Wage

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has asked the unions representing Baltimore's 28,000 employees for major concessions -- including the possible elimination of already-negotiated pay raises -- to help erase a $54.1 million shortfall predicted for next year's budget.The mayor told the union leaders at a City Hall meeting Friday that scrapping the pay increases scheduled for July 1 would save the city $38 million, according to Clinton R. Coleman, the mayor's spokesman.Failing that, Mr. Schmoke has asked the unions to present alternative ways of trimming labor costs, which take the biggest share of the city's current $1.8 billion operating budget, according to administration officials.

The owner of a janitorial service recruited about 30 workers from Baltimore's homeless shelters, put them to work on a state construction job and then disappeared without paying most of them even a penny.Buddy London Jr., owner of a cleaning firm called Storm $H Troopers, stood outside the soup kitchen Our Daily Bread in April, promising homeless people $5 an hour cash -- less than half the required wage -- for cleaning up construction debris at a University of Baltimore building.Maryland law requires all employers at state-funded construction jobs to pay workers a "prevailing wage," in this case $11.17 an hour.

Organized labor in Maryland is reaping the rewards of loyalty. Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who has enjoyed the support of unions for more than a quarter-century, threw his allies a plum last week by announcing in his State of the State address that he would support an effort to shore up wages for school construction projects. "School construction should be bound by the same prevailing-wage requirements that govern other state projects," the governor declared. "The men and women who build our schools deserve to make a decent wage."

Patricia McQueen takes satisfaction in knowing that every emptied trash can, dust-free desktop and spotless hallway contributes in its own way to a child's education. "If it weren't for the custodians doing what we do, no one would want to come in here. Even the Health Department would shut it down," said McQueen, 49, a building services worker at Cedarmere Elementary School in Reisterstown. "We make it possible for teachers to do what they do." After nearly 15 years with the Baltimore County school system, McQueen earns $13.40 an hour, but she says she wouldn't be able to get by on the current starting wage of $9.37 an hour.

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp.'s labor negotiators will insist on a two-tier wage formula as part of its next national contract with the United Auto Workers union, according to an industry newsletter.GM wants to pattern a two-tier wage agreement after the one it signed in February with the International Union of Electrical Workers at the automaker's Moraine, Ohio, truck plant, Ward's Automotive Reports said this week.That agreement, which pays component-parts workers and new hires less than vehicle assembly workers, was adopted to keep GM from closing the Moraine plant.

Two labor economists have reported that the pay of most college-educated people -- once thought to be exempt from the wage stagnation that has afflicted most Americans for more than 15 years -- has failed since 1989 to keep up with inflation.The findings, published yesterday by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington research organization that often supports Democratic candidates, suggest that the more the high-paying jobs vanish from the workplace, the less a bachelor of arts degree becomes a ticket to a rising income -- a conclusion that other economists said was probably accurate.

LOS ANGELES -- For the first time, a U.S. Labor Department program to highlight apparel companies taking extra steps to shun sweatshops has instead singled out a suspected slacker: Los Angeles-based Guess Inc.The Labor Department said Wednesday that it put Guess, the leading garment manufacturer in Southern California, on probationary status with the agency's "Trendsetter List" of "good guy" garment makers and retailers.The wage and hour division said four Southern California contracting shops that sew garments for Guess were judged to be violating minimum wage and overtime requirements.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening pledged yesterday to censure Maryland employers who replace regularly paid employees with poorly paid welfare recipients "in training," under the federal government's welfare reform.But he would not commit the state's welfare funds to create public works jobs for up to 5,000 Marylanders, saying the money would be exhausted in two years and leave the people those jobs would employ back where they are today -- on welfare.At a Baltimore gathering of representatives from Maryland church organizations, Glendening said employers who pass off existing positions as new ones -- known as displacement -- for welfare recipients will not receive tax credits allowed under federal law, and could be liable to civil and criminal penalties.

Salaries in the region that includes Maryland rose by 1.6 percent for the 12 months ending in June - the smallest gain since the federal government began tracking wages and salaries in 1976. Once benefits were added, the rate increased to 2.5 percent for the same period, according to a report released yesterday by the statistical bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor. Faced with rising health care and pension costs and stagnant prices for their goods and services, businesses have continued to lay off employees and ratchet up productivity of their remaining workers as the overall economy shows signs of improvement.

CHICAGO -- Chicago may become the first city in the nation to require big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart or Home Depot to pay employees a "living wage" of at least $10 an hour, plus $3 an hour in benefits. So far, 33 of 50 City Council members have signed on to the proposed ordinance - more than enough to pass it, perhaps as soon as next month. The bill would affect only stores that have at least 75,000 square feet and are operated by companies with at least $1 billion in annual sales, allowing smaller retailers to continue with the state minimum wage of $6.50 an hour.