Caspar Davis,[EMAIL PROTECTED],Internet writes:
A copy of my letter is appened at the bottom.From
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sun Dec 13 13:13:52 1998
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Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1998 14:14:08 +0100
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From: "S. Lerner" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: The LKiving Wage movement
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Can you think of any defensible reason why there should have to a movement
to get a living wage?
Date:Fri, 11 Dec 1998 14:36:45 -0500
From:Charles Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: The Committees of Correspondence on the U.S. Living Wage Campaign
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The Committees of Correspondence invites you to join in building a movement
that can win Passage of a comprehensive federal living wage law. In this
brochure, we present reasons why such a law is now urgently needed and we
explain our legislative proposal
The Living Wage Campaign
equality, security and prosperity for all
The campaign for a living wage will characterize the present times as the
civil rights and peace movements characterized the 1960s. The campaign is
rooted in community organizations in cities and towns across the country.
The movement has won living wage ordinances in over a dozen cities. These
include our three largest cities, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The
living wage movement will continue to develop because it serves deep and
urgent needs.
The Economic Picture. The paradox of millions of lives crushed under a
steamroller of apparent prosperity is the contradiction that characterizes
the capitalist economy in boom times. In the struggle over how to slice the
country's economic pie, working people have been losing. The drop in
working class living standards means that a greater share of total economic
output is shifted from wages and benefits to profits. From 1979 to 1997,
the after-tax rate of corporate profit doubled. The present polarization of
income and wealth is staggering.
Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund, recently
wrote: "The soaring poverty rates among young families who are playing by
the rules and working as hard as they can are shocking. If the fruits of
economic growth had been shared equally by all families over the last 20
years, then the typical young family with children would have seen its
income rise by 15 %, instead of falling by 33%." According to an Economic
Policy Institute study, average real hourly wages for non-supervisory and
production workers, 80% of the work force, have fallen steadily, about 8%
in the last 20 years. The proportion of workers earning wages below the
poverty level for a family of four increased from 24% in 1979 to 29% in
1997. The picture for African-Americans and Hispanics is even worse. In
1997, 38% of black workers earned poverty wages, up from 33 % in 1979, and
47% of Latino workers earned poverty wages in 1997, up from 34% in 1979.
With the welfare reform act of 1996, President Clinton fulfilled his
campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it," sharply cutting social
programs such as Food Stamps and Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
Some have been emboldened now to suggest cuts in Social Security benefits
and various privatization schemes. The combination of falling wages and
cutbacks in social programs has caused a serious decline in working class
living standards. At the same time, the nation's economic output has
experienced sustained growth.
PROFITS vs WAGES at business cycle peaks (corporate sector)
1959 1973 1979 1989 1997 Profit Rates Pre-tax 8.7% 7.4% 6.4% 7.1%
10.4% After-tax 4.6 3.9 3.2 4.0 6.7 Income Shares Profit share 21.7% 18.0%
17.4% 18.4% 21.6% Labor share 78.3 82.0 82.6 81.6 78.4
Profit = return to capital per dollar of assets. Profit share =
capital income divided
by all corporate income. From: State of Working America 98-99, Mishel et
al, EPI
The grave consequences of this paradox affect the entire country, and must
be addressed by comprehensive federal legislation. The campaign for a
comprehensive federal living wage law is a campaign for equality, security
and prosperity for all.
Three decades ago, Martin Luther
