Wage

In his column "Risk to city outweighs benefits of living wage" (July 25) Jay Hancock perpetuates the myth that wage rates are the dominant factor influencing decisions of where large business will locate within the greater Baltimore regional marketplace. As a general rule, nothing could be further from the truth. In making location decisions, transportation access and the availability of a skilled workforce are very important to the success of a manufacturing concern; transportation and proximity to customers to a warehousing operation; and the existence of underserved demand and public access are crucial to retail sales outlets.

Doesn't anyone realize that in this dreadful economy and with the equally dreadful Obamacare looming, an increase in the minimum wage would result in even more unemployment? ("Labor official brings minimum-wage push to Baltimore," May 13.) Simple arithmetic shows that a small business that is currently struggling to meet payroll will simply fire enough employees to be able to give the others their governmentally mandated "raise. " That's the only way to keep their payroll within reason.

Is it any mystery why Maryland and Baltimore in particular, are considered anti-business? The "living wage" bill proposed by City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke will certainly result in the closing of one retailer on Pratt Street downtown and possibly threatens the existence of current and proposed Walmart stores, meaning the considerable loss of jobs ("'Major retailers' would pay city's 'living wage' under bill," May 4). How can politicians be so arrogant as to decide that they can tell an employer how much they have to pay employees?

In a recent Sun article, "Labor officials bring minimum wage push to Baltimore" (May 14), a researcher from the labor union-supported Economic Policy Institute claims that the "majority of minimum-wage earners work for large companies in the retail, fast-food and hospitality sectors, not for small businesses. " This is not true: Two-thirds of lower-wage workers are at businesses with 100 or more employees, not "large companies. " These 100-employee businesses could just as well be a small restaurant franchisee with five locations or a regional grocery store chain with three locations.

I have great respect for Jay Hancock and in the words of an old country western song was almost persuaded by his reasoning on why a living wage hourly salary for 3,000 Baltimoreans laboring at big box retailers is counterproductive to the local economy ("Risk to city outweighs benefits of living wage," July 25). Just when I'd reached the same conclusion I noted in the same business section that the heirs of George Steinbrenner are exempt from estate tax of over $500 million due to the happenstance that the Boss expired in 2010, having survived several of the managers he consigned to unemployment, such as Billy Martin and Bob Lemon.

They're at it again, trying to bump up the minimum wage in Maryland from $7.25 to $10 per hour in 2013 ("Raising the standard," editorial, Jan. 21). Happily, even some of the Democrats recognize that if we want to create jobs then we shouldn't go around making it more expensive to employ people. I give Sen. Thomas Middleton (Democrat of Charles County) credit for pointing out that, "We're trying to create jobs. We're trying to hold on to what we've got. I think raising the minimum wage goes against that.

Recently, Dan Rodricks took on the Republicans in Congress who want to pay down the federal budget deficit by raising taxes on the middle class and the poor ("Tax the poor, protect the rich," Aug. 21). Never mind that these segments of the population already barely have enough for necessities, much less the wherewithal to pay taxes that should be borne by those who have the most: wealthy individuals and corporations. Yet the wealthy are considered more moral, somehow better people than the rest of us, and thus deserving of windfall profits and legal loopholes that allow them to pay little or nothing in taxes.

Major retailers in Baltimore would be forced to pay employees the city's designated 'living wage' -- currently slightly more than $10 per hour -- under a measure introduced by Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke at Monday's council meeting. Retailers that are part of a chain that grosses more than $10 million annually would be required to pay employees the living wage rate under Clarke's proposal. "This would apply to the businesses that can afford to do this, not the mom-and-pop stores on the corner," Clarke said.

This newspaper and others recently reported that according to Census Bureau data, wages for low-wage workers declined 2 percent since 2003 after factoring in inflation - this while worker productivity rose steadily. During the same period, wages for workers in the top income brackets kept well ahead of inflation. Fortunately, despite the severity of the issue, there are ways to fight wage stagnation. We need to invest in our work force by making adult education and training readily available.

A new federal rule that would require crab-processing plants on the Eastern Shore and elsewhere to pay a higher wage to temporary foreign workers would be delayed for a year under legislation approved Wednesday by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Advanced by Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, the measure was attached to a larger spending bill in the Senate and appears to enjoy bipartisan support. The rule, created by the U.S. Department of Labor, will take effect Oct. 1 unless Mikulski's change is approved.

The fight over the federal minimum wage is coming to Baltimore. The head of the U.S. Department of Labor plans to swing into town Tuesday to talk to low-wage workers about how they make — or don't make — ends meet. Seth D. Harris, the agency's acting secretary, has crisscrossed the country for such events since President Barack Obama proposed in February that the minimum be raised from $7.25 an hour to $9. "The president during the State of the Union said that it's an outrage that in the richest country on earth that people are working full time and still living in poverty," Harris said in a telephone interview Monday.

Deadly industrial accidents in the developing world are tragically common, but the recent collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh that took the lives of more than 500 workers has captured the American public's attention, and no wonder. Knowingly or unknowingly, most Americans at some point have purchased clothing or other items made in Bangladesh, where factory workers labor under sweatshop conditions and employers keep manufacturing costs down by ignoring safety and building code violations.

I applaud The Sun for its recent editorial on income inequality ("Labor reawakens," April 27). The increasing income inequality in this country affects the ability of families to survive, much less thrive, on what they earn from minimum wage jobs. The editorial highlighted a labor strike by Chicago low-wage workers and their "Fight for 15" rally. Yet the fact that Baltimore workers are organizing around "fair development" was mentioned in only one sentence. I wonder why The Sun did not find it important to cover the local "reawakening" here by reporting on the Fair Development Rally and March held April 20th.

I'm glad that the Baltimore Sun is speaking up about what readers have known for too long: Even though our economy is improving, this prosperity isn't reaching working families ("Labor reawakens," April 26). President Barack Obama is doing the right thing by trying to move Congress to increase the federal minimum wage. It would help millions of American families that are struggling to make ends meet. But we can't wait for Congress to get this done - it's too important. Right now, families in my community and across Maryland are struggling on minimum wage, making impossible choices like deciding between paying bills or getting medication.

From Bangor to Peoria, in the Huffington Post and in Forbes Magazine, the press is focusing on the minimum wage. While we hear and read about it constantly these days, many of us never take the time to reflect on what it really means. When seen up close, as I do every day here in Baltimore at the Center for Urban Families, the real meaning of "minimum" becomes painfully apparent. Minimum is just that. As Merriam Webster says: "the least quantity assignable, admissible, or possible.

Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. writes about "How the welfare state has grown" (April 7). But if the programs of the New Deal and the Great Society have been less than successful, it should be noted that the lack of funding from "big government" has been instrumental in causing these programs to crumble. The working poor are poor due to unemployment or low-wage jobs. Try making ends meet with subsistence level pay and no benefits. One major medical bill and you're on the way to homelessness.

After more than four hours of testimony by business and religious leaders Thursday, a bill that would have required major retailers to pay workers the city's living wage died on a tie vote in a Baltimore City Council committee. Councilman Warren Branch, chairman of the three-member labor subcommittee, voted against the bill. Councilwoman Belinda Conaway voted in its favor; Councilman Nicholas D'Adamo was absent because of his parents' poor health. After the vote, the measure's sponsor said she was hopeful it could be resurrected.

A state Senate committee endorsed a "living wage" bill yesterday that would require higher pay for government contractors, advancing a top priority of Gov. Martin O'Malley in the final days of the General Assembly session. The Finance Committee voted 7-4 to back the measure, which would require wages of $11.30 an hour in urban areas and $8.50 an hour in rural areas. The state's minimum wage is $6.15 an hour. If it is enacted, Maryland would be the first state with such a measure, which is championed by liberal groups and labor unions but opposed by business groups.

A bill to raise Maryland's minimum wage to $10 an hour failed in a Senate committee vote Wednesday, its sponsor said.   The Raise Maryland campaign, part of a national effort, sought to increase the state's minimum per-hour wage from $7.25 to one of the highest rates in the country.  The organization said had the minimum wage been raised with inflation over the past 40 years, it would be $10.67.  The Senate Finance Committee voted unfavorably on the measure. One committee member said it failed in an 8-3 vote.

They weren't allowed to be at work, but now they're paying for being absent. Some administrative employees who were barred from the Johns Hopkins at Keswick complex in North Baltimore twice in the last two weeks because the buildings were closed due to outbreaks of illness are being told to use personal time or vacation days to make up for the time missed, Johns Hopkins officials confirmed Wednesday. Others were working overtime to catch up. For example, the majority of 284 patient financial services employees who work on the fifth floor of the Keswick complex's south building worked overtime hours three days last week - including Saturday - to make up for the day they had missed.