Our research found the dire working conditions of port truck drivers to have flowed from the practice of treating employees as if they were ‘independent contractors,’ an illegal practice called misclassification. At the time of our first report, there were practically no official government investigations to verify our findings despite a host of enforcement agencies being responsible for preventing misclassification.
That has now changed. Our findings match those coming from recent investigations of employment practices common in the industry by the United States Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, the National Labor Relations Board, and various state agencies. More importantly, these investigations signal a new dynamic, one with practical ramifications for the organization of work in the industry as well as for broader discussions of inequality in this country.
Louisianans of all political stripes strongly favor establishing a state minimum wage of at least $8.50 an hour that would keep pace with the cost of living, according to polling data released as part of a new report from the Louisiana Budget Project.
The poll of 1,279 Louisiana adults by LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab found that 73 percent of the public supports raising the wage from the current minimum of $7.25 per hour. The support is consistent across party lines, with 62 percent of Republicans favoring the higher wage along with nearly 70 percent of political independents. Voters in every age, income and racial bracket support the higher wage.
“While some politicians make the minimum wage a partisan issue, the verdict from everyday Louisianans is clear and bipartisan: it’s time to give workers a raise,” LBP Director Jan Moller said.
The data is included in a new report by David Gray, “Louisiana Needs a Higher Wage,” that also found that an $8.50 minimum wage would provide an immediate raise for 184,000 workers, create an estimated 1,400 new jobs and pump more than $187 million into Louisiana’s economy. Raising the wage to $10.10 per hour would have even bigger benefits for workers and the overall economy.
“This report should put to rest some of the tired misconceptions about minimum wage workers, “ Moller said. “A modest raise in the minimum wage would have huge benefits for Louisiana workers and would actually help create jobs as workers have bigger paychecks to spend throughout the economy.”
Many people assume that minimum wage workers are mainly teens working part-time jobs. But the reality is that teens make up less than 10 percent of the minimum wage workforce. Nearly one-third of all low-wage workers are over 40, and almost two-thirds work full-time hours.
Amid the slow and uneven recovery from the Great Recession and the gridlock that has become the norm at the federal level, working families in Maryland struggle to move ahead in an uncertain economy. While there has been progress in certain areas, challenges remain.
- Maryland’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest rate in 4 years to a rate of 6.4 percent at the end of 2013, slightly below the national rate of 7 percent. However, racial and geographic disparities persist.
- While Maryland benefits from its close proximity to the nation’s capital, federal gridlock has had a negative effect on the state economy. The October 2013 federal shutdown cost Maryland and estimated $5 million per day, and many residents looking for work lost jobless benefits at the end of 2013 after federal law- makers failed to extend emergency Unemployment Insurance.
- The productivity of American workers continues to grow, but wages are growing at a much slower rate. Between the third quarter of 2011 and the third quarter of 2012, productivity increased by 1.7 percent while real hourly compensation increased by just 0.1 percent.
- Union membership is associated with higher wages for workers, meaning a higher standard of living for working families. But like the country as a whole, union membership is steadily declining in Maryland.
- Despite Maryland’s high median household income, there were tremen- dous earning disparities throughout the state. For instance, Howard and Montgomery counties had median household incomes over $90,000; but Allegany and Somerset counties and Baltimore City households were at the other end of the spectrum with median incomes under $40,000. Racial disparities persist as well. In 2012 the median hourly wage for Whites was $21, compared with about $17 for African Americans and $14 for Hispanics. Median wages for all three groups in Maryland have declined slightly since 2008.
- While Maryland’s poverty rate of 10 percent is significantly lower than the national rate of 15.7 percent, 594,000 Marylanders live in poverty, a number greater than the population of Maryland’s eleven smallest counties combined, and racial disparities persist. According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 6.3 percent of non-Hispanic Whites in Maryland live below the poverty level. Both African Americans and Hispanics were more than twice as likely to be living in poverty, at 13.8 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively.
- Maryland would do well to follow the lead of 23 states and its two largest counties by raising the minimum wage. Raising Maryland’s minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2016 would increase the earnings of the state’s lowest-paid workers by $800 million. These higher earnings after accounting for some change in labor costs for business and prices for consumers translates into $456 million in increased economic activity. This additional economic activity could generate and support 1,600 new jobs.
- Housing affordability remains a challenge for Maryland. Marylanders, par- ticularly those with low incomes, spend a disproportionate share of their income on housing. Marylanders who rent spend 31 percent of their income on housing. Homeowners face challenges as well. After a lull, foreclosures increased a staggering 280 percent from the third quarter of 2012 to the third quarter of 2013.
- Unmanageable student debt has become a crisis for the generation of recent college graduates. Maryland students’ debt rose more than 10 percent from 2010 to 2011. About 55 percent of Maryland’s 2012 graduates had student loan debt, with an average debt of $26,000, which was below the national average.
- The high cost of energy continues to be a major burden for Marylanders living below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. Maryland residents with that are least able to afford it are paying up to 40 percent of their incomes on energy costs that continue to increase.
- Between 2010 and 2012, 10.3 percent of Maryland residents—roughly 612,000 individuals—were without health insurance, including 51,000 children. For those that were insured, families’ health insurance premiums as a percentage of median household income have increased 66 percent between 2003 and 2011. However, despite persistent technical difficulties, Maryland’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act is helping to provide health coverage to many thousands of Maryland’s uninsured. Nearly 152,000 residents obtained coverage through the Maryland Health Connection by the end of 2013 when Medicaid and private coverage are combined.
In the coming year, state and national lawmakers should make the investments necessary to foster broad prosperity for all of Maryland’s residents.
State policy can help restore and create good jobs. It can drive investment in training and education. And what happens in Columbus can keep our workforce healthier and happier, help make work pay, and protect worker rights. This new policy brief pulls together our recommendations to help create an Ohio economy that works for everyone.