In the House of Representatives today, 227 Republicans voted unanimously to deny an increase to the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2016. This included 39 Republicans, who changed their position from 2007, when they supported the last increase to the minimum wage.

“The Republicans in the House should be ashamed of how they have abandoned the interests of their constituents and of the 30 million Americans who are making less today, inflation adjusted, than they did in 1968. Had the minimum wage kept pace with inflation since then, it would be $10.56 instead of $7.25 today,” said Ralph Nader.

Nader continued, “Polls have shown that 70 percent of likely voters support increasing the minimum wage. With their votes today, Republicans have demonstrated that they do not answer to the American people – they answer to their corporate masters. Over the past few decades, worker productivity has doubled and all workers have received for this effort is a shrinking minimum wage that has lost nearly a third of its purchasing power. As if that weren’t enough, in the same period of time average CEO compensation has skyrocketed by over 900 percent.”

“Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of G.E., made $12,400 per hour last year and his counterpart at Walmart, Mike Duke, has made $11,000 per hour. When Republicans can cast a vote which says that those types of salaries are ok, but the lowest wage workers among us must continue to live in poverty, something is wrong. The working poor deserve a raise to at least $10.50 per hour, and they deserve it now!” concluded Nader.

Walmart CEO Mike Duke makes approximately $11,000 an hour. Think about that — $11,000 every hour. Think about an hour of your day, the tasks you accomplish, and the compensation you receive from your employer. If you are an average American worker, you could add up all your daily work hours and that of your close friends, family, and fellow coworkers and it still won’t even come close to what Mike Duke makes in a single hour of his work day. He was the 46^th highest paid CEO in America in 2012, according to Forbes.

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Day after day exposés pour forth about corporate and governmental wrongdoing and abuses of power from official reports, the media, lawsuits and citizen groups. Far more often than not, little or nothing happens. The organized culprits continue with their harmful and greedy ways.

The golden age of muckraking in films, books, and magazine articles – assuming they are seen or read – can discourage people because the forces of law and order don’t follow through.

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March 5, 2013

The Harkin/Miller bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016 (in three years) still does not catch up with the federal minimum wage in 1968, adjusted for inflation, which should be at least $10.50 per hour in 2013.

Since 1968, worker productivity has doubled and all workers have received for this effort is a shrinking minimum wage. In other words, one Walmart worker today does the work that two Walmart workers did in 1968 and receives less pay, inflation adjusted, than either of those workers 45 years ago.

The working poor in America have taken the brunt of the Wall Street crash of 2008-2009. They are the most unemployed or underemployed, the lowest paid, the most ill-housed and underinsured, the most exploited in the marketplace and the most unrepresented by unions. There are 30 million working poor in our country who make less than 1968’s wages, inflation-adjusted, while the bosses of Walmart, McDonalds, and other big box stores and companies average over $10 million a year plus perks and benefits. These companies employ two-thirds of the low-wage workers in the United States.

An inflation-adjusted minimum wage is supported by at least 70 percent of the American people, including Rick Santorum and, until last year, Mitt Romney. Raising wages to the 1968 level is not only the morally right thing to do, but it would also be a significant economic stimulus. The working poor will quickly spend this overdue, earned money on their necessities, which will in turn increase sales and jobs.

Thirty million working poor, with millions of children whom they are desperately trying to support, cannot wait any longer for the food, housing, transportation, fuel and health care they need. They have been shortchanged by inflation and an indifferent federal government for too long. They need parity with 1968 now – hardly a radical demand.

The Harkin/Miller bill properly disregards the absurdly low proposal of President Obama in his State of the Union speech last month which was $9 per hour by 2015. In contrast, during his 2008 campaign, candidate Obama pledged $9.50 an hour by 2011. It is encouraging that Senator Harkin and Representative Miller are embarking on an independent path. We look forward to their public hearings – official in the Senate and unofficial in the Republican-dominated House – to hear the voices of the working poor and others who can bring to light the wretched conditions that an oligarchic corporate economy has imposed on workers in the most avaricious, unpatriotic repressions.

If Costco can start its workers at $11.50 per hour with benefits, if Australia can pay its workers over $15 per hour in minimum wages, and if Walmart can make profits in Ontario and pay that Canadian province’s $10.25 per hour minimum wage, why can’t Congress, (known to adjust its salaries to inflation until recently) bring 30 million working poor Americans, who grow our food, serve us, clean up after us, and take care of our children and elderly, to the level of pay in 1968?

It’s time for a raise to $10.50 now!

If the minimum wage legislation being introduced today by Senator Thomas
Harkin and Representative George Miller is enacted into law this year,
it will be five years since the working poor in American got a raise.

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Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader Says President Obama’s $9 Minimum Wage by 2015 Is Far Too Little and Too Late

February 13, 2013

Ralph Nader made clear on Wednesday that President Obama’s proposal, in his State of the Union address, to increase the minimum wage to $9 per hour by 2015 is too little, too late.

“Thirty million workers are making less today than they did in 1968, adjusted for inflation!” said Nader. “Is $9 per hour the best that this President can come up with? They should be making at least $10.50 per hour to catch up with 1968.” That was the message Nader and other worker advocates took in demonstrations yesterday before the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO (see here).

If the minimum wage had simply kept pace with inflation in the past 45 years, today it would be $10.56 per hour instead of the current federal minimum wage of $7.25. In about the same time that the minimum wage has lost nearly 33 percent of its value, the average value of CEO compensation has skyrocketed over 900 percent according to an annual Forbes survey.

“On the campaign trail in 2008, President Obama pledged to increase the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour by 2011. What changed?” asked Nader. “Are millions of the same hard-working Americans in 2015 worth 50 cents less per Obama-hour than they were in 2008?”

Despite his campaign pledge, in President Obama’s first term, not a whisper came from the White House on the minimum wage and 2011 came and went.

“Over four years has passed between when President Obama first suggested increasing the minimum wage and when he finally uttered a peep about it in his State of the Union address last night, he undercut his own 2008 pledge! The President has finally come back to the table on the issue, but he can, should, and needs to do better than $9 per hour by 2015 for many millions of hard-pressed, hard-working Americans and their children,” Nader concluded.

Poll after poll has shown that 70 percent of the American people support increasing the minimum wage to keep up with inflation. Even some Republicans have supported raising the minimum wage. Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney both supported raising the minimum wage to keep up with inflation – at least until Mitt Romney flip-flopped on the issue during the election.

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