A $50-an-hour minimum wage for California? Here’s the candidate who suggested it | Opinion
Rep. Barbara Lee is a warrior in the fight against poverty. But a $50-an-hour federal minimum wage? Is she serious?
She threw out that figure Sunday, in an off-the-cuff sort of way, during a candidates forum hosted by the National Union of Health Care Workers. It was the first such event that brought together the three top Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate: Lee, who represents Oakland, Rep. Katie Porter of Orange County and Rep. Adam Schiff of the San Gabriel Valley.
The discussion of minimum wage may have been overshadowed by other more immediate topics — the Hamas attacks on Israel, the appointment of Sen. Laphonza Butler and the election of a new Speaker of the House to replace Kevin McCarthy — yet it’s a topic very much on the minds of working people buffeted by high housing costs, rising interests rates and gasoline prices that are once again creeping up.
‘$25,000 a year and they’re going to be homeless’
Californians did recently get some good news on the wage front. Next April, the minimum wage for fast food workers will go up to $20 an hour. The minimum for other workers is $15.50 and will increase to $16 on Jan 1.
The federal minimum, though, is stuck at just $7.25 per hour, though there’s a renewed effort to raise it. The Raise the Wage Act of 2023 introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Robert Scott of Virginia would more than double that to $17 an hour over five years.
All three Senate candidates agreed that $17 an hour still isn’t enough.
“I was out on the picket lines with SEIU 99,” Schiff said. “These were nurses and nurses aides and bus drivers and cafeteria workers. They were being paid $25,000 a year. Now we wonder why people are homeless. You pay them $25,000 a year and they’re going to be homeless.”
Porter pointed a finger at corporate profits: “We have a Washington that is consistently putting the interests of big corporations ahead of the interests of workers and families.”
And Lee called for a living wage. “Here, even $25 an hour is bare minimum.”
Then came the followup question: “What would you put (the federal minimum) at?
It was essentially a hypothetical question. The candidates were asked where they would set the minimum wage — not what minimum wage would have the best shot at passing.
Lee took a beat before responding: “$50 an hour.”
“I’d like to see a $25 minimum wage,” Schiff said.
Next came Porter: “I think we should have $20 at the federal level and $25 (in) California, indexed to inflation (and) automatically increasing.”
Guess who got the biggest round of applause?
Yep. That would be Lee.
Should we all be earning at least $104,000?
Sure, $50 an hour is a stunning figure. Absurdly over the top, really.
It works out to $104,000 a year. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 34% of all households earn more than $100,000 per year.
Yet the current minimum of $7.25 per hour is just as jaw-dropping in its own way.
That’s $15,080 a year, or $1,256 a month. No one can survive on that, no matter what state they live in.
So what is a fair wage?
Porter and Schiff were far more practical in their responses. Yet their proposals of $20 and $25 an hour may turn out to be unreaslistic.
Even though the federal minimum hasn’t been raised since 2009, it will be hard enough getting Congress to approve an increase to $17 per hour. And remember, a 2021 proposal to raise the federal minimum to $15 an hour failed in the Senate after eight Democrats joined Republicans in defeating it.
Lee, by the way, pointed out that there are other ways the federal government can help working families. Increase the supply of affordable housing. Expand the Section 8 program that offers rental assistance. Assist with childcare.
And she isn’t stuck on $50 an hour, according to an email from her communications director, David Graham-Caso.
“In the Senate, Congresswoman Lee will work to build the coalitions necessary to raise the minimum wage as high as possible — if that is $15, $25, $30 or $50,” he wrote.
