverty or family left hungry, despite their hard work. This is a matter of basic human dignity and we shouldn't stand for it.”

Illinois human right attorney and progressive activist, Qasim Rashid is in a heated primary against corporate conservative Democrat Bill Foster. “Fourteen years ago, the minimum wage was fixed at $7.25, coinciding with a top 1% net worth of $5 trillion. Fast forward to today, billionaire wealth has soared to $45 trillion, yet the minimum wage remains stagnant at $7.25. This is generational wage theft— elected officials must prioritize fair compensation for workers and equitable taxation on billionaires.”

Jamie McLeod-Skinner, the Blue America-endorsed congressional candidate against Trump-backing Lori Chavez DeRemer is coming from a similar place: “All Americans want to be able to put a roof over our heads and food on our tables, regardless of party affiliation. Raising the minimum wage will help people help themselves and build stronger communities. Americans want Democrats to lead on it or get out of the way. We must lead on this core issue for working people.”

They’re not the only low-wage workers that need help from Congress, though. Millions of tipped workers could use a helping hand. In 42 states, tipped workers– including hairdressers, bartenders, servers, delivery drivers, and more–  are paid distinctly from other types of employees. In these states, restaurants use a “tip credit” to meet their obligation to pay the minimum wage by counting some or all of their employees’ tips as wages. For these workers, the bulk of their paycheck comes directly from tips and is largely up to the discretion of the customer, and research has shown that quality of service often has little to do with what the customer chooses to tip. 

Although the law requires that employers make up the difference from inadequate tips so that tipped workers receive at least the minimum wage, this does not always happen in practice, which creates an uneven and uncertain system that causes undue stress for millions of hard-working Americans 

There is no excuse for the federal subminimum wage to be as low as it is, but the real solution to this problem involves doing away with the tipped wage system entirely and having one wage floor that applies to all workers. Of course, as we said, there is work to be done on raising the federal minimum wage itself. In the meantime, Congress should at the very least take care to raise the federal subminimum wage to equal the standard minimum, giving workers the chance to earn tips on top of a more stable wage. 

As with most issues, raising the federal minimum wage and eliminating the subminimum tipped wage have their fair share of naysayers. Opponents of raising the standard minimum wage argue that such a move will hurt small businesses and lead to increased unemployment. Critics of eliminating the tipped wage make many of the same arguments, but they also contend that doing so would lower the overall take-home pay of tipped workers. The National Restaurant Association– America’s other NRA– is perhaps the loudest and most vociferous critic on this front: over the last decade, they have spent $38.4 million lobbying on behalf of restaurant owners to kill minimum wage campaigns at the federal and state levels.

But the facts don't support the arguments made by the likes of the NRA. Quite the opposite, actually. Research shows that raising minimum wages not only increases the pay of low-wage workers but also increases overall employment. Minimum wage hikes can help small businesses in the long run, as they serve to increase worker productivity, reduce turnover, and increase consumer spending in local economies. With regard to the subminimum tipped wage, the seven states without a tipped wage– Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington– all have stronger restaurant industries than states that have a subminimum tipped wage, with stronger growth in the number of restaurants and in employment, and their restaurant workers boast 21% higher take-home pay on average than their counterparts in states with the $2.13 federal subminimum wage.

Maebe A Girl is running in the L.A. district I live in. This district is ready for a full-bore progressive like her. “As someone who's worked for tips and worked minimum wage jobs, I know firsthand we ABSOLUTELY have to raise the federal minimum wage. The failure of our legislators to do so is a failure of representation and a failure of democracy. We cannot let corporate PACs and lobbyists stall progress on the most important of rights, trapping people at barely-liveable incomes. It's wage slavery. It's far past time to elect representatives who refuse corporate influence, will overturn Citizens United, and restore trust and humanity in our democratic system.”

And that brought them to the election. “Most Americans,” they wrote, “have cut through the noise around the minimum wage: a whopping 74% of voters now support raising the federal minimum wage to $20 an hour. Americans don’t agree on much these days, but they clearly believe all workers should make enough money to make ends meet. This makes it all the more confusing and frustrating that Congress has failed to act on this matter for so long. Even when Democrats held control of both houses of Congress in Biden’s first year in office, they still failed to deliver for workers on raising the minimum wage. 

There is an argument to be made that Biden’s poor standing with the voters can be turned around by “zeroing in on the minimum wage. There are five swing states– Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin– with minimum wages of $7.25. When Biden is on the campaign trail in these states, he needs to stress his commitment to voters to fight for their livelihoods by raising the federal minimum wage. In 2016, we saw what can happen when we allow authoritarian figures like Trump to capitalize on the economic frustrations of the masses and channel their anger in dangerous and misguided ways. If Biden strikes the right note with the minimum wage, he has the opportunity to channel people’s rightful anger in healthy ways and toward effective and meaningful solutions. The clock is ticking for him to make it happen.”

Tom Suozzi-- a once and future congressman from Long Island-- is about the win his old seat back after the voters there were tricked into giving George Santos a try. Yesterday, Suozzi told me that "Every progressive and every conservative in America should agree that if a person is willing to work hard, they should make enough money to live a decent life. Even at $10/per hour, working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, with two weeks vacation, you only make $20,000 a year. Does anyone believe that making $20,000 per year you could afford to buy a home, pay for health insurance, educate your children and retire one day without being scared. The minimum wage at $7.25 is appalling and unAmerican."

Would swing district Republican incumbents like Mike Garcia (CA), Mike Lawler (NY), John James (MI), Juan Ciscomani (AZ), Ken Calvert (CA), Nick LaLota (NY), Tom Kean (NJ), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Miichelle Steel (CA), Anthony D'Esposito (NY), Jen Kiggans (VA), David Valadao (CA), Lori Chavez DeRemer (OR), John Duarte (CA), Don Bacon (Nebraska), Maria Salazar (FL), Marc Molinaro (NY), Brandon Williams (NY), Young Kim (CA), David Schweikert (AZ), etc dare vote against raising the minimum wage right before an election? It's worth using a discharge petition to find out.