DownWithTyranny!: Who Said "It's Wrong That Millions Of People Are Going Out To Work Unable To Afford To Bring Up Their Families?"

Maybe you saw Emily Jane Fox's CNN story over the weekend on what it takes to raise a family on three minimum wage jobs. The story takes place in Chicago:

Between the two jobs, Jackson is working about 70 hours a week. He makes $8.75 an hour at Chick-fil-A and $10.22 at Walgreens, where he's been working for three years. He's also studying to get his bachelor's degree in criminal justice and psychology so that one day he only has to work one job, one shift.

His children's mom works at Walgreens, too, making $10 an hour. The kids are in daycare all day, which costs them $150 each month, until she gets off work at 6:30.

One job helps him cover the cost of school, and the other helps him pay the bills. Already, he owes his college $7,000. On top of the daycare fees, he's paying $575 each month for rent, as well as transportation costs to-and-from work and hundreds of dollars for groceries.

What's left over isn't enough to cover the cost of health insurance. When Walgreens said this week it would stop offering insurance directly to its workers in 2014, he shrugged it off as something else he couldn't afford.

Between his two jobs, Jackson makes about $50,000 a year. The bottom line is he couldn't get by with just one. Even if he worked full time at Walgreen Co., making what he makes now, he would bring in less than $21,000 a year. The Census Bureau's poverty income threshold level is $23,000 for a family of four.

This is why workers like Jackson have been walking off work and protesting for a "living wage" for the last ten months. Jackson himself has participated in a few of the demonstrations in Chicago.

"You have to hope and pray for a raise," he said. "I want a job that gives me good hours, good money and lets me come home at night so I can take care of all of my responsibilities with my family."

Until then, Jackson said he has no choice but to keep working these hours. He says it's just something that he has to do.

The video above, by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich makes the case for raising the minimum wage very clearly and succinctly. But when the Democrats controlled the White House, the House and, briefly, the Senate, did they raise the minimum wage to the point where someone could call it a living wage? Not that I recall. And now that they know it's impossible to do because of an obstructionist Republican Congress-- and with the midterm election campaigns kicking off-- they're making a loud ruckus. If they wanted to do more than just create a campaign issue and deceive working families, they would crack the whip on Democrats who voted with the Republicans the last time a minimum wage vote came up March 15. The motion was defeated 233-184. Every single Republican voted against it, of course, always ready to show their hatred and disdain for working families on behalf of their wealthy patrons. But, despite the fuss Democrats were making in July over the issue, 6 Blue Dogs and New Dems, crossed the aisle with impunity and voted with Boehner and Cantor-- John Barrow (Blue Dog/New Dem-GA), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog/New Dem-NC), Bill Owens (New Dem-NY), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN) and Kurt Shrader (Blue Dog/New Dem-OR).

I don't expect much out of this Congress and it's hard to realistically imagine the 114th Congress being in a position to do anything about the minimum wage, even if everything within reach works out for the Democrats. With so many Blue Dogs and New Dems in the caucus-- and with Steve Israel furiously recruiting more and sabotaging progressives who want to raise the minimum wage-- the Democrats won't get this together until long after Israel has been banished from the DCCC. At least California is raising the minimum wage here to $9/hour next year and to $10/hour in 2016. That will bring a family of three just above the federal poverty line. And over the weekend, Ed Miliband, the head of the British Labour Party-- and the man who saved the world from a war in Syria-- announced plans to increase the minimum wage for his country, part of his campaign promise that revolves around an "economy that works for working people."

"[W]e are fighting for all of the low-paid people around our country. One of the proudest achievements of the last Labour government was the national minimum wage, making work pay for people.

"But under David Cameron's government people are falling behind, the national minimum wage now paying people £20 less after inflation than it did when David Cameron came to office. That's just wrong.

"When we see that happening and when we think about one of the big banks, do we really think they can't afford to pay their cleaners a bit more?"

It was wrong that millions of people "are going out to work unable to afford to bring up their families," he said.

Miliband added: "The Labour government will put it right. We will strengthen the national minimum wage. We will make work pay for the workers of Britain.

"That's what I mean by a government that fights for you: abolishing the bedroom tax, strengthening the national minimum wage, childcare there for parents who need it. That's what I mean by tackling the cost of living crisis at this conference. That's what I mean by a government that fights for you."

Miliband has appointed Alan Buckle, the deputy chairman of accountants KPMG, to investigate how the role and powers of the Low Pay Commission could be extended to strengthen the minimum wage.

Buckle will consult employers and employee groups on ways to restore the value of the minimum wage so that it catches up with where it was in 2010. He will also look at which particular sectors can afford to pay more.

Labour said that if the national minimum wage had risen in line with the cost of living it would be 45p an hour higher than the current rate, which is due to rise next month from £6.19 to £6.31.

Buckle will investigate how to restore the value of the minimum wage, although that would not necessarily involve a 45p rise.

Milliband addressed a street rally from a small stage. He said: "Right across the country, from all walks of life, people are facing this cost of living crisis. There will be some people who say the interests of the low-paid and the squeezed middle are just different.

"Well they are wrong. Under David Cameron's government, he has been prime minister for 39 months and in 38 of those months prices have risen faster than wages. That is a record, by the way.

"Living standards falling month after month after month. Gas and electric bills, train fares, petrol prices, the weekly food shop and a prime minister who refuses to act. Why does he refuse to act? He refuses to act because of who he stands for-- he stands for just a privileged few at the top."