This commentary is by James Dwinell, whose Dwinell Political Report was Vermont’s leading political newsletter in the early 2000s. He is former executive director of the Vermont Republican State Committee and has been a guest on CNN, C-SPAN, CNBC, BBC and many other TV news shows.
’Tis the Christmas season, and the film “It’s a Wonderful LIfe” is a holiday favorite. But is it a wonderful life for those earning minimum wage, just $7.25 an hour?
The minimum wage was last raised in 2007, Congressman Peter Welch’s first term, the longest fallow period since 1938. What is the buying power of that $7.25 today? $5.17, which is the effective minimum wage. How do people live on that?
Over 30 states have passed legislation to raise their minimum wage. Here in Vermont, the minimum wage will be raised on the first of the year to $13.18.
Where are the states which still have the minimum wage set at $7.25? Scattered but for the former states of the Confederacy; in each of those, the minimum wage remains at $7.25. Each has an African American population near 26%.
To me, this is an embarrassment, frankly, I am ashamed that we allow this. Do Black Lives Matter, or is it just a slogan?
In 2019, the U.S. House passed a minimum wage increase, raising it to $15 over seven years. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he would not “take it up.” Today, he is no longer leader, and the Democrats control the Senate, House and White House for a few more days. President Biden asked Congress in his State of the Union address earlier this year to raise the minimum wage in this 117th Congress.
There is a minimum wage bill in Congress, introduced on Jan. 28, 2021, by Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va., languishing today in the Education and Labor Committee. With the power of our two senators with record seniority and our congressman being the chief deputy whip, Congress should be able before Christmas to give millions of Americans a well-deserved and long-expected raise. George Bailey would be pleased.
As most of us know, Vermont is the whitest state in the Union. Currently, 1.9% of us are African American. In the former Confederate states, 26% of the population is African American.
For federal financial aid, Vermont is head and shoulders above the South. Vermont is No. 2 in Covid aid, 58% greater than the South, according to the Peterson Foundation. In dollars returned in excess of what each state sent to Washington per capita, Vermont is seventh, receiving 29% more funds than the South, according to the Rockefeller Foundation.
In “dependency” on those federal funds, Vermont is fifth, ranking 83% greater than the South, according to Money Geek. Yet, our per capita income is 18% greater than the South, according to the Fed.
A remedy to level the scales would be hard. How many of us want to send millions to these states to help Black Lives? Probably only a few. But three thoughts.
- We could adopt sister cities or sister nongovernmental agencies to support.
- Perhaps our retiring senior senator, Patrick Leahy, and Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch could lend their magical expertise in returning federal funds to Vermont to the congressional delegations from the former states of the Confederacy.
- But in the final analysis, only Congress could develop an equitable formula.
Posting Black Lives Matter signs or flags is a good virtue signal, but does not substantially aid Black lives. Raising the minimum wage and leveling out federal state funding in a more equitable manner would.
