One of the nation’s top investigative journalists, David Sirota, reports that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker based his estimate of a “living wage” on the restaurant industry, which pays workers minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
He writes:
“Under pressure to raise the state’s minimum wage, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker confidently declared that there was no need. Low-wage workers had filed a complaint charging that the state’s minimum wage — $7.25 — did not constitute a “living wage” as mandated by state law. But the Republican governor’s administration, after examining the issue, announced on Oct. 6 that it found “no reasonable cause” for the workers’ complaint.
“That official government finding, according to documents reviewed by the International Business Times, was largely based on information provided by the state’s restaurant industry — which represents major low-wage employers including fast-food companies.
“The Raise Wisconsin campaign, which is pushing for a higher minimum wage, requested all documents on which the state based the “living wage” ruling. And the only economic analysis that the administration released in response was one from the Wisconsin Restaurant Association — a group that lobbies against minimum wage increases, and whose website says it is includes low-wage employers such as “fast food outlets” and “corporate chain restaurants.” The restaurant association’s study argued that a minimum wage increase would harm the state. It did not actually address whether workers can survive on the $7.25 minimum wage.
“It’s outrageous that Walker’s administration only thought to consult the restaurant industry, and not the workers themselves,” said Dan Cantor, the national director of Working Families, one of the groups that has been leading the effort to raise the minimum wage in Wisconsin. “In Scott Walker’s world, regular people don’t matter, only corporations,” Cantor said. Walker has received major campaign contributions from the restaurant industry.”
Sirota cites data showing that about half of all restaurant workers live at or below the poverty line.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Can a single person, living alone, who earns the minimum wage afford rent for a single-bedroom apartment within walking distance of public transportation (or a car and its associated costs), the cost of transportation to and from the minimum wage job, necessary utilities such as electricity, heat, and hot water, food and household items necessary to sustain the nutrition provided by the diet recommended by the US government, clean water, routine medical and dental care costs, clothing and shoes appropriate to the climate, savings adequate to maintain a safe and healthy lifestyle in retirement, savings adequate to deal with life’s inevitable emergencies large and small such as plumbing emergencies, the broken heel of a shoe, a broken leg, theft of goods from their apartment, etc?
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What’s a living wage? 10K for health insurance, 10K for rent, and 10K for food. There’s 30K, $15/hr. “The restaurant association’s study argued that a minimum wage increase would harm the state.” I would agree with that. If one state forces business to pay the true cost of living, welfare will flow to other states with low pay and subsidize businesses there, as the federal government covers some expenses for those employees. $15 has to be national.
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Why is Scott Walker a credible politician? Why do people vote for Walker who consistently works to destroy the quality of life for everyone who isn’t wealthy? Are we as a people so afraid for protecting our own comforts that we can’t have any compassion?
Nobody should work full time and not be able to decently survive. Yet, America is letting this happen.
I wish Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived long enough to have the Economic Bill of Rights passed. He could envision a better life for all Americans. Too many politicians now make the poor victims…calling them lazy and greedy. How sad.
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worth noting that under Federal law minimum wage for tipped workers can be much lower: An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 an hour in direct wages if that amount plus the tips received equals at least the federal minimum wage, the employee retains all tips and the employee customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips.
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Why is a toad like Scott Walker still in office, let alone running for a second term. Because when he was all set to suffer a justifiable recall two years ago at the hands of the Wisconsin teachers and state workers and their unions, the national Democrats led by Obama and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz decided to look the other way, not endorse the recall, not show up in the state, and not spend any money in the campaign. The failed recall of Walker was my rude awakening to the fact that the Obama administration is all talk when it comes to fixing income inequality and saving the middle class. Obama, Duncan, Emanuel, et al are deeply anti-teacher and anti-Union, which is why they are about to watch the nation elect a Republican Senate to go with the Republican House.
Bernie Sanders in 2016!
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sorry, but that is not why Walker won his recall election. When the person he had defeated in the primary won the Democratic nomination against him, that pretty much guaranteed he would survive, because a lot of independent voters did not like that notion of a redo. Had Kathleen Falk won that primary, she would have had enthusiastic union support, but the traditional players in the WI Democratic party opposed her and supported Tom Barrett. I actually had a conversation about this with several heavy hitters in WI Demo politics who resented Falk opposing Barrett.
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Sounds familiar. Sounds like the state party, like the national one, doesn’t understand what is in its best interest. I still remember Ed Shultz leading the charge for teachers’ rights in Madison while Obama turned his back, not for the last time, on the people who gave him the White House. Six years in it is clear that Obama, instead of taking Bernie’s advice in 2008 to be an FDR, opted to be the second coming of Bill Clinton. The current sorry state of public education and the teaching profession in the US is testament to that. And I fear the third coming of Clinton, should that happen in 2016, will only make things worse.
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I absolutely agree GST. Obama and his minions called this down upon themselves and all but the wealthiest will continue to pay a heavy price. Unfortunately we probably haven’t seen the last of the “new way democrats” who came to power under the first Clinton administration.
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MIT has created a Living Wage Calculator which enables one to see what it REALLY costs to live in every county. Go here: Living Wage Calculator – Introduction to the Living Wage Calculator http://livingwage.mit.edu/
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Scott Walker should be making the meager $7.25 too. How many governors do you know who only have a high school diploma? I feel so badly for the minimum wage earners. My salary, with the horrible economy, doesn’t go far at all. Bottom line – Scott Walker never paid his dues. He was made out of the same mold as Ohio governor, John Kasich.
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Everyone who works in the fast food/restaurant industry working for a poverty wage should consider quitting and going into gardening.
According to PayScale.com the average earnings for gardeners in the United States is about $14.02 per hour and the pay range is from $9.42 to $25.01
PayScale also says most gardeners like their work and job satisfaction is high. Total pay ranges from about $20K to $53K.
The great thing is that a gardener doesn’t even need a high school degree, and they can be illiterate.
Even The New York Times says, “Gardening as a Career: the Lure of a Dirty Lob”
Weeding and raking and digging and planting have not typically led to high-status careers. But these days, being a gardener is starting to sound better and better.
”It’s fashionable,” said Rosemary Kern, director of education at the New York Botanical Garden. ”It is a way of making a statement, like nouvelle cuisine.”
It is also a way of leaving the fast track for something that may have offered solace as a hobby, and so horticulture schools throughout the country are seeing a steady increase in adults who are thinking of leaving their careers to dig in the dirt for a living.
Indeed, some say gardeners may become to the 1990’s what chefs were to the 1980’s, when a surging interest in fine foods elevated the status of cooking as a career. A similar change seems to be taking place in the garden.
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