Posted on 07/16/2002 5:01:01 AM PDT by chambley1
Is Arlington set to join other Virginia jurisdictions that impose a “living wage” requirement on businesses that do work for the county?
County Manager Ron Carlee is expected to come before County Board members in the next two months with a recommendation on a living wage ordinance, which is being championed by County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman and the Arlington New Directions Coalition.
In an interview, Zimmerman said the success of a similar living wage ordinance in Alexandria could pave the way for adoption of one in Arlington.
“They did a good job with it,” Zimmerman said.
The current federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour. Under living wage ordinances, a jurisdiction requires contractors to pay a higher rate.
The proposal would not affect most businesses in Arlington, only those that do substantial work under county contracts. Should such an ordinance pass, businesses might opt to give up those contracts rather than raise wages.
The Alexandria living wage rate was set in June 2000 at $8.70 per hour for those whose work provides health insurance, $10.69 per hour for those whose jobs do not. It applies to companies that perform more than $50,000 annually in work for the city.
Zimmerman said a living wage was a matter of “social justice” and called the federal minimum wage “essentially meaningless.”
“Even high school kids are getting more than that,” he said.
The Arlington Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 900 county businesses, has not taken a position on a living wage ordinance, officials said. But the Chamber is likely to study the issue and determine a position before the County Board acts.
Chamber president Richard Doud Jr. said it was likely the issue will go to the group’s government and economic development committee, which will then make a recommendation to the full board of directors.
It is a process that could take months, but Doud said he doesn’t expect swift action by the County Board.
“The time frame on this issue appears to be such that we can let the normal process run its course,” he said.
The living wage ordinance is being promoted by the Arlington New Directions Coalition, an organization of mostly liberal social activists that has championed workers’, tenants’ and imigrants’ rights in recent years.
The organization recently was briefed by an Alexandria official on the effects of the city’s ordinance.
Charles Rinker, president of the New Directions Coalition, said he did not have a specific hourly wage to recommend to the County Board. But he said others have suggested to him that $13 per hour would be an appropriate living wage.
“We need to pay people so they can live in the county,” Rinker said. “When employees live here, they take a double interest in the county.”
Zimmerman said a living wage ordinance had both financial and philosophical components.
“Sure, it’s related to affordable housing – affordability is based on income,” he said. “But we also don’t want to be responsible for the exploitation of our most vulnerable workers.”
More than 80 U.S. communities have living wages in place, including Richmond and Charlottesville.
“I really think it is feasible in Arlington,” Rinker said.
"affordable housing"
"decentralize the concentration of poverty"
"diversity and multi-culturalism"
RUN don't walk when you hear these phrases batted about in your town!
And so goes the point. Minimum wage is what the high school kids make. Few, if any, people working to support their families make minimum wage. If they do it's because that's what their work is worth. They need to find another job. The market wil take care of itself. As people flee minimum wage jobs the wages for those jobs wil go up in order to bring people back.
From what I've read New York school system janitors already can.
Or those jobs will be filled by incompetent bozos and then the government will haul in a high-dollar consultant to figure out why nothing works anymore. The consultant will spend millions of dollars, sell the government a "solution" that doesn't work because the government won't hire people smart enough to implement it, and the cycle repeats itself.
This also applies to the private sector. Corporate officers try to balance the bottom line on the backs of the lowest-paid employees then hire a high-dollar consultant to figure out why performance and morale are in the toilet.
No doubt. Try telling a company owner taht one way to resove turnover, unemploment insurance, workers' comp, and other losses is to pay enogh t hire better people. Those who complain about those cycles just don't seem bright enought to break them, even when given concrete evidence.
In most cities, one would have to diligently seek a minimum wage job because they don't exist. In the real world, entry level wages may be low, but they still need to be high enough to attract workers that the boss is willing to hire.
Government inspired wage inflation will do more harm than good in the long run.
Yeah, those are two fine examples... /sarcasm
I have an idea, why not get from each their abilities and give to each their needs? After all wouldn't it be an ideal world if everybody could work to their fullest potential and live to an equal outcome....
They just don?t get it.
SHEEEESH...just like "Minority-Owned" and "Women-Owned" companies getting privileged treatment in the Contracting World, the folks who feel like scamming the system just set up their wife as Principle-in-Charge and get the work. I see it occurring all the time. This "Living Wage" will be successfully-scammed by the low-bidder each and every time or else Arlingtonians will be unable to afford the increased cost of municipal services.
MUD
I have always laughed at the inanity of this concept. People expect to be rewarded in direct proportion to the value of the work they produce. If the reward is less, that is a disincentive to work. If the government decides what you "need", then you are inclined to work only in fair proportion to what the government allows in compensation. If the government compels work whose value exceeds the compensation for that work...you have tyranny and involuntary servitude.
The socialists like to push this "living wage" and "social justice" baloney. It doesn't play in a free society. Mao and Stalin killed 50 million people who refused to submit to their communist agenda. Those who survived live in abject poverty in a totalitarian state.
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