Using the figure of $11.19 an hour to distinguish a poverty wage is an insult to all working people. Just as supporting a $10.10 an hour Minimum Wage is an insult to all working people.
This report is very typical of the foundation-funded outfits whose staff making these reports are very well compensated for pushing this kind of crap.
Why should any worker be forced to work for any less than a real living wage based on all "cost of living factors?"
People who write and publish these kinds of reports should be paid the Minimum Wage they advocate for poverty waged workers.
This report does not even include the wage and jobs situation of Native American Indians in Milwaukee because to report these facts would be an embarrassment to Milwaukee and the Nation.
The Minimum Wage should be legislatively tied to all cost of living factors as tracked by the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics and indexed to inflation.
There are good facts and figures in this report but the conclusions are intended to not ruffle the feathers of the philanthropists funding the foundations which finance these report--- the same philanthropists who reap fabulous super-profits from paying workers poverty wages and the racism involved in poverty wage jobs and racist unemployment.
We need to get rid of "At-will hiring and At-will firing" (At-will Employment enforced by corporate legislation) to help free workers to organize.
We need legislation prohibiting employer lockouts and we need anti-scabbing legislation.
We need national legislation that enforces full employment by making the President and Congress responsible for attaining and maintaining full employment which would push all wages up.
We need to see to it that Affirmative Action is enforced on all government funded and financed projects in order to create a level playing field in the area of employment.
We need to get rid of this thoroughly stupid idea that the "free market" and "private enterprise" system will create jobs when this very capitalist system is responsible for this massive unemployment in the first place with a government that refuses to create jobs by creating universal social programs intended to solve the problems of the people--- like creating National Public Health Care and Child Care Systems which, combined, would create some 18 million jobs... instead of paying for Wall Street's militarism and dirty imperialist wars.
Obviously this report which presents some of the harsh reality--- with much hidden--- is intended to be a slick attempt to back up the Democrats with their nice sounding "progressive policy directives" which never offer any specific solutions as has been suggested in my comment here.
In fact, it is fairly obvious to any thinking person with an ounce of common sense that working people are going to have to break free from Wall Street's two-party trap in order to get politicians who will tackle this issue of unemployment, underemployment, racism and poverty wages.
Obama came into office promising to raise the Minimum Wage just a miserly amount yet he has been in office one complete term, now well into his second term, and he hasn't raised the Minimum Wage one plug nickel.
Instead of jobs at real living wages and real universal social programs required to help working people cope with this collapsing capitalist economy we get dirty imperialist war after dirty imperialist war--- dirty imperialist wars that kill our jobs just like they kill people.
Any school child understands you can't eliminate poverty by forcing people to work in poverty wage paying jobs.
See the report here:
Future of Milwaukee Depends on Raising Poverty Wages
wisconsinjobsnow.org
Writing about how to improve the future of Milwaukee, the Center on Wisconsin Strategy took a straight-forward approach with their new report. Raise the Floor Milwaukee: Better Wages and Labor Standards for Low-Wage Workers, examines what led Milwaukee from its place a...