A group of tripartisan lawmakers is pushing for an “economic bill of rights,” a set of proposals that would, they say, address the income inequality gap between wealthy and poor Vermonters.
The legislative proposals include a hike in the state’s minimum wage to $12.50 to $15 per hour, a requirement that employers provide workers with earned sick time and family leave, a rental housing registry, and a “just cause” provision that would eliminate the state’s “at-will” employment law, which allows employers to lay off workers without cause.
Rep. Chris Pearson, P-Burlington, told reporters that more Vermonters are seeing depressed or declining wages. “The reality is too painful for too many Vermonters,” he said.
“Some people may say our economic bill of rights is unrealistic, but I know you never get what you don’t ask for,” Pearson said.
In prior years Pearson and his colleagues have proposed changes to the tax structure that would increase the amount wealthy Vermonters pay in taxes. Those proposals haven’t gone anywhere because they have been adamantly opposed by Gov. Peter Shumlin and the leadership in the House and Senate, and so this time, the loose-knit group of about a dozen lawmakers is focusing on higher wages and workers rights.
The same chart Pearson has used year after year to show the disparity in incomes between the rich and poor, however, came in handy for this presentation as well. He pointed to a Tax Department graph that shows while Vermonters who have incomes of $500,000-plus have seen annual percentage increases of 18 percent to 19 percent, households with $25,000 or less have seen percentage decreases.
Pearson described the state’s income disparity as “pretty stark.”
It raises several pivotal questions, he said. “With poverty on the rise can the Legislature afford not to address this problem; I think clearly the answer is no,” Pearson said. “Second, when we talk about minimum wage … could any of us live on $8.73 an hour with zero benefits? Should the state keep subsidizing low wage employers? Ultimately, people at the bottom of the chart get food assistance, heat assistance and health care assistance.”
The answer, Pearson said, is raising minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Rep. John Moran, D-Wardsboro, said two myths complicate the discussion about raising the minimum wage. Employers like to say workers don’t have the skills to move up to better paying jobs, but he says many workers in Vermont who are overqualified are working for low wages. Businesses also often counter minimum wage increase proposals with the argument that it means they’ll have to lay off staff or even go out of business. Moran says higher wages actually benefit everyone in the economy.
People who make $8.73, the current minimum wage, make about $14,000 a year including the Earned Income Tax Credit, according to Rep. Paul Poirier, I-Barre, and that’s not enough to pay for rent, child care, food and transportation.
Poirier would like to see the minimum wage go up to $12.50.
“It’s time we realized that trickle down has never worked, it never gets past the layer of people at the top,” Poirier said. “It’s time to push up wages from the bottom. We know we’ll hear from the business community that companies will leave the state, but it’s not true.”
