pantslessprogressive: “I own a house in the city, two children, wife, we have car payments, we have house payments. We have utility bills. We have to pay them all, and it’s not going to be easy to do on this kind of money.” Robert Pugliese has worked for the Department of Public Works in Scranton, PA for 26 years. He made $19/hour. Now he makes $7.25/hour. Every city employee in Scranton, including police and firefighters, saw their paychecks slashed to minimum wage last Friday. Mayor Chris Doherty says the city’s financial situation is so dire that the town only had $5,000 even after paying their employees minimum wage. Doherty has indicated he wants to raise taxes to bring in more revenue, but the City Council blocked his proposal. To put the wage cut into perspective, Robert would make more money from unemployment benefits than his current paycheck, according to the CBS report. Last week, a judge ordered the town to continue paying full wages to the town employees. The mayor violated the judge’s order; a lawyer representing three unions is now filing a motion to hold the mayor in contempt. The bottom 60 percent of households have actually lost income since 1983 (while the top five percent of households took in 82 percent of all the income gains since 1983). Adjusting for inflation, minimum wage earnings now are lower than they were in 1968. At $7.25 an hour, your pre-tax income is $15,080/year. The federal poverty level for a family of four, like Robert’s family, is $23,050/year. If Robert is the sole provider for his family, his employer of 26 years has just put him and his family in poverty. This is why unions exist. Workers need a resource to stand up for fair compensation. 62 percent of Robert’s income is now gone. Scranton has been “financial distressed” for the past 20 years. These draconian wage cuts are nothing but a band-aid for the town’s woes. [photo via CBS News]
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pantslessprogressive:

“I own a house in the city, two children, wife, we have car payments, we have house payments. We have utility bills. We have to pay them all, and it’s not going to be easy to do on this kind of money.”

Robert Pugliese has worked for the Department of Public Works in Scranton, PA for 26 years. He made $19/hour. Now he makes $7.25/hour.

Every city employee in Scranton, including police and firefighters, saw their paychecks slashed to minimum wage last Friday. Mayor Chris Doherty says the city’s financial situation is so dire that the town only had $5,000 even after paying their employees minimum wage. Doherty has indicated he wants to raise taxes to bring in more revenue, but the City Council blocked his proposal.

To put the wage cut into perspective, Robert would make more money from unemployment benefits than his current paycheck, according to the CBS report.

Last week, a judge ordered the town to continue paying full wages to the town employees. The mayor violated the judge’s order; a lawyer representing three unions is now filing a motion to hold the mayor in contempt.

The bottom 60 percent of households have actually lost income since 1983 (while the top five percent of households took in 82 percent of all the income gains since 1983).

Adjusting for inflation, minimum wage earnings now are lower than they were in 1968.

At $7.25 an hour, your pre-tax income is $15,080/year. The federal poverty level for a family of four, like Robert’s family, is $23,050/year. If Robert is the sole provider for his family, his employer of 26 years has just put him and his family in poverty.

This is why unions exist. Workers need a resource to stand up for fair compensation. 62 percent of Robert’s income is now gone. Scranton has been “financial distressed” for the past 20 years. These draconian wage cuts are nothing but a band-aid for the town’s woes. [photo via CBS News]

(via thisismymonkey)

Source: pantslessprogressive

truth-has-a-liberal-bias: Eight States Raise Minimum Wage for New Year “Eight states are raising their minimum wage on January First, in line with state laws requiring the minimum to keep pace with inflation. The raises to come are modest by any measurement. But any increase must be welcomed as desperately needed and hopefully as a major start toward increasing the minimum wage everywhere to a level that will provide a decent living to all working Americans, many of them living in poverty or near-poverty.” Some of Obama’s Republican opponents in Congress actually have called for the minimum wage to be abolished, largely because their big money backers in the restaurant business, who employ about 60 percent of all minimum wage workers, are against it, as are many other business and corporate interests. Congress’ failure to act has left it up to the states. The eight that are raising their rates on New Year’s Day include Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.  Their rates will increase by 28 to 37 cents an hour to between $7.64 and $9.04. The National Employment Law Project (NELP) calculates that will bring nearly 1.4 million full-time minimum wage workers an extra $582 to $770 per year. Read the Article
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truth-has-a-liberal-bias:

Eight States Raise Minimum Wage for New Year

“Eight states are raising their minimum wage on January First, in line with state laws requiring the minimum to keep pace with inflation. The raises to come are modest by any measurement. But any increase must be welcomed as desperately needed and hopefully as a major start toward increasing the minimum wage everywhere to a level that will provide a decent living to all working Americans, many of them living in poverty or near-poverty.”

Some of Obama’s Republican opponents in Congress actually have called for the minimum wage to be abolished, largely because their big money backers in the restaurant business, who employ about 60 percent of all minimum wage workers, are against it, as are many other business and corporate interests.

Congress’ failure to act has left it up to the states. The eight that are raising their rates on New Year’s Day include Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.  Their rates will increase by 28 to 37 cents an hour to between $7.64 and $9.04. The National Employment Law Project (NELP) calculates that will bring nearly 1.4 million full-time minimum wage workers an extra $582 to $770 per year.


Read the Article