Living Wages
An Issue Whose Time Has ComeDowntown suits and Belle Meade checkbooks, aided and abetted by local editors and reporters, have anointed Richard Fulton as front-runner in Nashville’s mayoral race for utterly no discernible reason beyond his edge in friendships with wealthy contributors. Bill Purcell has earned political legitimacy in the race with impressive fund-raising success of his own, but legitimacy won’t get you inaugurated. The time has come for Purcell to let Nashville know this is a two-man race, not one candidate’s race to lose. This means visible and spirited engagement that puts substantial distance between a progressive Purcell agenda and Richard Fulton’s outdated country-club unexceptionalism. I have in mind just the issue to craft such a difference: Purcell should embrace a "living wage" position in his campaign.
The living wage issue is based on the simple proposition that full-time work should keep you out of poverty. The federal minimum wage, of course, doesn’t accomplish this even for a small family with one parent working. The living wage movement, born in the early 1990s, seeks to improve pay for the working poor by using the economic power of local government to pressure employers to raise wages. In simple terms, it means passing a local law requiring private companies that do business with the city to pay workers a minimum "living" wage.
Two years ago, Boston enacted one of the most expansive living wage laws in the nation, requiring companies involved in city business to pay at least $7.49/hour – a rate that with full-time work amounts to the poverty line for a family of four. Lest you dismiss this as an isolated case of taxachusetts liberalism run amok, I should mention that similar laws are in place in Los Angeles, New York, Milwaukee, Baltimore, New Haven, New Orleans, Denver, Chicago, San Jose, Minneapolis and other cities too numerous to mention.
You will not be shocked to learn that local business interests tend to go apoplectic when their communities seriously consider living wage ordinances. These are, of course, the same enlightened souls who repeatedly howl that minimum wage hikes will guarantee misery and recession, only to fall mysteriously silent when their dire predictions fail to materialize. In fact, there is no evidence that living wage laws have undermined local economic health or spawned an exodus of business investment from cities that enact them.
Living wage laws say with unmistakable clarity that as a community, we adopt the simple principle that people who work for a living can escape poverty. They demonstrate that we are willing to put the power of our collective enterprise – our city government and its economic interests – behind this simple principle.
In the race for mayor, Bill Purcell represents the best chance to burst Richard Fulton’s bubble and bring thoughtful, progressive leadership to Nashville. Right now, issue-oriented messages in the campaign are rare and mostly limited to weightless platitudes that blur rather than distinguish the candidates. A living wage position would define Purcell as a distinctive and courageous alternative, and create a nifty dilemma for Fulton, who presumably will find himself defending a low-wage status quo and opposing cosmopolitan progress.
Living Wage? Worthy Wage?
And speaking of living wages, May 1 once again marks "Worthy Wage Day," an effort by educators and parents to focus attention on the perpetually dismal levels of pay that America’s childcare and preschool teachers receive. A robust employment economy has done little to elevate the wages of these workers, who are rewarded for their critical role in our children’s lives with one of the lowest occupational pay scales in the nation.
A few quick statistics from the National Association for the Education of Young Children: Half the childcare workforce earns an income at or below the poverty level. The average wage for a childcare teacher is just above $6.12 per hour. Fewer than one-third of all childcare centers offer benefits for workers, and the annual teacher turnover rate is about 36 percent. One study suggests that staff wages are the best predictor of childcare quality. Duh.
With the exception of a few fantasyland religious conservatives who think preschool is the devil’s playground, everyone knows that quality childcare is fundamental to the social and intellectual development of children, to the equal employment opportunity for parents, and especially to the ability of single parents to maintain financial independence. Yet we collectively refuse to finance the early childhood experience that is so vital to a broad range of economic and social outcomes. There are no easy market-driven answers – many working parents already devote a huge portion of their incomes to childcare, which can cost as much as college tuition.
And so with yearly frustration but nearly endless optimism, area educators and parents will celebrate (commiserate?) Worthy Wage Day for the eighth straight year this Saturday, May 1, at 12 noon, with a walk from the Bicentennial Mall to the State Capitol, plus speakers, refreshments and music. Bring kids, signs and a thirst for change.
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