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<br /> Minnesota workers earn the minimum.The debate will be complicated by hour.
<br /> issues brought on by the new federal minimum wage,a new welfare law "I've been in the hotel industry 10 years and can't remember ever paying
<br /> that forces more low-skilled workers into the market,and a growing sense minimum wage to anyone other than a waitress;'says Todd Bornhauser,
<br /> of hostility between business interests and those representing low-wage general manager of the Super 8 Motel in Lakeville.
<br /> workers. "This could very well be a tough session on wage issues,"says ',I don't think the current increase will have a huge impact;'Miller says.
<br /> Tom Hesse,manager of work-force policy for the Minnesota Chamber of "It's mostly waiters and waitresses,so what we'll probably see is higher
<br /> Commerce. restaurant prices."
<br /> Kris Jacobs,executive director of the Jobs Now Coalition,an organiza- The livable wage is a calculation of what hourly wage it would require
<br /> tion of more than 60 unions and social-service organizations, agrees. for one worker to support a family of three,sometimes four,people at a
<br /> "We're going to take all the tough talk that was used against individuals in modest level.The first livable wage in Minnesota was put forward in 1905
<br /> the welfare debate and direct it at business,"she says. by the Jobs Now Coalition and was based in part on what it would take for
<br /> The debates are expected to revolve around two mandated wage laws: a typical welfare recipient to support a family without public assistance.
<br /> the minimum wage and the livable wage. Right now,neither law actually The model chosen was a single parent with two children,because that
<br /> applies to a significant number of workers.Fewer than one in 20 Minrieso- tends to be the profile of people receiving Aid to Families with Dependent
<br /> to employees earn the minimum wage or less.In the 1996 session,alimit- Children,the largest welfare program.That study set the livable wage at
<br /> ed livable-wage standard of$8.25 an hour was approved but only applies $-409 a week,or just over$10 an hour.A Twin Cities task force on livable
<br /> to companies receiving money through the state's Minnesota Investment wages was expected to release its report this month and put the livable
<br /> Fund,it narrow program that is expected to affect about 25 companies in wage at about 110 percent of the federal poverty guideline for a family of
<br /> 1997.The state uses a"prevailing wage"standard in state construe- four—or about$R an hour.
<br /> lion projects,such as highway improvements,which generally sets wages "Nobody can live on even $7 an hour,"says state representative Toni
<br /> Rukavina,a Democrat from Virginia and sponsor of the 1996 minimum-
<br /> at union scale.
<br /> wage bill in the Minnesota House."Even some Republicans couldn't stom-
<br /> Lich the idea of not raising the minimum wage."
<br /> ccording to the Minnesota Department of Economic Statistics, "Right now,the entry-level wage in Minnesota is$6 or$7 or$R an hour,
<br /> about 4.5 percent of workers receive the minimum wage.Congress says Judy Cook of the retail-merchants group."Can you raise a family on
<br /> raised the federal minimum wage to$4.75 an hour October I,with $7 an hour?Probably not.But people entering the work force for the first
<br /> another increase to$5.15 an hour set for next July.Two-thirds of those time start at entry-level jobs,and they get training and supervision and
<br /> earning the minimum work part-time.They tend to be young,with one- learn skills so they can move up.To assume that someone can march right
<br /> third still in their teens and more than half under age 25.They also are dis- out and gel a$200)(1-a-year job is ridiculous. We could mandate it,
<br /> proportionately female-63 percent of minimum-wage workers are then you'd have I3ig Macs that cost$6 and you haven't accomplishe
<br /> women,and 7.8 percent of all women workers get the minimum.Many— whole lot."
<br /> 38 percent—are clustered in the food-service industry,including waitresses The minimum wage—and now the livable wage—is more important e
<br /> and waiters whose wages are supplemented by tips. Another significant its role in driving political discussions of labor policy."We don't like to see
<br /> group works in general retail. More than 70 percent of minimum-wage this trend continue of government mandating wages,"says the Chamber's
<br /> workers have ahigh-school education or less. In the Twin Cities,where a Hesse."If we end up with two mandated wages in the statutes,you'll sec
<br /> shortage of labor is frequently listed as one of business's most pressing an attempt to move the minimum wage to the livable-wage standard.
<br /> mum wage applies to few That's a debate most people in business don't want to see happen."
<br /> problems,even activists concede that the mini
<br /> minimum wage"of nearly$6 an Much of the struggle in the 1997 session is expected to hinge on which
<br /> workers and that there is a
<br /> i
<br /> THE MINIMUM-WAGE CYCLE
<br /> Mike Kochevar wants to be a schoolteacher.He wage cycle,but it's tough.When he finished high certified as a pre-kindergarten teacher and parent
<br /> hopes to finish his degree at the University of school in Hibbing,he planned to go on to college educator.He volunteers as the leader of a parent
<br /> Minnesota–Duluth in another year or so.For now, or vocational school.He'd been working at the discussion group for fathers and at the local Head
<br /> every Tuesday through Saturday night,he heads local Hardee's,and the manager offered him a$1- Start program.When he's a licensed teacher,he'll
<br /> over to a local church or the VFW Club in Hibbing an-hour raise if he'd work the day shift for a year.It earn double or triple his salary e.a bingo caller.
<br /> where he calls the bingo numbers. would delay schooling,but at the time Kochevar But he says it's hard to get there.Even the
<br /> He earns under$6 an hour at each of his two thought it was a good way to save money. smallest financial setback has deep repercussions.
<br /> jobs,which is not enough to support himself and Four years later,he was still there.
<br /> For instance,last winter his car died one day.He
<br /> his 6-year-old daughter,Alicia.Money from AFDC, By then Alicia was born,and after a dispute with ended up dropping all of his courses that term
<br /> food stamps,a subsidized apartment,and help her mother,Kochevar was granted custody."I was because he had no way to get to Duluth.
<br /> from his parents have all been needed to get going nowhere,"Kochevar recalls."I was getting don't having a hard y who could Likinsurvive it," e says,"I
<br /> through the past few years. deeper and deeper in debt."
<br /> —M.L.S.
<br /> At 26,Kochevar is ready to break out of the low- He started back to school and now plans to be minimum wage
<br /> I
<br /> 42 DECEMBER 1996 TWIN CITIES BUSINESS MONTHLY
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