I recently attended the White House Summit on Working Families at the Shoreham Omni Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and Bill Clinton had all stayed at the Shoreham. With 1,000 people in attendance, it still felt as if it was nowhere near capacity. The excitement and energy level was palpable. The din was almost numbing as we waited in line and slowly worked our way to the security checks. The president of the United States was coming! But the “participants,” as the name badge around our necks stated, were perhaps more excited that Gloria Steinem, Nancy Pelosi, and Michelle Obama were also scheduled speakers. The original title of the conference, White House Economic Summit on Working Families — which is what attracted me — had now been converted to the White House Summit on Working Families…after all, this summit was about families.
Gloria Steinem, celebrated feminist, spoke to the importance of women in the workplace when she shared the European Union’s plan to legislatively ensure that every Board of Directors be comprised of 40% women by 2020. She pointed to studies that show that the presence of women in business settings introduces compromise and increased business productivity.
U.S. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (a hero of mine) continued to set the tone of the summit when she announced that “one in five children in America lives in poverty.”
Business leaders such as Sheila Marcelo, CEO of Care.com, informed us that in three states child care now costs more than state college tuition.
Speaker after speaker echoed themes that called for paid maternity leave, flexible work hours, wage equality, and comprehensive health and child care.
Congresswoman Pelosi declared, “The bottom line is, 21st century families deserve 21st century workplaces, and Congress should pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and increase opportunities for American workers.”
Vice President Joe Biden shared the major sacrifices of his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, who helped him raise children after his first wife was tragically killed in a car accident shortly after Biden’s election to the U.S. Senate. He spoke adamantly about the role of “family” in all of our lives and the need to make major changes designed to support the structure and enhance all of our families.
President Obama also spoke of the many sacrifices of his mother as a single parent. He let it be known that she did whatever she had to do to provide for her family, including accepting food stamps. He went on to talk about the importance of minimum wage workers. He spoke of his proposed increase in the current $7.25/hour minimum wage to $10.10/hour. He said that 28 million people would benefit from his proposed increase to the Federal Minimum Wage.
I learned that, following the general group session, the Breakout Session on Hourly Workers would be held in the Ambassador Room. I located the room and placed my prepared documents about the Universal Living Wage on each of the yet-to-be-filled 450 seats where participants would get their marching orders on the proposed $10.10/hour minimum wage. I returned to hear the last of the morning speakers before people moved to the breakout sessions.
Not one to leave anything to chance, I again left the morning session and checked on the documents that I had left just minutes before on the chairs. They were gone! I had previously befriended a media person who had been setting up equipment. He directed me to the person, Bill Flanagan, who had removed my documents. I confronted him, got his identification and my documents back. He said that they “had not been authorized by the White House.” He worked for the Center for American Progress Action Fund. I took my documents and returned later for the breakout session when I planted myself in front of the audience microphone.
When I finally reached the microphone, I shared with the people that in 2006, Beth Schulman, author of The Betrayal of Work, stated that “people are no longer using minimum wage jobs as stepping stones, but rather they are remaining in those jobs for ten years or longer and being forced to try and raise families on that wage.” I told the audience that:
$10.10 = “Old Thinking!”
We are a nation of over a thousand economies. One size does not fit all! If the goal in raising the Federal Minimum Wage is that we cross the Federal Poverty Guideline and escape poverty, but the raised amount is always less than the amount needed to reach that goal line, then how will we ever escape poverty? We won’t. “Something is better than nothing” is not true if we are forever economic slaves and if that approach also attacks small businesses. Business benefits from labor. They should pay “a fair wage for a fair day’s work” but not suffer for it.
Instead, we must index work to the local cost of housing, so that a person can afford the basics in life, wherever that work is done throughout the U.S. (without ending up living on our streets).
I then told them that I was embracing common sense and that today I had come with a solution that will fix the plight of minimum-wage workers/families across America!
Universal Living Wage
I explained that the Universal Living Wage uses existing government guidelines that ensure that if a person works 40 hours in a week (be it from one job or more), he or she would be able to afford basic food, clothing, shelter (including utilities), public transportation, and access to emergency rooms, wherever that work is done throughout the nation. This will end homelessness for over 1 million people, and prevent economic homelessness for all 20 million minimum-wage workers. It will stimulate the national housing economy, save billions in taxes, and stabilize small businesses across America.
Several speakers behind me then stepped to the microphone and asked, “Why are we were not demanding a Living Wage approach?” The sound of their questions faded in my ears as I stepped out into the hallway and proceeded to hand out information about the Universal Living Wage to the rest of the “participants.”
“You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.”
— John Morley, 1st Viscount of Blackburn
