Call Shelly to Raise Min.Wage, not just his own salary!

ROSAPHILIA (rugosa@interport.net)
Fri, 16 Jan 1998 12:57:12 +0000 

Please call Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (Democrat - Manhattan) ASAP
and
urge him to raise the state minimum wage to $6.50 an hour. His main
Albany
phone number is 518-455-3791 (his Chief of Staff is Fred Jacobs; Fred
gets
fewer phone calls, so a call to him might make more of an impression).
You
could also call his New York City office at 212-385-6611.

Feel free to express your anger at Silver for recently calling for a pay

raise
for himself and other state legislators, claiming they "make less than
the
minimum wage" but failing to address the needs of the working poor of
our
state.

Groups such as the Hunger Action Network support $6.50 an hour for
reasons
outlined below. Groups such as the Greens and Solidarity/Jobs with
Justice
tend to support around $10 an hour, since that is more a living wage.
Feel
free to ask for your own number.

You can also call Senator Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (Rep -
Rensselaer,
518-455-3191), Senate Labor Chair Nicholas Spano (R - Westchester,
518-455-2231 or 914-969-5194), and Assembly Labor Chairperson Cathy
Nolan
(D - Queens, 518-455-4851 or 718-456-9492). The Republicans have blocked

raising the state minimum wage to the federal level; the Democrats won't

push to raise the state above the federal.

On Monday, Jan. 12, the Speaker of the State Assembly told reporters he
wanted
to raise the salary for State Legislators because they make less than
the
minimum wage. Mr. Silver is a little out of touch with reality. The
state
minimum wage is $4.25 an hour. The federal minimum wage is $5.15 an
hour.
Since state legislators only work 2 to 3 days a week for six months
(with
several vacations during that time), they work about 640 hours. Since
the
lowest paid State Legislators makes $57,500, they make about $90 an
hour.
However, all state legislators make considerably more than that, since
they
get a generous per diem (around $70 a day, even in many cases when they
are
not in session) and most get additional "lulus" (for in lieu of
compensation)
of between a few thousand to $30,000 for chairing committees or holding
the
multitude of "leadership" posts.

Historically, the minimum wage was set at a level that would bring a
full-time
worker with 2 dependents to the federal poverty level (a little over
$13,000
for a family of 3). This works out to $6.50 an hour.

Sen. Kennedy has introduced a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to
$6.65
an hour over 3 years.

New York has not even raised the state minimum wage to the federal
level,
though the Assembly did pass a bill to do this last session; the Senate
(i.e.,
Joe Bruno) refused to bring it up for a vote. Somewhere over 20,000 New
York
workers (mainly farmworkers, also some seasonal workers at amusement
parks)
are still at $4.25 an hour. Most other workers are covered by the higher
of
the state or federal minimum wage.

States have the power to raise their state minimum wage above the
federal
level. During the 1980's and 1990's, many states in the northeast raised

their
minimum above the federal. New York, under Cuomo, did not. Actually, the

Governor has the power to raise the state minimum wage without
legislative
approval. Both Cuomo and Pataki have refused to use that power.

You might also want to raise the issue of the maximum wage. I have long
advocated making the minimum wage 1/10th of the maximum wage. Rather
than
forcing health care, fast food, child care, janitorial workers (who
don't
make
a lot of campaign contributions) to beg legislators to raise their
meager
salaries, we could make lawyers, doctors, real estate moguls and
legislators
to lobby for a raise for themselves and pull the rest of us behind them.
At
one tenth of legislators' salaries, the minimum wage would be about $9
an
hour. If legislators got a raise, they would drag the minimum up to
about
$11
or so.

For more information, call Mark Dunlea at 518-434-7371 (work) or
518-283-6512 (home), or send e-mail to DunleaEnck@aol.com.

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