Today, I met with a group of men and women who work out at the airport. They clean the planes, serve as wheelchair attendants – do many of the jobs that we often take for granted.
But despite their hard work and long hours, many of them still fall below the poverty line. One worker, Milka, is a mother of three. She has worked full-time for the last six years cleaning planes, and said every day is a struggle just to put food on the table. She told me she constantly worries about giving her kids a chance at a better life.
That is because Milka is one of the thousands of minimum wage workers across the Commonwealth.
I believe the time to act is now. The Legislature should make raising the minimum wage their first order of business when they return in January.
The minimum wage in Massachusetts has stagnated while the costs of living for working families have skyrocketed. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center found that the real value of the minimum wage today is 25% below what it was in 1968. To put it more starkly, Massachusetts’s full-time minimum wage workers are making $5,000 less today than they would have in 1968.
Massachusetts has been through a difficult economy, and we are poised to take off. The decisions we make now will determine whether every child and every family is given a fair opportunity to succeed.
Passing an increase to the minimum wage is a critical first step to ensuring that our economic recovery is felt by all working families, not just those at the top.
The Senate voted to phase in a wage increase from $8 to $11 by 2016, and then index it to inflation. That was a good step. Now it’s time to finish the job.
Working families can’t afford to wait any longer.
Thank you,
Martha
If this passes and is signed, does it negate the effort to put a minimum wage question on the ballot, or will the ballot question trump, especially if more radical (which I don’t think it is)?
As I understand it, if something passes the legislature, the organizers of the ballot initiative can either take what passes, or gather another (smaller) set of signatures to make it show up on the ballot in the fall if they don’t like what passes.
would raise the MW to $10.50 by January 2016, whereas the Senate bill goes to $11. But the ballot question raises the MW for tipped workers by more than the Senate bill. The ballot question almost certainly would not go forward if the House matches the Senate bill’s MW provisions, even if the unemployment “reforms” are thrown in as well.
But let’s not forget that there’s a second ballot for earned sick time that hasn’t been moving in the legislature. Rep. Khan of Newton has been fighting for this bill for a long time (and Treasurer Steve Grossman is a strong supporter) but it hasn’t moved along yet.
I urge Attorney General Coakley (whose support for the minimum wage is much appreciated) to support that issue as well and everyone to vote for the earned sick time ballot question next fall if the legislature hasn’t acted.
So, Martha, what airline employs these workers? I assume that you are speaking to a non-union airline, because those jobs are represented by unions for most major carriers.
I agree that we should raise the minimum wage, but, Martha, please identify which airline is paying these people so poorly. It would be helpful for the unionized airlines if people were aware of this situation.
based *solely* on seeing, in passing, a television program about bad jobs or dirty jobs or whatever, and it focused on airplane cleaners. They’ve got to get in and out very quickly, lots of bending and reaching, etc. The job struck me as too rapid paced (and too likely to be injurious) to be a union job.
That’s a weak anecdote based on connecting dots, based on seeing part of a teevee program. It’s weak tea. Anybody got actual information?
Local SEIU 615 has been seeking to represent the workers out at Logan airport for several years now.
They note that a lot of the workers at Logan – including aircraft cleaners, baggage handlers, skycaps, wheelchair assistants, and ticket agents – are non-union and work for private sub-contractors. Not the airlines or Massport directly.
See here to read more about the campaign and the workforce:
http://www.seiu615.org/category/airport/
Good question. The workers actually work for large private companies that subcontract with airports across the country. They do not work for a particular airline.
I am just trying to learn more. Who does Milka work for?
n/t
Do you support paid sick leave legislation that is also a ballot referendum? Just wondering as many of the same workers you describe lose income when they can’t work or just work and get sicker because they can’t afford not to.
Thanks for posting. Hope you keep doing it.
Yes, I do support earned sick time for workers. In fact, many of the airport workers I met with raised the need for earned sick time so they could stay home to take care of a sick child, parent or themselves.