Eugene Puryear, the D.C. Statehood Green Party’s nominee for At-Large Member of City Council (http://www.EugenePuryear.com), called for enactment of a $15 minimum wage for all working people in the District of Columbia.
“If Seattle can enact a wage that people can live on, why not D.C.?” said Mr. Puryear, noting Seattle’s recent approval of a $15 minimum wage. “We need more than a minimum wage. We need a livable wage.”
Mr. Puryear hopes to rally District-wide support for the $15 minimum. Seattle’s measure has been called a victory for newly elected city council member Kshama Sawant, who led her city’s movement for a $15 minimum. Ms. Sawant credits Seattle’s workers, especially fast-food employees, for creating the political will for the new minimum-wage law (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/04/seattle-minimum-wage_n_5440662.html).
“I’m not running to serve the agenda of the Federal City Council or Board of Trade or any of the other big-business lobbies that have too much influence in the Wilson Building. I take no corporate contributions. It’s time for someone on Council who will represent all D.C. residents — especially working people, the poor, and young people,” said Mr. Puryear.
“Anyone who works a full-time job deserves to make enough to support himself or herself, raise a family, and keep a roof over their heads. A few decades ago, someone making a minimum wage in a full-time job could support a small family. Today’s minimum keeps wage-earners in poverty and on public assistance. Social programs that keep the working poor alive are, in effect, welfare for businesses that employ minimum-wage workers.”
Mr. Puryear and other Statehood Greens called the District’s recently approved minimum wage hike to to $11.50 per hour by 2016 a step forward in lifting residents out of poverty, but inadequate for a self-sufficiency income. The Green Party of the United States supports livable wages and calls the current $10.10 proposal in Congress insufficient.
The cost of living in Washington, D.C., is significantly more expensive than Seattle. A $40,000 annual salary in Seattle is comparable to a $46,900 salary in the nation’s capital, according to the Council for Community and Economic Research (http://www.coli.org). Utilities are 5 percent more expensive in D.C. than in Seattle, while housing costs are a whopping 77 percent higher.
Statehood Green Party members said that, despite business opposition, the increased spending power of a livable wage would ultimately stimulate the local economy, especially in less affluent neighborhoods. But the main reason for a livable wage, said Statehood Greens, is basic fairness: while worker productivity in the U.S. has surged, wages have stagnated (http://stateofworkingamerica.org/chart/swa-wages-figure-4u-change-total-economy).
“When D.C. enacts a $15 minimum wage, establishes a public bank that held its revenues instead of Wall Street, enforces laws requiring city contractors to hire D.C. residents, and gains permanent legislative and budgetary autonomy through statehood, we will be a model for the rest of the country,” said David Schwartzman, D.C. Statehood Green candidate for “Shadow” U.S. Senator (http://www.davidschwartzman.com).
“It’s significant that Kshama Sawant isn’t a Democrat or Republican but a member of the Socialist Alternative party. Every step forward for working Americans — the eight-hour day, collective bargaining rights, good wages, benefits, safe workplaces — relied first on leaders, parties, and movements outside of the two major political parties. As a Statehood Green, Eugene Puryear’s election to Council in D.C. will make proposals like a livable wage and a municipal bank attainable,” said Dr. Schwartzman.
In November, San Francisco voters will decide in a ballot referendum whether to approve a $15 minimum wage (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/06/11/3447478/san-francisco-15-minimum-wage). Green Party candidates and elected officials across the U.S. have made livable wages a top priority. New York Green gubernatorial nominee Howie Hawkins announced his candidacy with a call for a $15 minimum wage (http://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/spin-cycle-1.812042/green-party-candidate-for-ny-governor-calls-for-15-an-hour-minimum-wage-1.7655298).
Statehood Green Party members quoted President Franklin D. Roosevelt:
“It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By ‘business’ I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level — I mean the wages of decent living.” (Statement on the National Industrial Recovery Act, June 16, 1933)
Eugene Puryear’s candidacy has been endorsed by AFSCME Local 2401 and D.C. Tenants Advocacy Coalition (TENAC). David Schwartzman was also endorsed by TENAC. (See http://gp.org/newsroom/press-releases/details/4/686)
Don’t let reality hinder the fantasies of left-wing America.
This is ridiculous. How can small business survive?