[GPCA Updates] NEWS ADVISORY: Minimum wage bills 'insult' to low wageearners, charge Greens

[Jim Stauffer]

                  News Advisory
           THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA
             http://www.cagreens.org



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 					     
Thursday, June 1, 2006


Minimum wage legislation by Democrats
is an ‘insult' to the state's low-wage earners,
example of election year politics, argue Greens  

SACRAMENTO (June 1, 2006) – Legislation to hike the state minimum wage
approved by the Assembly Wednesday and expected to be passed by the Senate
Thursday is not a real step forward, but an "insult" to low wage earners
and an example of election year politics by Democrats, charged members of
the Green Party of California today.

They added that Democrats refused to help put a popular initiative on the
ballot this year that would have truly benefitted the state's lowest paid
workers.

Current state legislation would increase the hourly minimum wage from $6.75
to $7.75 by July 2008. But, the hike is so small that workers would earn,
in today's dollars, much less than minimum wage earners in 1968, when the
minimum wage was $1.50 an hour. To match that rate, the minimum wage would
have had to be $10.09 an hour in 2005 to earn what workers were paid in
1968, according to the California Budget Project.

"This legislation is not real reform, and not anything close to a fair
wage. It is an insult to hardworking Californians who are being exploited
daily. Democrats and Republicans, from the governor on down, are talking
about programs that will get them elected, not really help Californians,"
said Donna Warren, the Green Party candidate for Lt. Governor.

"This exact legislation was first proposed nearly three years ago, and
vetoed. If lawmakers truly care about low wage earners, and not just
getting elected, they would increase the minimum wage by at least the rate
of inflation during that period, which has been about 10 percent. These
bills are nothing more than an election year ploy," said Larry Cafiero,
Green Party candidate for Insurance Commissioner.

Warren and Cafiero said true reform would be a wage that at least equals
what low wage workers were paid in 1968. In fact, the Green Party of
California helped spearhead a statewide "fair wage" initiative earlier this
year to raise the minimum wage to $8.75 an hour. However, despite polls
indicating the measure would pass with more than 63 percent of the vote,
Democrats refused to participate in any way to help the initiative get on
the ballot. In the end, volunteers ran out of time and money to get it on
the ballot.