Labor Not Rewarded in Republican America, California

Today is Labor Day, and everybody who works for a living should read this post by Teamsters Union President James Hoffa. An excerpt:

For those of you fortunate enough to have a long Labor Day weekend, go to your barbecues, your sales at the mall and enjoy yourself. But do me a favor - take a few minutes to think about why you get a Labor Day holiday and reflect on everything George Bush and his Republican Congress have done to eliminate the gains of organized labor and working people.

A recent survey by the Change to Win federation of unions, which the Teamsters helped form last year, shows that the majority of working families believe their children will be worse off economically and that they are falling farther behind. A Pew Research Center survey emphasizes many of the findings, showing that workers in the country are worse off today than they were a generation ago. And it's little wonder.

• Workers' wages are stagnant. While cash compensation for the highest-paid U.S. executives climbed 41 percent last year, 80 percent of working families saw a drop in real wages.

• Real median household incomes rose only 1.1 percent between 2004 and 2005, the Census Bureau reports - but that's only because more family members are working more jobs; inflation rose nearly 3.5 percent.

• The minimum wage has not been increased in nine years. After adjusting for inflation, the value of the minimum wage is at its lowest level since 1955. But Congress has voted itself a raise seven straight times.

• $3-a-gallon gasoline is now commonplace and what little dip we've seen in the last week will certainly reappear after the November elections.

• America has lost 3 million manufacturing jobs and gained low-skilled, low-paying service jobs.

We know that Republican policies, led by George W. Bush and his cronies in Congress, has led to this wageless recovery, through specific actions like deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, encouraging outsourcing, selling off infrastructure to foreign-owned companies, instituting "free trade" agreements that allow gross inequities in global labor and environmental standards which benefit polluters and exploiters abroad at the expense of working people, refusing collective bargaining rights for Homeland Security employees, and on and on and on. This has severe impacts on lower- and middle-class Americans who work longer for less money and struggle with rising health care, housing and energy costs just to remain afloat.

This is no less true in California, where a recent check of the numbers show a very specific timeline that signaled a downturn for working people:

Wages for the vast majority of Californians have barely kept pace with the cost of living in the five years since the last recession, according to a new study.

The California Budget Project study tracked hourly wage increases, adjusted for inflation, across three earning categories: low, median and high. In 2005, hourly pay for the lowest earners was $10, median pay was $17, and high pay was $30.

From 2003 to 2005, workers in the low and median ranges saw little or no wage growth, while those at the high end of the wage scale saw increases of barely 1%, according to the study to be released today.

Pay raises slowed after jumping modestly from 2001 to 2003, when workers saw increases ranging as high as 4.5% for the lowest earners.

The philosophy of the rich getting richer while the poor remain stagnant has come to California at the exact same time as the recall election changed the leadership in the governor's mansion. Bushonomics can hardly be separated from Schwarzonomics. Both cut taxes for the wealthiest one percent of the population. Both used the rhetoric of "reform" to gut spending and regulations that protected and defended workers. And both have overseen a facade of an economic "expansion" where the benefits have only reached the investor class rather than those who struggle for survival every day.

Todd Beeton at the California Courage Campaign writes about Phil Angelides' latest frame for the state of the California economy, which sounds suspiciously like that of the man he will welcome into the state this week, former Senator and Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards:

Phil Angelides released a Labor Day message on Friday that invoked the words of John Edwards and Franklin D. Roosevelt in bringing attention to the rising gap between rich and poor in California.

"This Labor Day…should be a time to celebrate California’s fortune as the most economically vibrant state in the richest nation on earth. Instead, for many of our lowest paid workers, it is a time for concern about a widening disparity in economic opportunity that threatens to create a future of 'two Californias,' one prosperous, one slipping toward poverty."

Phil Angelides stands for indexing the minimum wage to rising inflation, so that low-income workers will not be held hostage to election-year politics to finally get the living wage they are due. Phil Angelides stands for a middle-class tax cut which would help workers who are squeezed by stagnant wages and a rising cost of living. Phil Angelides stands for lowering tutition and fees for the state's universities to remove this student tax on those who want to educate themselves and build a better life.

Meanwhile, as Todd points out, the Governor posted no Labor Day message on his website. That's because he is completely disconnected from the concerns of working people. If Angelides can leverage this message of populism and break through the clutter which serves as a barrier to politics in this state, I believe it will pay dividends.

UPDATE: Holy fucking crap. Via Kevin Drum, here's a chart of change in median incomes in every state over the past six years: