Living Wages

If employers paid a living wage, they could lower the taxes used to support the working poor.
(Living Wages)
http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/fast-food-poverty-wages-the-public-cost-of-low-wage-jobs-in-the-fast-food-industry/
The combination of low wages and benefits, often coupled with part-time employment, means that many of the families of fast-food workers must rely on taxpayer-funded safety net programs to make ends meet.
http://www.epi.org/publication/safety-net-savings-from-raising-minimum-wage/
In fact, managers at some of the largest and most profitable corporations in the United States today actively encourage their employees to seek public assistance to supplement meager paychecks (Eidelson 2013). Instead, too many low-wage employers are leaving both taxpayers and, more importantly, low-wage workers themselves to pick up the slack.
Summary of key findings are:
-   About half of all workers in the bottom 20 percent of wage earners (roughly anyone earning less than $10.10) receive public assistance in the form of Medicaid and the six primary means-tested income-support programs, either directly or through a family member.
-   Workers in the bottom 20 percent of wage earners receive over $45 billion in government assistance each year from the six primary means-tested income-support programs.2
-   Roughly half of all public assistance dollars from means-tested income-support programs that go to working individuals go to workers with wages below $10.10.
-   If the minimum wage were raised to $10.10, more than 1.7 million American workers would no longer rely on public assistance programs.
-   Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would reduce government expenditures on current income-support programs by $7.6 billion per year—and possibly more, given the conservative nature of this estimate.
-   Safety net programs would save 24 cents for every additional dollar in wages paid to workers affected by a minimum-wage increase to $10.10.
https://www.epi.org/publication/wages-and-transfers/
Raising wages for low-wage workers (defined as those in the bottom three wage deciles, who earn up to $12.16 per hour) would unambiguously reduce net spending on public assistance, particularly among workers likely to be affected by a federal minimum-wage increase.
Higher minimum wage...More spending...Stronger economy.
(Living Wages)
http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/brief/evidence-higher-minimum-wages-improve-economic-wellbeing
Our graph includes the regression line to show the overall positive relationship between minimum wages levels and the financial wellbeing of people in various nations. Simply stated, as the minimum wage increases, the economic wellbeing of the national population rises. Statistically speaking this relationship is a strong one, significant at the .001 level.
“Here’s the bottom line: Regardless of the size of a country's economy, its current economic situation, or the time frame chosen, people lead better lives as the minimum wage increases.”
“Although correlation does not prove causation, the evidence we have assembled strongly suggests that higher minimum wages do indeed work to the financial betterment of society as a whole. Even if some low-wage jobs disappear as minimum wages rise, the end result is greater economic security and prosperity overall for people who live and work in countries with the higher minimums.”
http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/brief/evidence-higher-minimum-wages-improve-economic-wellbeing
From Canada…” Labour compensation and household spending make up almost 60 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product. Higher wages mean more spending, and more demand for goods and services. If wage and income growth stays low, economic growth will remain sluggish and businesses won’t create new jobs. Minimum wage increases might lead to slower job growth and some job losses, but they’ll be counter-balanced by the new jobs resulting from increased demand. Recent studies have found few job losses from minimum wage increases.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-impact-minimum-wage-20170110-story.html
“The new Berkeley report is based on an economic model that predicts how much businesses will raise prices or replace humans with machines, and the likelihood that poor workers will spend all of their new paychecks. Using that model, researchers found that giving low-wage workers a pay bump will prompt them to spend more. And while retailers and restaurants may raise prices to cover their higher labor costs, that will be offset by the increased spending. “
Who should pay employee benefits, you or Walmart?
(Living Wages)
https://www.thenation.com/article/walmart-wages-are-the-main-reason-people-depend-on-food-stamps/
Those minimum wage workers who can’t make enough and need to go on food assistance? Well, Walmart isn’t paying for those food stamps (now called SNAP), you are. The annual bill that states and the federal government foot for working families making poverty-level wages is $153 billion. A single Walmart Supercenter costs taxpayers between $904,542 and $1.75 million per year in public assistance money.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/report-walmart-forces-employees-dole-taxpayers/
Walmart’s wages and benefits are so low that many of its employees are forced to turn to the government for aid, costing taxpayers between $900,000 and $1.75 million per store, according to a report released last week by congressional Democrats.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/#2b3d9ccb720b
Walmart's low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing, according to a report published to coincide with Tax Day, April 15.
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/opinion/2017/04/08/walmart-tax-every-american-taxpayer-pays/100188002/
Simply put, every American taxpayer is paying a tax they never heard of: The Walmart Tax. What is the Walmart Tax?
The world’s largest retailer, infamous for its poor working conditions and unfair treatment of employees, pays its workers so little that thousands of Walmart employees are forced to rely on public assistance programs like food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing. Programs funded by American taxpayers.
http://www.jwj.org/walmarts-food-stamp-scam-explained-in-one-easy-chart
Pay your employees so little that they are forced to rely on food stamps to survive. Exploit loopholes to avoid paying billions in taxes that fund food stamps. Reap billions in profits when food stamps are spent in your stores.
Missouri minimum wage is below a poverty wage.
(Living Wages)
https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-are-annual-earnings-full-time-minimum-wage-worker
In 2016 in a household of two adults, a single full-time worker at minimum wage will earn only 94 percent of their poverty threshold of $16,070. A single parent with one child will earn 91 percent of their poverty threshold.
https://www.minimum-wage.org/missouri
Missouri minimum wage is $7.85 per hour….$16,328 per year.
Missouri's current minimum wage is $7.85 per hour. Any employees of a retail or service business with gross annual sales or business done of less than $500,000 are allowed to be paid less then the Missouri minimum wage.
https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines
Below numbers relate to above Missouri minimum wage
Federal poverty line for family of 2 is $16,460
Federal poverty line for family of 3 is $20,780
Federal poverty line for family of 4 is $25,100
Jefferson City favors business welfare over your welfare.
(Living Wages)
https://thinkbynumbers.org/government-spending/corporate-welfare/corporate-vs-social-welfare/
About $59 billion is spent on traditional social welfare programs. $92 billion is spent on corporate subsidies. So, the government spent nearly 50% more on corporate welfare than it did on food stamps and housing assistance in 2006.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/missouri-workers-and-businesses-would-get-million-tax-cut-under/article_d6fbb4da-072f-5c40-a971-ce8a1995011f.html
Gov. Eric Greitens announced on Monday a plan to cut individual and corporate tax rates by an estimated $800 million.
https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/tanf_spending_mo.pdf
In 2015, Missouri spent about $420 million in federal and state funds u
http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/corporate-income-tax-refunds-contribute-to-missouri-budget-crisis/article_da90640d-5c97-5a7a-837f-386eed38d1f9.html
Next year's (2018) proposed Missouri budget, unveiled Thursday by Gov. Eric Greitens, came two weeks after he dropped a bomb: $700 million would need to be cut from state spending over 18 months.
Colleges and universities, in-home health care and agriculture all took a hit Thursday.
State budget leaders in Jefferson City point to another contributing factor — an unexpected jump in corporate tax refunds last year and a decline in corporate income tax revenue coming into the state this year because of legislation passed two years ago.
https://thinkbynumbers.org/government-spending/corporate-welfare/corporate-vs-social-welfare/
Government (US in 2006) Spends More on Corporate Welfare Subsidies than Social Welfare Programs
About $59 billion is spent on traditional social welfare programs. $92 billion is spent on corporate subsidies. So, the government spent nearly 50% more on corporate welfare than it did on food stamps and housing assistance in 2006.
https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/corporate-welfare-state-how-federal-government-subsidizes-us-businesses
From a conservative think tank….”The federal government spent $92 billion in direct and indirect subsidies to businesses and private- sector corporate entities — expenditures commonly referred to as “corporate welfare” — in fiscal year 2006. “
https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/corporate-welfare/missouri-one-top-states-corporate-welfare
(2014) According to a report from the Mercatus Center (H/T AEI), Missouri has given $5.2 billion in subsidies to private businesses. This gives Missouri the dubious distinction of being the ninth most generous state in terms of corporate welfare.
A living wage is the only moral wage.

Issue Titles ^ Living Wages ^

Worker’s Rights

Right-to-work suppresses wages.
(Worker's Rights)
http://www.mojwj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Right-to-Work-Fact-Booklet.pdf
This entire booklet covers many issues of why RTW is bad for labor.
Page 25…..“In RTW states, on average 26.7% of the jobs are low wage jobs. In Worker Friendly states, 19.1% of the jobs are low wage jobs.”
https://www.epi.org/publication/right-to-work-states-have-lower-wages/
Wages in RTW states are 3.1 percent lower than those in non-RTW states, after controlling for a full complement of individual demographic and socioeconomic factors as well as state macroeconomic indicators. This translates into RTW being associated with $1,558 lower annual wages for a typical full-time, full-year worker.
Average hourly wages, the primary variable of interest, are 15.8 percent higher in non-RTW states ($23.93 in non-RTW states versus $20.66 in RTW states).5 Median wages are 16.6 percent higher in non-RTW states ($18.40 vs. $15.79).
Right-to-work is legalized worker oppression.
Unions are a check on corporate greed.
(Worker's Rights)
http://fortune.com/2015/06/22/ceo-vs-worker-pay/
In between 1978 and 2014, inflation-adjusted CEO pay increased by almost 1,000%, according to a report released on Sunday by the Economic Policy Institute. Meanwhile, typical workers in the U.S. saw a pay raise of just 11% during that same period.
With these increases in mind, it should come as no surprise that the ratio between average American CEO pay and worker pay is now 303-to-1. This ratio is lower than its peak in 2000, when it was 376-to-1, but it’s in excess of the 1965 ratio of 20-to 1.
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/03/opinion/l-labor-unions-not-custom-curbed-corporate-greed-802189.html
Labor Unions, Not Custom, Curbed Corporate Greed
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/03/opinion/l-labor-unions-not-custom-curbed-corporate-greed-802189.html
In 1960, nearly 40 percent of the American private-sector work force was organized. Today, less than 14 percent of private-industry employees are union members, about the same as in the 1930's, and the lowest percentage by far among the industrialized countries. The benefits of an expanding economy were shared more equitably when union ranks were larger.
http://usas.org/union-check-corporate-greed-currier/
Unions are a force for progress that we need to stand behind. They are the only institutions that truly work to protect the rights of working class people and can keep corporate power in check.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/corporate-greed-must-end_b_7653442.html
Corporate America has mounted vigorous anti-union campaigns, making it harder for workers to collectively bargain for decent wages and benefits. That is why we must make certain that workers are given a fair chance to join a union.
Instead of putting resources into innovative ways to build their businesses or hire new employees, corporations are pumping 98 percent of their record-breaking profits into buying back their own stock and increasing dividends to benefit their executives and wealthy shareholders at the expense of their workers.
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/unionists-march-nationwide-for-workers-rights-and-against-corporate-greed/
“Why is the corporate right wing trying to destroy us? Because they want more power, and they know preventing working people from joining together aids their power,” Shuler said.
Right-to-work states are not Worker-Friendly States.
(Worker's Rights)
http://www.mojwj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Right-to-Work-Fact-Booklet.pdf
This entire booklet covers many issues of why RTW states are not worker friendly.
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/14160-whats-wrong-with-the-right-to-work
“Due to their lower wages, "right to work" states steal manufacturing and distribution jobs away from union-friendly states. Worse, their "right to work" laws drive down wages for everyone, not just employees in these highly-mobile industries.”
“It's a race to the bottom as any business that can move across state lines moves to the states with the lowest wages and easiest regulations.”
http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/workplace/article128781884.html
“…….laborers at union job sites may opt out of paying membership dues yet still enjoy the wages, benefits and protections for which the unions bargain. “Free riders” — that’s what right-to-work opponents call employees who refuse to join union ranks in places such as Kansas.”
“The Wall Street Journal agrees that job growth tends to be stronger in right-to-work states, but wages typically are lower.”
“Missourians in fact rejected a right-to-work proposal in 1978. Since then, however, the percentage of union workers across the state has fallen in half.”
Worker Friendly states are about securing worker's rights and freedoms.
Right-to-work is government-sanctioned discrimination.
RTW is not about worker's rights or freedoms; it is about management keeping workers down to make more profits.
(Worker's Rights)
https://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/economy/reports/2017/05/18/167539/right-work-harm-americans/
“But make no mistake: Right-to-work laws are about increasing the power of corporations while restricting the power of workers to join together in unions, rather than worker freedom or job creation.”
“Indeed, research shows that when governments support workers’ right to freely organize and advocate for themselves, the playing field between workers and corporations evens.5 Workers share in the profits they help create by bargaining for better wages and benefits. Workers and companies collaborate more, investing in training and other mutually beneficial improvements. And workers are better represented in the government and can advocate for policies that benefit everyday Americans.”
“By reducing workers’ voice, right-to-work laws drive down the wages and reduce the economic well-being of all workers—union and nonunion alike. At the same time, right-to-work laws make it easier for more of the economy’s gains to flow straight to the country’s wealthiest people. A national right-to-work law would keep even more power in the hands of companies that, despite record corporate profits in recent years, have not shared their gains with workers.”
http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/brief/how-decline-american-unions-has-boosted-corporate-profits-and-reduced-worker-compensation
“In recent times, U.S. corporate profits have been going up at the expense of workers’ wages and fringe benefits. From 1979 through 2007, labor’s share of national income in the U.S. private sector decreased by six percentage points. What does that mean? Back in 1979, American workers claimed about 64% of national income, and if labor’s share had stayed at this level, the 120 million American workers employed in the private sector in 2007 would have received as a group an additional $600 billion in compensation.
“Where did that huge amount of money go instead of into workers’ wallets? It went to corporate profits, mostly benefiting very wealthy individuals.
“Since the late 1970s, technological changes and the decline of labor unions have, in combination with each other and with other factors, helped to reduce the share of the national economic pie claimed by U.S. workers –…..Union decline has not only increased wage disparities among workers; it has also allowed U.S. capitalists to grab a growing slice of economic gains at the expense of all of their employees. Employers were able to do this, not because of the inexorable impact of abstract market forces or impersonal technologies, but because they have been able to deploy new technologies in ways that spurred the decline of unions and reduced the collective capacity of workers to sustain or boost their wages and benefits.”

Issue Titles ^ Worker’s Rights ^

Earned Worker Benefits

Social Security is a retirement plan funded by employed workers, not an "entitlement program".
Medicare is funded by working Americans.
Worker-earned benefits are stripped, while corporate welfare expands.
Medicare is robbed to expand corporate tax deductions.
(Earned Worker Benefits)
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/oct/06/charles-schumer/are-republicans-paying-tax-cuts-reductions-medicar/ But we don’t find it unreasonable for Schumer to call cumulative reductions to Medicare and Medicaid spending in the hundreds of billions of dollars "cuts." The reductions below the CBO baseline are indeed in the Senate budget document, which fits with Schumer's words that the GOP is "proposing" them. And an independent analysis by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center backs up the notion that the GOP's cuts are tilted toward richer Americans.
Corporate welfare is funded by looting worker pensions.
(Earned Worker Benefits)
http://billmoyers.com/story/millions-face-pension-cuts-thanks-to-wall-street-recklessness/
“Like many other pension plans,” Jonnelle Marte explains, “the Central States Pension Fund suffered heavy investment losses during the financial crisis that cut into the pool of money available to pay out benefits.”
So, the CEOs and top executives of companies that have an extensive record of involvement in questionable (to say the least) activity and that have to be bailed out by the taxpayers are at no risk of losing a dime of their lavish pension plans (and, on some occasions, they are rewarded for their efforts with massive bonuses); but, average workers, who had nothing to do with the crisis, are forced to absorb the costs.
Missouri is giving Greedy Corporations worker-funded pension dollars.
(Earned Worker Benefits)
https://www.afscme.org/news/publications/newsletters/works/works-winter-2015/communities-suffer-for-corporate-welfare
Public service workers are paying a heavy price for the actions of governors and other elected officials who cut their pensions and benefits with one hand while handing out tax favors to corporations that deplete state coffers with the other.
Missouri legislators are underfunding the state-employee pension program.
(Earned Worker Benefits)
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/20170913/missouri-employees-pension-plan-underfunded-by-5-billion
Treasurer Eric Schmitt told the Legislature’s Committee on Public Retirement that the pension plan is underfunded by more than $5 billion. He cited an 80-percent funding mark as being healthy, although that would still leave the state below the amount needed to pay all the retirement benefits it potentially owes.