LIVING WAGE LAWS FOR SPOKANE

It is the duty of every employer to pay a living wage. This is deeper than a rule derived with cold mathematics from an incomplete economic model. It is an ethical appeal to our humanity.

Imagine this scenario: Sally, a single mother of two, is working in Spokane for a diversified company which happens to contract with the city to enforce the handicap zone parking ordinance. The company is induced to build a new office building in the city after being dealt some tax breaks and other incentives from the city. Now from what she reads in the paper, Sally learns that the reason for these subsidies is that her company contributes to the general welfare of the community by providing jobs. In other words, the city has somehow gotten into the business of buying jobs for citizens of the region. But Sally scratches her head because she is being paid the starvation wage of $8.12 an hour with no health benefits and can not see how being a poorly paid wage slave contributes to the city’s general welfare.

It is on behalf of people like Sally that a national living wage movement was launched. The momemtum began to build after Baltimore passed an ordinance in 1995. That law tied corporate incentives doled out by public bodies to what the corporations paid their employees. Specifically, the Baltimore City Council passed a bill requiring companies that have service contracts with the city of Baltimore to pay workers at least $6.10 an hour. Two earlier living wage laws had been passed in Des Moines, Iowa in 1988 and Gary, Indiana in 1991, but they were not followed up as vigorously as was the Baltimore ordinance..

As of now there are about 130 laws in place and 75 or so campaigns underway. And one of these campaigns has been chugging along for a number of years right here in Spokane. The Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane (PJALS) got the ball rolling in 1998 with a 3000 signature petition they presented to the Spokane City Council. That proposal was tabled - no surprise. In 2002 PJALS resurrected this activity and hired a coordinator, since succceeded by two others, the current coordinator being Wil Elders (contact him at livingwage@qwest.net if you want to help). All PJALS activities are under the general direction of Rusty and Nancy Nelson. Since the beginning of the PJALS effort, all staff members and volunteers have worked diligently to fashion a result. But it hasn't been easy and there still is no ordinance.

I have been an on and off observer of this local process since 2002. And under each of the earlier regimes I have seen considerable time spent in meetings where discussion centered on either of two paths. The first of these was to set a campaign strategy. The other path was to pound out details of the law itself, things such as who is to be coverered, the wage level, health benefits, and other very complicated details. But as time went on a chicken or egg situation developed. Some of those at the meetings would not move farther down one path without advances first being made down the other, and there were others who felt the same but reversing the paths. So there developed a certain ping pong effect, encouraging stalemate.

Also, in those early days great emphasis was placed on coalition building as part of a best strategy. But from what I saw, nearly all of the proposed coalition partners seemed very unpartner like. One example was John Powers, Spokane's first mayor under the so-called strong mayor system. A PJALS commitee, including me, visited, hat in hand and face-to-face, with one of his chief aides. The mayor had begun a movement to raise awareness of poverty in Spokane, trumpeting that this was the necessary first step to ameliorate said poverty. Well, at the meeting the commitee was told that Powers did not object to our campaign and would welcome PJALS as part of his coalition to work on this poverty awareness thing. But of course, he firmly believed it would be political suicide to publicly sponsor any kind of living wage law, due in large part to the attitude of his financial backers. See? Money talks.

There's much more significant history, with both advances and setbacks. But space dictates that we stop here and ask, what now are the prospects for a meaningful living wage ordinance in Spokane? The current mayor, Dennis Hession, has been approached on the issue. He says that neither the he nor a majority of the council will support it. Though I'm sure he or any other politician would like to add that, "We have an open mind, of course." This is not a good sign.. Then there is the option of trying to get an initiative on the ballot and passed despite the fact there is no visible mass support from those who would most benefit. I'll conclude with suggestions for an attack on these two seemingly dismal situations.

Let us look at the underlying philosophy of those opposing a living wage ordinance. I believe there are many of these folks, often politically influential, who are led by their philosophical inclinations to assert that there is no such thing as a right to a living wage, a position which clearly translates into no right to life. This is indeed a barbarous doctrine; and I agree with philospher John Burnheim when he surmises in a slightly different context that no one would embrace such a doctrine "were she or he not convinced that once one grants a right to life there follows all kinds of rights, that can only end in the worst kind of 'socialism' or state despotism." So if fears such as these could be assuaged, perhaps the mayor and the Council would come around.

It has been stated and I find it to be true that revolutions are always accomplished by a passionate minority toppling an indifferent majority. Well, we have just this opportunity in Spokane IF we can spur what I believe now is the minority who support a living wage law into an increased awareness and passion. Unfortunately, as it now stands I am afraid the passion lies on the side of the majority who already are involved in a successsful national revolution of their own in rolling back the New Deal. But in the immortal words of David Mamet as put in the mouth of Don Ameche, "Things change." We can hope.