When We Were Strangers: An Interview with Pamela Schoenewaldt

Community Bridge opens this week with an interview featuring author Pamela Schoenewaldt in a discussion of her new novel, When We Were Strangers. The novel tells the story of Irma Vitale, an Italian immigrant who leaves her Abruzzo mountain village to come to America. Schoenewaldt takes up such current issues as immigration reform and women's reproductive rights in this historical novel that readers of Geraldine Brooks, Nancy Turner, Frances de Pontes Peebles, and Debra Dean will most certainly cherish. When We Were Strangers will live in the mind and the heart long after its last page is turned. Visit Schoenewaldt's webpage for more background information about the story.

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A Living Wage for Manhattan

Our second hour opens with Tom Manney, from No-NBAF in Kansas, who comments about the report issued by National Research Council on the evaluation of risks associated with the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility proposed for Manhattan. Then Geri Simon and Claudean McKellips from the Manhattan Living Wage Coalition join us in studio to discuss the Coalition's efforts to establish a wage floor for companies receiving economic development funds from the City of Manhattan.

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August 12, 2010 - 538 Ways to Live Liberally

Community Bridge opens this week with the founder of Living Liberally, Justin Krebs, joining by telephone for a discussion of his new book: 538 Ways to Live, Work and Play Like a Liberal.

Krebs will be in Kansas to conduct a book signings in Kansas City, MO, on Monday, Aug 16th, 6:00pm - 9:00pm, and hosted by Drinking Liberally Kansas City. Then on Thursday August 19th at 7:00 pm at the Raven Bookstore in Lawrence hosted by Drinking Liberally Lawrence. To find out more about Living Liberally, listen to our show from 18 February 2010 at: http://communitybridge.blogspot.com/2010/02/18-feb-2010-impact-of-budget-cuts-on.html

Following Krebs we are joined by Jane Gibson of the Manhattan Living Wage Coalition who gives us the details about this year's Laborfest scheduled for Sunday September 5th.

Nearly two years after a global financial crisis almost crippled our economy, President Obama two weeks ago signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, otherwise known as the financial regulatory reform bill. The bill is supposed to prevent such a crisis and the subsequent bank bailouts from ever happening again, but will it really accomplish that? And more broadly, what does it do to reform the financial system that made Wall Street's abuses possible in the first place? The Nation's Washington DC Editor Christopher Hayes and finance blogger Mike Konczal tackle these questions on this week's edition of The Breakdown.

We close out this hour with this week's Media Minutes.

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The Minimum Wage: A Disgrace and a Scandal
Jonathan Tasini writes on Working Life: "There will be a lot of chatter about today's hike in the minimum wage. We should be happy for the people who will get another seventy cents an hour in their gross pay. But, we should keep in mind that, at the grand new sum of $6.55 an hour, the minimum wage is a disgrace and a sad commentary about the state of our social safety net, the economy and our political system. If you do the math, it's pretty stark. If you worked 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, you would earn $13,624. Not a single day off. No sick days. No health care. No pension."
The the complete blog entry, click here.

Witnesses: Bush Labor Department Wage & Hour Enforcement Drops, Workers Cheated
Mark Gruenberg for Press Associates, Inc.: "Enforcement of wage-and-hour laws, to ensure workers get at least the minimum wage and the overtime pay they deserve, has dropped drastically under the GOP Bush government, impartial investigators and a low-income workers' advocate told Congress. As a result, low-wage workers are routinely cheated."
For the complete story, click here.

Close Wage Gap That Hurts Women
Representative Louise Slaughter, in a Rochester Democrat and Chronicle column: "As we celebrate the 160th anniversary of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention, we must remember that we are still struggling to achieve equality. Among the most distressing disparities between men and women is the significant pay gap for the same work."
For the complete commentary, click here.

New Reports Show Impact of School Funding; Student Achievement
The Kansas Association of School Boards is releasing new information about the impact of additional school funding provided in response to the Montoy school finance lawsuit. School boards and administrators should find these reports helpful as they prepare to adopt budgets for the upcoming school year, and explain finance and achievement issues to their public.

It is also important to remember this additional funding for school districts was only narrowly approved by the Legislature. Many legislators who supported the increases are facing election challengers. School leaders can use this information to help candidates and voters understand the positive impact increased funding has had on schools, student achievement and local economies.

KASB is providing the following documents, in PDF format, on the KASB Web site (click here), or click on each document title to be taken to that document. For additional information on these reports, contact the KASB Advocacy or Research Departments.

• "What More Funding for Public Education Meant for Kansas"

This report uses a recently released study by the Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit plus additional research by KASB to focus on three issues: how school districts spent the additional funding provided by the Legislature, how Kansas students have performed on state and national measures of educational programs, both before and after the additional funding, and why student achievement matters to Kansas.

• "Impact of Funding Changes from 2004-05 to 2006-07 for School Districts"

This report lists each school district by county within each of KASB's 10 regions, and provides the following information from the Kansas State Department of Education about changes between 2004-05 and 2006-07:

(1) change in full-time equivalent enrollment;
(2) percentage change in FTE enrollment;
(3) change in general fund and local option fund expenditures;
(4) increase in per pupil spending;
(5) percentage increase in per pupil spending;
(6) change in number of all employees;
(7) percent change in number of all employees;
(8) change in average teacher salary; and
(9) percent change in average teacher salary (if available).

This information allows comparisons of individual district funding, enrollment, employees and teacher salaries with other districts in the county and region, as well as with statewide changes.

• "Economic Impact of Kansas School Districts"

This report shows the economic impact of school districts in Kansas counties, grouped by KASB region, and provides the following information:

(1) estimated population of each county;
(2) total number of jobs in the county and percent of jobs held by school district employees;
(3) total per capita wages paid in each county; percent of those wages paid by school districts; total per capita income in the county and percentage of income from wages paid by school districts;
(4) average wage paid in the county; average teacher salary; teacher salary as a percent of average wages; and benefits paid by the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System for school retirees in that county; and
(5) percentage of the total general fund budget paid by state aid (the remainder is raised by local property tax).

To calculate this information, districts are assigned to the county where the district is headquartered.

This information demonstrates the economic significance of school district spending, especially after most of the increased school funding was used to increase jobs, salaries or both.

US Military Recruits Children
For Truthout, Michael Reagan writes: "In May of 2002, the United States Army invaded E3, the annual video game convention held in Los Angeles. At the city's Convention Center, young game enthusiasts mixed with camouflaged soldiers, Humvees and a small tank parked near the entrance. Thundering helicopter sound effects drew the curious to the Army's interactive display, where a giant video screen flashed the words 'Empower yourself. Defend America ... You will be a soldier.' The Army was unveiling its latest recruitment tool, the 'America's Army' game, free to download online or pick up at a recruiting station, and now available for purchase on the Xbox, PlayStation, cell phones and Gameboy game consoles."
For the complete story, click here.

Better Ballots
Lawrence Norden, David Kimball, Whitney Quesenbery and Margaret Chen of The Brennan Center: "The notorious butterfly ballot that Palm Beach County, Florida, election officials used in the 2000 election is probably the most infamous of all election design snafus. It was one of many political, legal, and election administration missteps that plunged a presidential election into turmoil and set off a series of events that led to, among other things, a vast overhaul of the country's election administration, including the greatest change in voting technology in United States history."
For the complete report, click here.

Roberts, Brownback Block Pay Equity Bill

From Kansas WorkBeat

One day after Equal Pay Day, a minority of primarily Republican senators once again made it harder for women workers to overcome pay discrimination.

The Senate failed to cut off debate on the Fair Pay Restoration Act (H.R. 2831) and bring the bill to the floor for a vote. The 56-42 margin fell four votes short of the 60 needed to end debate and vote on the bill. The House passed the legislation July 2007. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill if passed by the Senate. Kansas Senators Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback voted against the bill.

The legislation, also known as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, would reverse a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision dismissing a suit by Lilly Ledbetter, an employee for 19 years at a Goodyear Tire plant in Alabama. Her suit alleged she was paid less than her male counterparts.

In the Ledbetter ruling, the Supreme Court said she did not file her lawsuit against Goodyear within 180 days after the discrimination occurred, as required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court let the company off the hook by calculating the deadline from the day Goodyear made its original decision to pay her less than her male colleagues. The law had previously made it clear the clock did not start until she received her last discriminatory paycheck. The bill would remove the 180-day limit.

Kansas House Rejects Minimum Wage Increase

The Kansas House today narrowly rejected a proposal that would have increased the Kansas minimum wage to $7.25 per hour.

The Kansas minimum wage of $2.65/hour is the lowest minimum wage in the nation and has not been increased since 1988. Rep. Stan Frownfelter, D-Kansas City offered an amendment during debate this morning on SB 461 to mirror the federal minimum wage raising the state wage to $7.25 by 2010.

With the Frownfelter Amendment, the state's minimum wage would increase to $5.85 per hour on September 1, 2008. The rate would then go up to $6.55 per hour on September 1, 2009 and to $7.25 on September 1, 2010.

Rather than vote directly on the bill, Rep. Mike O'Neal of Hutchinson made a motion to send the bill back to committee. The O'Neal motion to rerefer SB 461 to the House Committee on Commerce & Labor passed on a vote of 63-58.

Those voting to send the measure back to committee, avoiding an increase in the state minimum wage:

Clay Aurand - R
Virginia Beamer - R
Bob Bethell - R
Elaine Bowers - R
Anthony Brown - R
Steve Brunk - R
Richard Carlson - R
Jeff Colyer - R
Barbara Craft - R
David Crum - R
Don Dahl - R
John Faber - R
Pat George - R
Mario Goico - R
Lana Gordon - R
John Grange - R
Gary Hayzlett - R
Ben Hodge - R
Carl Holmes - R
Mitch Holmes - R
Steve Huebert - R
Joe Humerickhouse - R
Terrie Huntington - R
Dan Johnson - R
Kasha Kelley - R
Dick Kelsey - R
Mike Kiegerl - R
Jeff King - R
Lance Kinzer - R
Forest Knox - R
Brenda Landwehr - R
Peggy Mast - R
Ty Masterson - R
Joe McLeland - R
Ray Merrick - R
Ronnie Metsker - R
Jim Morrison - R
Judy Morrison - R
Tom Moxley - R
Don Myers - R
Mike O'Neal - R
Rob Olson - R
Joe Patton - R
Virgil Peck - R
Larry Powell - R
Richard Proehl - R
Jill Quigley - R
Marc Rhoades - R
Charlie Roth - R
Don Schroeder - R
Sharon Schwartz - R
Arlen Siegfreid - R
Sheryl Spalding - R
Vern Swanson - R
Lee Tafanelli - R
Jene Vickrey - R
Jason Watkins - R
Jeff Whitham - R
Kenny Wilk - R
Bill Wolf - R
Kay Wolf - R
Ron Worley - R
Kevin Yoder - R

Last session, an amendment by Rep. Valdenia Winn (D-Kansas City) to raise the state minimum wage to the federal minimum wage and to empower the Secretary of Labor to raise it further to match future federal rate increases was rejected on a vote of 56-63. A attempt to repeal the minimum wage altogether was fended off on a similar 56-62 vote.

Wichita should establish citywide minimum wage

By the Rev. David Hansen and Kirbly Clark
Wichita Eagle, 23 Decemebr 2007

The Kansas minimum wage is $2.65 an hour. Do we have your attention?

To any rational thinker, this figure would appear absurd, almost silly. But nothing is funny about trying to get by on $2.65 an hour: For a full-time worker, that amounts to just $5,512 per year. Some people think that no one in Kansas could possibly make such a low hourly wage, but a new study sheds some light on this seemingly invisible category of workers.

The nonpartisan Ad Astra Institute, based in Lawrence, reports that 17,000 Kansas workers made less than the old $5.15 minimum wage in 2006. Since the federal minimum wage increased in July to $5.85, Kansans are falling even further behind, and that 17,000 figure is now higher.

To be clear: The Kansas minimum wage applies to workers in job categories not protected by the federal minimum, such as child care workers, companions to the elderly and infirm, and employees of private businesses grossing less than $500,000 per year and not engaged in interstate commerce.

As members of the Kansas Action Network's Raise the Wage Wichita campaign, we believe that an honest day's work deserves fair pay. A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.

But there's good news for businesses and the local economy, too.

To remain competitive, businesses need not choose between paying higher wages and keeping costs down. The study found that a minimum-wage increase "would have no substantial long-term effects on output, employment or profits." Further, it found that "short-run adjustments in prices, made by businesses reliant on low-wage workers, are likely to be much too small to have significant impacts on the overall price levels, and will not cause an ongoing inflationary spiral."

It makes sense that paying higher wages enables a more productive work force, increased consumer purchasing power, higher sales tax revenue and less turnover (an expensive cost for businesses). Perhaps more important, higher wages mean greater dignity for the lowest-paid workers in the Kansas economy.

Therefore, we urge the Wichita City Council to establish a citywide minimum wage that at least matches the federal wage level. Wichita can and must ensure that it pays to live and work in our city. As the rest of the state remains bogged down by an outdated $2.65 minimum wage, Wichita should take the moral and economic high road, ensuring that none of its workers slips through the cracks, that fairness and reason prevail.

If you know someone who is covered by the Kansas minimum-wage law -- or if you are that person -- we encourage you to join our campaign.

For more information, visit the Web site www.raisethewagekansas.org or call 316-941-4061.

The Rev. David Hansen of Wichita is conference minister for the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference, United Church of Christ. Kirby Clark is business manager for the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 29, in Wichita.

Researchers Say Kansas Minimum Wage Increase a Plus for Businesses, Workers and Communities

(Dec 10, 2007) Topeka, KS – The nonpartisan, ad astra inst logo not-for-profit Ad Astra Institute (AAI) has released a 40- page report suggesting that the economic impact of minimum wage increases in Kansas would likely be positive for workers, businesses, employment and economic development. The report, "Impacts of Minimum Wage Increases in Kansas: A Background Report," estimates the number of Kansas workers likely to be affected by increases in the minimum wage, summarizes theories of economic impact and reviews actual effects of minimum wage increases in other states and cities.

The Kansas minimum wage of $2.65 per hour applies to workers in job categories not protected by the Federal minimum wage ($5.85). The study documents this under -examined category of workers at the lowest end of the wage spectrum. To help determine how minimum wage increases would affect Kansas businesses and local economies, the study draws on evidence from states and cities that have raised their minimum wages above the Federal level.

Among the findings of the report are:

• Kansas has the lowest minimum wage in the nation. The Kansas law has no effect on workers covered by the federal law, but covers certain employees exempt from the federal law. These include childcare workers, companions to the elderly or infirm, and employees of private firms grossing less than $500,000/year and not engaged in interstate commerce.
• A total of 17,000 Kansas workers received less than the $5.15 minimum wage in 2006. Researchers note that this figure will have risen as a result of the recent Federal minimum wage increase. There are an unknown number of workers not covered by federal law who received between $5.15 and $5.85 an hour.
• A minimum wage increase would have no substantial long-term effects on output, employment or profits. Short-run adjustments in prices, made by businesses reliant on low-wage workers, are likely to be much too small to have significant impacts on the overall price levels, and will not cause an ongoing inflationary spiral. The long-term benefits of greater consumer purchasing power, higher sales tax revenue, less turnover and absenteeism, a more productive workforce and a higher overall cash flow in the local economy are likely to compensate for a modest wage increase among the lowest paid workers in the Kansas economy.

More http://www.ksworkbeat.org/Issues/2007-55/2007-55.html

Download the report http://www.raisethewagekansas.org/wichita/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/report-12-3-07-kan.pdf