By Roberta Gassman
With the national economy still struggling, Gov. Jim Doyle has an aggressive action plan – Grow Wisconsin – to put our state in position to create good-paying jobs. Great progress has been made in the past year, starting with fixing our state’s $3.2 billion deficit without raising taxes. The governor also signed the single sales factor tax reform, which repealed the tax on businesses that create jobs. And on January 22, he signed into law an environmental regulatory reform package, which will help businesses create jobs more quickly, while preserving Wisconsin’s strong environmental, safety, and health standards.
Another important goal for Doyle is raising Wisconsin’s minimum wage. As the secretary of the Department of Workforce Development, charged with advancing this state initiative, I would like to address the facts on this issue.
Wisconsin’s minimum wage is now $5.15 an hour. Working full time, minimum wage workers earn just $10,712 – not enough to live on, much less support a family. In fact, it’s well below the poverty level for a mother and child. Worse, these workers haven’t had a raise in almost seven years. What other sector of the workforce would go seven years without a raise?
Raising the minimum wage would help approximately 130,000 to 160,000 workers – workers who provide numerous services too many people take for granted. They are restaurant workers, who help prepare meals and clean kitchens without tips. They are clerks in stores, offices, hotels and motels; housekeepers and laundry workers; janitors and groundskeepers. They are child care workers and nursing home aides. They are hard-working people who help support our children, our families, our seniors and our state.
Roughly half of these workers are 25 or older. Nearly two in three are women. Many are single mothers. Is it right that they must stop at a food pantry after work to feed their children?
Gov. Tommy Thompson raised the minimum wage five times, and the number of jobs continued to grow. For example, in 1997, when the minimum wage was last raised, Wisconsin’s monthly job total was approximately 2.65 million. Jobs then grew to 2.71 million in 1998 and 2.78 million in 1999.
Illinois just raised its wage, to $5.50 now and $6.50, on January 1, 2005. Illinois researchers found no basis for dire predictions. Citing the experience of other states, they predicted the competitive fast-food industry, for example, would not cut jobs. Rather, higher wages likely would be offset by less turnover, greater productivity and a negligible price impact.
Even a modest raise can make a big difference, not just for workers now, but for the state and taxpayers tomorrow. Had the minimum wage matched inflation, that would have meant $120 more a month — money for food and shelter. A reasonable raise could lift a single mother and child from poverty, helping to avoid many of the long-term consequences of poverty for that family, this state and its taxpayers.
We are working hard to increase the number of good-paying jobs by creating a competitive business climate, reforming regulations, investing in job training and helping businesses. In fairness, we must also see that the people who toil at the lowest levels get a decent wage.
This spring, the Minimum Wage Advisory Council that I convened, as set forth in the statutes, will make its recommendations, which we will then advance through the administrative rule process with legislative review.
As Doyle has said, it’s time to do something for those people who often work the most and earn the least. Our economy needs it, and our Wisconsin values demand it.
–Gassman is secretary of the Department of Workforce Development.
