Conservatives Say Raising the Minimum Wage Kills Jobs. New ...

Raising the minimum wage would help a lot of Americans. It would raise wages for 35 million workers, bring 4.5 million people out of poverty, and reduce the wage gaps that plague women and people of color. Â Â Local movements to raise the minimum wage have started to take holdâ30 cities have raised their minimum wages since 2014âbut the minimum wage has not been increased at the federal level for seven years.
Get TalkPoverty In Your Inbox
For decades, the main argument conservative policymakers and business leaders have been making against raising the federal minimum wage is that it will bring about economic doom in the form of massive job losses. In 1980, then-Governor Ronald Reagan declared that âthe minimum wage has caused more misery and unemployment than anything since the Great Depression.â Todayâs conservatives seem to agree, with Ted Cruz warning that âevery time we raise the minimum wage, predictably what happens is a significant number of people lose their jobs.â Speaker Paul Ryan has dared to get specific with his doomsday predictions, saying âwhen you raise the minimum wage, youâll lose over a million jobs.â
New analysis from the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows that this isnât the case. From 1993 to the second quarter of 2015, cities raised their minimum wage 43 times. In 74% of these occasions, the unemployment rate did not increase a year after the minimum wage hike. Of the 11 cases where the unemployment rate rose a year after the minimum wage increase, sixÂ were during the Great Recession when the unemployment rate rose across the United States. Due to data limitations, the analysis was unable to evaluate more recent minimum wage increases that have occurred later in the economic recovery.
By themselves, these findings arenât enough to prove that the minimum wage does not cause job lossesâbut when theyâre paired with thenumerousacademicstudies that have also found that raising the minimum wage has no discernible effect on unemployment, it does poke holes in conservativesâ reasoning.
The argument in favor of raising the minimum wage is still crystal-clear
As the argument against raising the minimum wage becomes increasingly fuzzy, the argument in favor of raising it stays crystal-clear. The current minimum wage is a poverty wage: a family with one child and a single parent working full-year, full-time for the federal minimum wage would be below the poverty line for a family of two. Raising the minimum wage would help these workers directly, and it would have ripple effects throughout the entire economyâit would reduce inequality, increase the GDP, and even create modest job growth.
Itâs clear that conservativesâ claims about the impact of the minimum wage do not square with the evidence. Cities that have raised the minimum wage have not experience massive job losses or economic ruin. And with the minimum wage losing value every year it is not hiked, many cannot afford continued opposition to increasing the federal minimum wage.
The President of My Dreams
In my dream, the next president is an anti-poverty president because he or she knows deep down that the way we think about poverty in America is wrong, the way we treat people in poverty is wrong, and therefore what weÂ doÂ about poverty is more off the mark than need be.
My president declares his or herself the Educator-in-Chief on poverty, and uses the bully pulpit to teach Americans. She tells the stories of struggling people and their experiences, and regularly takes us to communities that are used to being dismissed,Â demonized, and disempowered.
Get TalkPoverty In Your Inbox
My president shows Americans that people in poverty are not who we have been led to believe they areâsome fixed group that has lost its initiative; that, in fact,Â more than halfÂ of us will experience at least one year of poverty or near poverty during our working years. My president recognizes that while generational poverty is important, it is only a small part of poverty; that over a 3-year period, only 3.5 percent of people were in poverty for the entire 36 months, while the national poverty rate ranged between 15 and 16 percent.
My president teaches that most of us fall into poverty due to universal experiencesâlike the birth of a child, an unexpected illness, job loss, or reduced work hoursâwhich is why we have a safety net that is there for all of us; and though it is much-maligned, it is highly effective.
My president explains that without the safety net our poverty rate would beÂ nearly twice as high todayâapproaching 30 percent. He or she states clearly that cutting poverty in half is not âlosing a War on Povertyââcutting poverty in half means that we are half way to where we want to be. (She will also suggest that we stop using that tired, dated metaphor.)
My president tackles head-on the foolish notion that theÂ Temporary Assistance for Needy FamiliesÂ (TANF) block grantâour cash assistance programâshould serve as a model for our safety net. My president acknowledges that whatever the intentions of those who created the program, it has not done what it was supposed to doâunless what it was supposed to do was make assistance nearly impossible to come by, erode any national standard of basic economic decency, and drive people into deeper poverty.
My president explains to us that when TANF was created in 1996, for every 100 families with children living in poverty, 68 were able to receive cash assistance; now that number is down to just 23. In 12 states,Â ten or fewer familiesÂ are helped for every 100 in poverty. My president warns us that when we hear talk of block-grantingÂ Medicaid,Â food stamps, orÂ housing assistance, what we are talking about is less healthcare, less food, less housing, and lower standards for assisting vulnerable people.
Instead of embracing a broken program like TANF, my president embraces theÂ evidenceÂ about what works and shares it with the American people. He or she teaches, for example, that women who had access to food stamps early in lifeÂ fared betterÂ as adults than their peers who didnâtâthat they had better health outcomes and increased economic self-sufficiency, includingÂ lessÂ welfare participation. He or she notes, too, that boosting a struggling familyâs income when children are young is associated withÂ greater education performanceÂ and increased earnings when those children reach adulthood.
My president reminds us that we need to use such evidence to keep moving forward in our anti-poverty efforts, and to ensure that we donât turn back to recent and far worse times. He or she tells us to consider the words of Peter Edelman, who traveled down to Mississippi in 1967 with then-Senator Bobby Kennedy, andÂ said, âWe saw children who were tangibly, severely malnourishedâbloated bellies, running sores that wouldnât heal. It was this incredibly awful, powerful experience thatâs with me all the time.â
My president reminds us that was what America looked like before we expanded the food stamp program to take on hunger.
In my dream, the next president is an anti-poverty president
My president uses all of these tacticsâvisits to struggling communities and peopleâs own stories, evidence of what works and doesnât work, and his or her own courage and determinationâto embark on a new anti-poverty/pro-opportunity agenda. Itâs an agenda thatÂ among other things includes: a bold jobs program to help rebuild our neighborhoods, schools, and infrastructure; raising the minimum wage so that it can once again lift a family of three out of poverty just as it could in the late 1960s; closing the gender pay gap, which would cut poverty in half for working womenÂ and their families; paid leave and affordable childcare, so that people can work and take care of their families and donât have to choose between them; immigration reform so that our most vulnerable workers arenât exploited; and a Commission to exploreÂ reparationsÂ for African Americans and educate the public about this issue.
My president constantly engages with the grassroots and theÂ nascent anti-poverty movementÂ to build support for actionâjust as occurred with the passage of the New Deal, the Civil Rights Act, and more recently, the Affordable Care Act.
For too long we have been listening to lies, not recognizing our progress, and failing to fight together for what we know will work to ensure that everyone has a shot at the American Dream.
My president puts an end to that madness and begins a new day.
This post is modified from the original, which appeared at TheNation.com.
The Americans Who Are Actually Being Robbed of Their Right to Vote
The United States has a long and sordid history of disenfranchisement. It took nearly 200 years for the principle of âone person, one voteâ to become the law of the land, and now much of our progress towards equal voting access is being undone. In the wake of the Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision, which gutted key elements of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, new barriers are cropping up that could make it harder for many Americans to vote.
The majority of voters are still unlikely to face issues on Election Day, but the new burdens fall disproportionately on a select cohort of Americans. Here are the groups of people who will face some of the steepest battles to cast their vote.
Get TalkPoverty In Your Inbox
People of color
African-Americans had the highest voter turnout rates in 2012, but new obstacles could keep many black voters from the ballot box this year. Laws that require voters to present photo ID at the pollsâwhich have cropped up in eight states since 2013, bringing the total to 34 statesâdisproportionately impact African-Americans. Thatâs because people of color are less likely than whites to have the specific forms of required photo ID, and because these laws are more common in Â Southern states (where African-Americans are concentrated).
In addition to obstructive voter ID laws, Latinos, Asian-Americans, and Native Americans are often plagued by language barriers. While the Voting Rights Act contains protections for language-minority voters, poll workers are not always aware of them (so they might not honor these votersâ rights, for example, to have someone assist them at the polls).
People of color often have to take more time and travel further distances in order to vote. In 2012, black and Latino voters waited nearly twice as long as white voters to cast their ballots, likely due in part to state decisions to restrict early voting. And this year, Native Americans in northern Nevada will have to travel nearly 100 miles round-trip to cast their ballot in November.
Homeless people
First, the good news: in recent years, court decisions and new laws at both the state and federal level have eliminated formal bans on voters who do not live in a âtraditional dwelling.â As a result, homeless people are now formally able to register and vote in every state.
But homeless adultsâof whom there are at least 400,000 nationallyâstill face a variety of informal barriers. Some states require voters to provide a mailing address when they register. Other states require voters to prove how long they have lived in a voting district, a task that is understandably difficult for homeless people. And again, stricter voter restriction lawsâlike photo ID requirementsâfall particularly hard on the homeless community, who are less likely to have a driverâs license or other forms of acceptable identification.
People with criminal records
Americans with criminal records, especially those with felony convictions, face some of the steepestâand most convolutedâbarriers to the ballot box. In fact, a new study found that a record 6.1 million people are barred from voting this year because of felony convictions.
Because voting for people with felony convictions has not been federally regulated, those seeking to register face a patchwork of state voting laws that range from no restrictions (in Maine and Vermont) to a lifetime of disenfranchisement (in 10 states). Ten states also restrict voting for people with misdemeanors. These restrictions disproportionately impact people of color. In Florida, felony disenfranchisement bars 23% of African Americans from voting, and four other states also suppress the votes of 1 in 5 black citizens.
Unfortunately, the confusion and misinformation around state laws can even discourage eligible Americans with criminal records from voting. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, âMany people with past criminal records mistakenly believe they are ineligible to vote.â As a result, many end up staying home unnecessarily on Election Day.
Women
Even though women made up a majority of voters in 2012, voter ID laws are creating new obstacles for them, too. Thirty-four states require voters to present some kind of identification. Roughly 90% of women change their last names when they get married (and often change their names back following a divorce), and many may not realize their voter registration does not match the name on their ID until it comes time to vote. Whatâs more, women are also more likely to belong to other groups who face barriers at the pollsâlow-wage workers, seniors, students, and the poor.
Low-wage workers
More than 23 million peopleâdisproportionately women and people of colorâwork in low-wage jobs. These workers are especially likely to have volatile and erratic schedules, which makes it hard for them to plan to get to the polls. Additionally, only 30 states require employers to give workers time off to voteâand even among states that do provide workers leave to vote, that time off is not always paid.
For workers who subsist on very low wages, the decision to take time off to cast a ballot can result in a difficult financial loss. That may explain the 30-point gap in voter participation along income lines: Less than half of people earning under $30,000 a year voted in the 2012 election, while over 80% of people earning over $150,000 voted. As a point of comparison, 99% of the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans voted.
Transgender people
Transgender citizens have become a vocal voting bloc this election cycle, but stringent photo ID laws threaten their ability to cast a ballot. An estimated 27% of trans people lack identification that accurately reflects their gender, in large part because they face uphill legal and financial battles to update their ID documents. For example, in at least 15 states, trans people are required to show proof of a gender reassignment surgeryâa task that is simply not possible for those who are unable or choose not to have the surgery.
People with disabilities
People with disabilities face a wide range of voting obstacles, but chief among them are transportation, lack of accommodations at the polls, and poll workers who are ill-equipped to offer help. A full 30% of people with disabilities are unable to drive, which makes it hard to get to the polls in the first placeâparticularly for those voters who live alone or in rural areas. Even if they manage to make it to their polling location, a lack of ramps or curb cuts and limited support for voters with vision impairments make it difficult for people with disabilities to voteâeven though laws like the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and the Americans with Disabilities Act were designed to improve ballot access. These barriers help explain why turnout rates among voters with disabilitiesâespecially those with cognitive disabilitiesâtend to be lower than voters without disabilities. In fact, it can be difficult for people with disabilities to even register to vote, since most online voter registrations are not accessible for people with vision-related or cognitive disabilities. All told, these barriers to access could account for as many as 3 million votes.
None of these barriers are inevitable. Most are the consequences of policy decisions, some of which were made with the deliberate intent of disenfranchisement. Election Day gives Americans the opportunity to reverse these laws, and to elect policymakers who will work on behalf of those who don’t always have a voice.
Why Did Voters Ask Better Questions Than the Debate Moderators?
After four debates, six hours of discussion, and dozens of questions on everything from personal scandals to the economy, one thing still missing from this yearâs presidential and vice presidential debates was this: a conversation about the more than 40 million Americans who live in poverty.
It wasnât supposed to be this way.
Get TalkPoverty In Your Inbox
The debates got off to a promising start. In the very first question of the first debate, moderator Lester Holt mentioned the record-breaking wage growth of 2015, as well as the millions of Americans who still live paycheck to paycheck. But the question itself was as unremarkable as they come: âWhy are you a better choice than your opponent to create the kinds of jobs that will put more money into the pockets of American workers?â Holt failed to press the candidates on the specific policies they would pursue to fight poverty and inequality.
The second debate was supposed to be different. The moderators agreed to consider asking the top 30 questions submitted by the public through PresidentialOpenQuestions.com, a project of the Open Debate Coalition. Nearly four million people voted, with the most voted-on questions focusing on background checks for gun sales, expanding Social Security, climate change, and money in politics.
In conjunction with the Open Debate Coalition, TalkPoverty launched our campaign, #WhereDoYouStand, which focused specifically on questions related to poverty and economic opportunity. Literally thousands of voters asked the candidates where they stand on issues that affect low-income familiesâeverything from equal pay for equal work to food insecurity to tax credits for working families.
But moderators ignored all of those topics in the second debate. In fact, the only question they included was a query on WikiLeaks that received a grand total of 13 votes (the 30 most popular questions that they had agreed to consider all received more than 20,000 votes).
Last nightâs forum wasnât any better. Moderator and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked just one question on the economy, and it was particularly unhelpful: âPlease explain to me why you believe your plan will create more jobs and growth for this country, and your opponent’s plan will not.â The only question from the Open Debate Coalition was a conservative question on the Second Amendment.
Ironically, the questions generated through the online petition ended up demonstrating how sophisticated most voters are compared to the debate moderators. Not one of the top 30 submitted questions was about a scandal, gaffe, or personal foible of the candidates. The popularity of questions about the 42 million Americans facing food insecurity or the tax rate for Social Security benefits prove that people want to hear questions about policy.
Lest we get cynical, this is progress. General election debates historically donât take questions submitted online. The mere fact that Americans were able to vote on the questions they wanted to hear in the debates represents an acknowledgment that our voices matter.
If there is a lesson to be learned from this yearâs debates, itâs that we canât expect the media to ask about issues just because they matter to voters. The media responds to movements. Black Lives Matter, the Fight for $15, and Occupy Wall Street all gained attention from the media and lawmakers because they organized and gained traction with the public.
If we want the media to talk about poverty, we need to turn anti-poverty work into an anti-poverty movement.
What Living in a High-Poverty Neighborhood Taught Me About Protests
About 13 years ago, I lived in Charleston, South Carolina, where I was trying to make ends meet as a freelance writer.Â The going was tough. I moved to the Eastside where the rents were lower, and the paint was peeling off the old manor-style houses. Soon, I noticed that friends were reluctant to visit me. At night, I heard the âpop-popsâ that I wished were firecrackers, but knew were gunshots.
You probably arenât familiar with the Eastside of Charleston, but you know a place like it: Itâs segregated by race, and associated with poverty, crime, and violenceâderogatively called âthe ghettoâ or âthe âhood.â Itâs the part of town that you have been cautioned to avoid.
Get TalkPoverty In Your Inbox
More and more Americans who struggle to get by are living in these marginalized, disinvested communities where jobs and educational opportunities are scarce, and an increasingly militarized police force is the primary contact residents have with government. But for two years, Americans have been expressing confusion as one neighborhood after anotherâfrom Milwaukee to Baltimore to Ferguson to Charlotteâare rocked by protests, looting, and riots after the police shootings of unarmed black men.
Is it really a surprise that many of the renewed outbreaks of civil unrest have taken place in these communities?
Although the impact of living in high-poverty neighborhoods has been well documented, itâs hard to fully explain the toll it takes on a personâs body and soul. Frustration over high prices, high bills, and high unemployment rates is worsened by the bane of many a poor communityâthe local drug economy.
Itâs hard to fully explain the toll it takes on a personâs body and soul.
The vast majority of my neighbors, young and old, did their best to avoid the drug trade. My next-door neighbor was so overprotective of his two daughters that he refused to let them leave the house after 7 p.m. I knew many teenagers who resisted it for years, but faced with no prospects for their future, or for good jobs with good pay, they decided âto go to workââusually in the summer when they were out of school. Dealing drugs was the neighborhood summer job program. And for many young neighbors who were expelled from school (because administrators are more likely to punish black students than provide more holistic help), the drug trade was less an alternative than an inevitability.
Outsiders often criticized Eastside residents for not taking care of their own community, or not doing enough to stymie the drug trafficking. This victim-blaming ignored the roots of the drug problemâthe lack of opportunity, racism, and economic forces outside of residentsâ controlâand it ignored the role that outsiders played. It was common to see long lines of cars that clearly belonged to nonresidents (that is, mostly whites) trolling every night to the wee hours of the morning, looking to score drugs with no concern over the consequences for families, mothers, or children trying to sleep.
I eventually saved enough money to leave the Eastside, but not much has changed since I left. The kinds of investment in the community that would have convinced me to stay didnât exist (and still donât). It was no wonder that those of us who lived there believed the city, state, and even the nation did not respectâor even considerâour humanity.
The Eastside is hardly unique. If you look at the statistics associated with any of the marginalized, predominantly black communities in cities that have erupted in civil unrest, a pattern becomes clear. In Baltimore, an overwhelming majority of public school students qualify for free or reduced-priced lunches (which are often used as a proxy for studentsâ socioeconomic status). The median income in Freddie Grayâs own neighborhood is just $24,006 a year.Â A Department of Justice report on Ferguson, Missouri confirmed that the municipal police department engaged in poverty exploitation by targeting blacks for traffic violations, singling them out in a city where 53% of blacks live in poor neighborhoods. Milwaukee has been called one of the most segregated cities in America.
Thereâs an obvious solution for these communities (and it isnât gentrification, which simply displaces generational residents). The solution lies in more targeted investmentsâfor example, in jobs or education programsâthat give people a chance to succeed. The bleak situation for the 13.5 million people in high-poverty neighborhoods must be ameliorated, or else somewhere, sometime soon, civil unrest will break out again.