The Women's Electronic
Communications and Action Network
Legislative Priorities
Colorado Women's Legislative Scorecard
|
 Colorado Overview
For generations, Colorado families have
set their sights on achieving financial security and a bright future for their children
through hard work and perseverance. For millions of those families, however, such simple
goals are unattainable. Even as Colorado maintains one of the highest per-capita earnings
in the country, thousands of full-time workers in our state remain deeply entrenched in
poverty. Women and people of color, who are disproportionately represented in low-paying
occupations, are by far the most frequent recipients of minimum and
low wages and, despite their hard work, find themselves left behind by the
state’s overall economic prosperity.
- Adults working full-time, year round at the federal minimum wage make barely over
$10,000 annually, more than $3000 below the legal poverty line for a family of three.
Various attempts to raise wages to alleviate the plight of the working
poor have been met with strong opposition by fiscal conservatives in Congress and the
state legislature. Among the proposed solutions are simple raises in the minimum wage
(currently set at $5.15/hour), a phased-in "livable wage"
based on a statewide decent standard of living, and a "poverty
wage" to enable full-time workers to reach the federal poverty level. State
policymakers in Colorado have rejected each of these suggestions.
- The minimum wage was typically raised every three years until the 1980s, when it
remained stagnant for nine years. If the minimum wage was worth today what it was in the
late 1960s, it would be about $7.38 an hour. (National Coalition for the Homeless,
"Livable Incomes Create Better Futures," 1998)
Minimum wage workers in the United States earn the lowest pay relative
to average earnings in the industrial world. Income disparity in the United States is
greater than in any other industrialized nation. However our state decides to address the
problem, the fact is that the current minimum wage is simply unfair, and the low wages
that thousands of Colorado families rely on are entirely inadequate for the basic
necessities of life. In order to achieve self-sufficiency and economic stability for women
and families, working Coloradans need government intervention to raise wages.
Who Works for Low Wages?
Nationally, twelve percent of women in year-round, full-time
jobs earned less than $12,500 in 1998. The figures for women of color are even
worse—16% of African American women and 24% of Latinas had such low earnings.
More than half -- 54% -- of Colorado’s one million working women are in generally
low-paying service, administrative/clerical support and sales jobs. Nationally, women are
57.5% of workers making minimum or near-minimum wages (between $5.15 and $6.14 an hour).
Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and John Schmitt, "The State of Working America
1996-97")
The Economic Policy Institute reports that 9.6% of Colorado women live in poverty.
According to the Coalition on Human Needs, 72% of minimum wage earners are over the age
of 20. ("Raising the Minimum Wage," 1999.)
The Coalition on Human Needs also reports that sixty percent of all minimum wage earners
are adult women, many of whom are struggling to support themselves and their children on
one income, and that thirty percent of all minimum wage earners are African-American or
Hispanic.
ACORN and the Center for Policy Alternatives report that nearly 40% of minimum wage
workers provided the sole source of income for their households in 1999.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership boosts women’s
earnings significantly. Women who belonged to labor unions in 1997 earned 40% more than
nonunion women for the same work. Union membership also narrows the pay gap: women who
belonged to unions earned 84 percent of what union men earned in 1997, while nonunion
women earned only 76% of what nonunion men earned. (BLS, "Employment and
Earnings," January 1998)
Poverty Wage
The "poverty wage" standard would set the federal minimum wage at the hourly
amount required for a full-time worker’s annual salary to reach the poverty line for
a family of three or four.
- In 1979 a single mother working full time at the minimum wage earned enough to lift a
family of three out of poverty (The Minimum Wage Increase: A Working Woman’s Issue
[EPI Issue Brief #133], by Jared Bernstein, Heidi Hartmann, and John Schmitt, September 16
1999). Today, the minimum wage pays almost 20% less than what is needed for the same
family just to reach the poverty line.
- A single mother of two, receiving government assistance in the form of food stamps and
child care aid, required at least $6.39 per hour to reach the 1999 federal poverty line of
$13,290 for a family of three. To reach the 1999 poverty level for a family of four, the
required wage rises to $8.19.
Livable Wage
The "livable wage" standard would require employers to provide a decent standard
of living for their employees. The National Priorities Project defines a "livable
wage" as approximately 33% lower than the average family income in the state.
Households earning the livable wage operate on a subsistence budget in which the average
family of four purchases inexpensive child care and transportation and has no extra money
to set aside for college education, home ownership, retirement, or vacation. (Grassroots
Factbook, 1998)
- In Colorado, where the cost of living is significantly higher than the national average,
the National Priorities Project estimated the 1999 livable wage for the state at
$32,865.66 for a family of four. (Grassroots Factbook, December 1998)
- The National Priorities Project also reports that 81% of the jobs with the most growth
in Colorado pay less than the livable wage. 51% of these jobs pay less than half of the
livable wage, and only 19% pay above a livable wage. (Grassroots Factbook, 1998)
Policy Recommendations
- Redefine the federal and state poverty levels using a "self-sufficiency
standard," incorporating the estimated regional cost of living to determine the
income level needed for a family to live at a subsistence level.
- Adjust the minimum wage to $6.50, the amount needed to pull a three-person family above
the poverty line. Automatically adjust this required "poverty wage" for
inflation and change in the poverty line.
- Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides tax relief to working poor families,
to become a permanent feature of Colorado’s tax laws and to apply to more low-income
working Coloradans. Increase public education efforts to alert low-income citizens that
they may be eligible for the EITC.
- Pass legislation to protect, not handicap, labor unions and union members. Union
membership reduces the pay gap and offers workers the opportunity to bargain with
employers for higher wages and greater job accessibility to women and minorities.
- Require any employer benefiting from tax dollars –in the form of tax rebates,
supplier contracts, cash grants, or the use of state-owned land—to pay its
lowest-paid employees at least a poverty wage. Provide additional incentives to businesses
paying their lowest-paid employee anything above a poverty wage, including providing
benefits.
Resources
Center for
Policy Alternatives - provides an overview of fair wage issues, existing and
recommended policies, and statistics.
State of Colorado
- has conducted an extensive report on the cost of living and economic status of several
major Colorado regions.
AFL-CIO
– National labor and trades union organization working on issues of economic security
and fair working conditions. Check out the Colorado division’s web site for
up-to-date information on the state legislature, wages, unions, and other work issues at www.coafl-cio.org.
Colorado
Department of Labor and Employment – Conducts research and reports on wage and
other economic factors of the state economy.
|
|
