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Building a Progressive Majority in the States:
Wage Standards and Workplace Freedom

Policies to raise wages should be a linchpin of progressive leadership. A higher wage is the best anti-poverty program and a key "pro-family" policy to allow parents to work fewer hours and have more time with their families. It is also one of the best local economic development tools, since it increases local consumer spending of workers receiving a higher wage. Fundamentally, strong wage policies express the progressive value of the dignity of work and that all labor should be rewarded reasonably. Unfortunately, three decades ago, our national progressive leadership began losing focus on such policies and the resultant collapse of wage standards has undermined support for progressive leaders during that time.

Wages have largely been stagnant in recent decades; for many workers -- especially those without a college degree -- pay has actually gotten worse, meaning that this generation is the first one in American history which is not doing significantly better than the previous one. Symbolic of the problem is the fact that the value of the federal minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, has declined from $9.12 per hour in 1968 down to just $5.15 per hour in 2005. And because of weak enforcement, many workers don't even receive the minimum wage or overtime, and many receive lower pay because of race and gender discrimination. Employees often fear they will be discharged for expressing any viewpoint contrary to their employer's on work or even non-work-related topics, so it's not surprising that workers find it nearly impossible to speak out against decisions by employers to cut wages and benefits.

States are increasingly taking action to make wage issues front and center to the progressive message-and receiving strong support from the public. Many states have already raised the minimum wage above the federal level and some are already raising them again. A number of states and well over one hundred local communities now require companies receiving public money to pay a "living wage." Other state and local governments have cracked down on wage law violators by increasing enforcement of labor laws.

And public opinion has strongly backed these wage policies. Most polls show support for raising the minimum wage in the 80%+ range and, even under the onslaught of attack ads, voters have supported initiatives to increase the minimum wage by margins as high as 72% in Florida and 76% in Missouri, meaning that roughly two-fifths of Bush voters in those states opposed his position on the minimum wage. Even among small business owners, supposedly the heart of opposition to the minimum wage, a recent Gallup poll showed a plurality of 46% supporting an increase in wage rates.

By embracing the wage issue as a core part of their message, progressives have seen direct political gains. In an era of frayed relationships with the faith-based community, the issue has created an alliance for progressives with religious leaders, especially Catholic and other denominational officials who have made living wage issues a core part of their social justice teachings. It gives progressives what the Rev. Steven Copley, who led a recent successful minimum wage drive in Arkansas, calls "a moral issue, a faith issue and a family values issue" to rally supporters.

And the wage issue is helping turn out disaffected voters to support the election of progressive officials. A recent study on Nevada's 2004 minimum wage initiative detailed how the issue was crucial in helping maintain a Democratic majority in that state's legislature, becoming a crucial voting issue especially for younger women, new registrants, non-college women, lower-income voters, and independent voters of all stripes.

Key Wage Standards and Workplace Freedom Policies

Wage Standards: While Raising the Minimum Wage is the most basic headline wage standards issue, including Indexing the Rate to Inflation so that we never again see a similar thirty-year decline in its value, there are other campaigns to extend even higher wage standards for other sectors of the economy that:

• Use Government Contracts to Raise Wage Levels: State and local governments now purchase over $400 billion of goods and services from the private sector, so conditioning those purchases on contractors meeting prevailing wage and living wage conditions can have powerful effects in strengthening wage standards throughout the economy.
• Leverage Economic Development Funds and Leases: Additionally, attaching living wage requirements to businesses leasing government property, such as airports, or those receiving economic development funds, gives governments leverage over tens of billions of dollars in wages.
• Create Wage Standards in Specific Industries: Even where no public money is involved, some cities establish higher wage standards for various employers where those industries can absorb higher wages, such as larger employers (Santa Fe, NM), those in tourist zones (Berkeley, CA), large hotels (Emeryville, CA), and large retail stores (proposed in Chicago). State efforts to require employers to provide health care also in practice raise industry compensation above the minimum.

Enforcement: Progressives can bring a bit of "law and order" energy to wage and discrimination laws that are on the books but too rarely enforced in many industries through policies to:

• Increase Penalties for Violations: To make penalties more than just a cost of doing business, states can create more serious fines for repeat wage violators, expand compensation to employees whose wages are stolen, deny licenses and government contracts to wage and discrimination law violators, and apply criminal sanctions to employers breaking the law.
• Expand Resources for Enforcement: Along with providing more money for enforcement departments, states can unleash local governments by assuring them the right to establish higher wage rates and additional enforcement locally, expand legal services funding, and enact private attorneys general statutes to allow workers advocates to bring private enforcement actions.
• Hold Employers Accountable for "Fly-by-Night" Operations: To prevent employers from evading labor laws by shifting employees into subcontractors or other sweatshop conditions, states have made businesses liable for subcontractors violations, held shareholders of private companies liable for wage debts in bankruptcy court, tightened the definition of "independent contractors" and better regulated temporary and day labor work.

Protecting Workplace Speech and Freedom to Form Unions: Protecting employee free speech serves both an enforcement function to encourage employee complaints of illegal employer activity and to embolden employees to act collectively to demand higher wages. Such policies should:

• Protect Employees from Free Speech Retaliation: States can enhance protections for workers who bring wage claims against employees, end discrimination against employees for their political views, and ban political indoctrination in mandatory meetings at the workplace. Workers also need greater whistleblower protection against retaliation for discussing potentially illegal actions by employers either with fellow employees or when they go public with their concerns.
• Extend Union Rights to Additional Employees: States can extend labor rights to classes of employees excluded from federal labor law, including farmworkers, domestic workers, public employees, and independent contractors such as many home health aides and day care workers.
• Increase Free Speech Access to Employer Property: States and local governments are increasingly reclaiming lost civic space by opening up malls and other retail store areas that have often replaced traditional downtowns. These measures, plus others that give worker advocates more access to employer property, help increase employees education about their rights.