(talkpoverty.org) Raising the Minimum Wage: Get Local

[Omaha Steve]

http://talkpoverty.org/2014/07/22/raising-minimum-wage-get-local/

Last month, The White House and the Department of Labor announced a new federal contracting rule that would help tackle income inequality by raising the minimum wage for contract employees. According to the Center for American Progress, 80 percent of the 5.4 million people working for federal service contractors in 2008 were earning less than a living wage for their city or region.

Raising the wage of federal employees and contract workers is a great step towards setting a wage floor for the entire nation. Governments are the largest employer in America, so when the feds pay their workers better, other sectors have to do the same in order to compete.

But there is much more that can be done to achieve a living wage, particularly at the local level.

According to the US Census Bureau, there are 19,492 municipal governments, 3,033 county governments, and 14,561 school districts in the United States. Each one of them provides services to their constituents through the labor of millions of workers. The public agencies that employ these workers represent an enormous amount of purchasing power. Cities, counties and school district can follow the lead of President Obama and reform their procurement processes in order to raise wages for their workers.

FULL story at link.