Scott Walker Strips Wisconsin Workers Of 'Living Wage' In New State Budget

[riversedge]

Source: HuffingtonPost


Posted: 07/13/2015 10:02 pm EDT Updated: 07/13/2015 10:59 pm EDT


Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed the new state budget into law on Sunday with a last-minute change that strips the words "living wage" from state laws and replaces it with "minimum wage."

The change means minimum-wage Wisconsin workers will earn nearly $6,000 per year less than what the Massachusetts Institute of Technology calculates is a living wage in the state. And they will have no recourse, according to the Center for American Progress. MIT says a living wage would be $10.13 an hour.

The new law eliminates the ability of low-wage workers to appeal for a living wage. Previously, Wisconsin law stated that employee pay "shall be not less than a living wage," defined as "adequate to permit any employee to maintain herself or himself in minimum comfort, decency, physical and moral well-being." Wisconsin's living wage was tied to the state minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour.
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Walker, who announced his 2016 presidential campaign on Monday, also decided workers don't need weekends off. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the budget Walker signed "would allow factory and retail employees to work seven days without a day off, as long as they said in writing that they were doing so voluntarily." The old law required employers to give workers at least one day off for every seven days of work.


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/13/scott-walker-eliminates-living-wage_n_7789472.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

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Can you imagine a low wage worker saying no to an employer if asked if he/she would work tomorrow -on their usual day off?? They need the job and for the most part IMHO would fear being fired if say no. This sucks.


"The old law required employers to give workers at least one day off for every seven days of work."