(published 1/27/00)  
County Council should create living wage
by Mischa Gelman

   The first Allegheny County Council has gotten off to a troubling start,
with the inability to pick a council head for the first couple weeks and
the death of councilman Tom Forester. The first major legislation they
pass should be one Forester endorsed, one to also build faith in our new
system of governance. A perfect initial move should be to pass living wage
legislation.
   This idea should be feasible. Most of the new council members signed a
pledge to endorse a living wage, the idea that those businesses who
contract with local governments should pay their workers enough to support
a family without relying on external supports, a figure calculated for
local families by Pitt's own Center for Social and Urban Research. The
only obstacle seems to be the hesitance on the part of council
Republicans, who seek to fight or weaken living wage legislation. This is
odd since conservatives love to talk about how meaningful work is and how
people should get money solely from work (or inheritance, investments and
gambling for many major Republican supporters) rather than from
governmental anti-poverty programs. Shouldn't they back laws that seek to
make sure people working full-time aren't poor and thus decrease
governmental expenditures (One study by Robert Pollin and Stephanie Luce
found that there was just over a 50% decrease in government subsidies to
those workers affected.) Or was all their anti-welfare rage really just
anti-poor person rage? If they really cared about poor folks struggling to
make ends meet, they should make sure ends can meet for said workers.
   Many on the right like to claim requing higher wages (or any minimum
wage at all) would increase unemployment. Such statements have been shown
to be empty lies by the recent economic research (with Princeton
economists David Card and Alan Krueger having written one of the first
books making such a case based on research findings), as even a
libertarian economist admitted to me a few months ago. Those making these
claims also exhibit a sad double standard. Adam Smith, in Wealth of
Nations, wrote, "Our merchants and master-manufacturers complain much of
the bad effects of high wages in raising the price....They say nothing
concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to
the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of
other people." Things haven't changed in over 200 years.
   Living wage laws have been passed in numerous regions of our country -
the warnings of the doomsayers have not come to reality. Boston, in 1997,
passed a living wage only about 50 cents an hour lower than the one sought
in Allegheny County, and has since joined the ranks of cities often
considered thriving. Research on the Baltimore ordinance (the first major
one) has shown that costs of contracts has decreased rather than increased
and none of 31 companies interviewed in one study reported a reduction in
staff levels. The cost of enforcing the ordinance has been minimal, hardly
the heavy blow to taxpayers predicted by opponents. Many employers now
realize the value of such a wage as worker loyalty and commitment have
improved alongside higher wages, leading to reduced worker turnover and
higher productivity. 
   Such a wage is a moral necessity as well. Pope John Paul II wrote that
"The justice of a social and economic system is finally measured by the
way in which a person's work is rewarded...A just wage is a concrete
measure, and in a sense the key one, of the justice of a system." What
excuse is there for paying workers poverty wages when a business can
afford more? Why oppose legislation that would make their workers both
better off AND more productive?
   A living wage won't eliminate poverty, even among workers, due to the
existance of part-time and seasonal work, but it is a great step to
showing that Allegheny County and the city of Pittsburgh are friendly
environs for those who have contributed without being properly rewarded in
the past.
   If you want to get involved in actions for a living wage in our county,
you can call (412) 363-4410.


  Mischa Gelman hopes council resists the urge to pass a weakened living
wage law rather than one that would properly compensate workers.