America's war on the working class

From declining wages to job losses in the millions, American workers and their pay packets have been left behind and ignored for decades. Nearly a year under this new administration, their prospects unfortunately still remain the same, and it doesn’t look like their conditions will improve. For the last 30 years, ever since the beginning of the Neo-Liberal agenda, worker's wages have been stagnat whilst economic growth has continued.

This will be a brief damage report into how the American worker has fared so far under the Trump administration, and what bleak future awaits them over the next 3 years. It's time to reverse the changes made by Reagan, Bush and Clinton, and bring back wage growth.

Overtime pay

Last year the Obama administration tried to extend overtime pay to 4 million people by doubling the threshold by which they were eligible. The ‘overtime salary threshold’ is at currently $23,660, and if the reform was passed, would have been increased to $47,476. This means that any worker earning this or under is entitled to overtime pay at time-and-a-half whenever they work over 40 hours a week.

It was meant to go into practice last year December, until a federal court placed a temporary injunction on it, left in limbo by the newly formed Trump administration and ultimately quashed in court since the reform did not consider the type of work overtime workers were doing.

According to an article by HuffingtonPost, the justice department stated earlier this week it will appeal that decision, and may leave the door open for the labor department to make further amendments. Alex Acosta, the Labor Secretary, suggested during his confirmation hearing that the threshold should be increased to $33,000 if changes were implemented. Given the country’s struggling minimum wage problem (particularly in red states) and the astounding cost of wage theft, this is a welcome change (if it even goes through), but a meager one at that.

Minimum wage

There hasn’t been any movement on the paltry $7.25 minimum wage set in 2009 since its inception, and it doesn’t look like it will improve under a Trump regime. The man said himself it should just be left up to the states to decide, leaving it out of the federal governments hands. There are over 20 million people earning between $7.25-$10.10. While there has been some progress, states alone cannot solve the country’s minimum wage issue.

Since the fight for 15 started, California, New York and District of Columbia have approved raising their wages to 15 dollars over the next few years. Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon and Maine will also increase theirs between 12–14.25 over the next few years. This is good news, but there is also the major issue of minimum wage pre-emption bills. These block cities from setting and raising their own minimum wages. Governors can essentially let the bill pass without their signature. Now there are 32 state legislatures under full Republican control, they plan to push preemption bills where ever possible. There were even some shocking cases in states such as Iowa where the minimum wage was actually lowered earlier this year.

An excerpt by the New Republic highlights why the fight for a higher wage is now tougher under Republican rule:

“In Arizona, GOP lawmakers have approved bills that make it harder to pass citizen ballot initiatives, a democratic process enshrined in the state constitution for more than a century. And legislatures in 24 states have passed so-called “preemption bills” to block cities and counties from passing their own minimum-wage hikes. Many of the bills are the product of model legislation written by the Koch-backed American Legislative Exchange Council, which has made the fight against minimum-wage increases a top priority.”

Wage theft

In a move that not even the most die hard conservative can defend, Trump eliminates an Obama era piece of legislation that helped combat the hefty cost of wage theft in the United States. Wage theft occurs in situations when employers fail to pay overtime, withhold tips, or wrongly classify workers as being exempt from minimum wage regulations and can take shape in many other forms. The Obama era legislation penalized businesses that violated wage and safety laws by getting rid of their government contracts if they incurred too many offences. This rule was known as the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule.

This important piece of legislation forced businesses to disclose violations relating to health and safety, civil rights, minimum wage, overtime violations and more regulations in the past 3 years.

While raising the minimum wage has always been an important talking point, wage theft unfortunately receives little talk or discussion, and its effects cannot be understated.

The Economic Policy Institute earlier this year did a study of the 10 most populous states in the country that conducted in minimum wage violations. In many of their key findings, they state that 2.4 million workers were paid less than the minimum wage in their state and the total underpayment of their wages amounted to $8 billion annually. They conclude that that if these findings were representative for the rest of the country, we’re looking at minimum wage violations totaling to $15 billion or more. One study in 2014 even claimed this increased poverty rates in California ( by 22.9%) and New York ( by 40.6%), two highly populated states.

In an even further blow to wage theft, the labor department also wants to take down yet another Obama era piece of legislation that prevented restaurant managers from collecting (or pooling) tips or redistributing them throughout the workforce.

The only path forward

This disastrous agenda set by Trump’s new administration serves as not just a reminder of how workers are seen as nothing more than tools necessary used to win elections, but a prelude as to how dire their situation will get over the next few years. Stagnating wages, a shrinking middle class and the eradication of workers rights have spurred local activists and unions to fight on their own when the Federal government refuses to act, and as long as Republicans and centre-right Democrats continue to govern, that is the only war forward for America’s workers. The welfare state was built on the solidarity of movements, and now more than more ever, is the time for workers to join a movement and not just a party. Backing new, truly left wing candidates is the only path forward.