While Friday's vote on the tax cut bill has dominated the news, MinnPost's Briana Bierschbach's article, Move to raise state’s minimum wage held up by debate over indexing, captured a snapshot of the public state of the negotiations.
Over the weekend, Bluestem has heard from multiple sources that a tentative conference committee agreement that includes a $9.50 minimum wage with future raises indexed to inflation is very close. All urge cautious optimism and remain off the record.
WESA, whining and the minimum wage
It's good that a deal is close, since the Alliance For A Better Minnesota called national attention to Andrea Kieffer's boneheaded remarks on bills with the Women's Economic Security Act (WESA). Via the Houston Chronicle, David McCumber, Washington Bureau chief for Hearst Newspapers, observed in GOP's stance on pay equity serves to widen gender gap:
. . . In Minnesota this month, Republican State Rep. Andrea Kieffercomplained that a package of bills to raise the minimum wage, introduce paid sick leave and address the pay gap make women "look like whiners."
Other than showing Republican women can say offensive things about women almost as effectively as Republican men, statements like these aren't helping the party's gender gap. In fact, they are keeping the "Republican war on women" meme alive and well. Pay equity could well be the "legitimate rape" of the 2014 midterm season. It will be two years in June since Senate Republicans blocked an important follow-up to the Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009 that would have barred retaliation against women who question their pay, and made it easier for women to sue for punitive damages if they had been discriminated against. . . .
McCumber isn't close enough to Minnesota to know that the minimum wage part of the larger WESA package isn't being stalled by the retiring Republican representative from Woodbury, but by Majority Leader Tom Bakk's Senate.
Shifting discourse in the press
We've moved Terri Bonoff from a "No" on indexing to a NA based on the following passage in Bierschbach's MinnPost article:
“I’m a supporter of minimum wage and I’m going to support what’s negotiated,” Sen. Terri Bonoff, DFL-Minnetonka, said. “I’m not commenting on [indexing] because there’s no benefit other than to know that I’m going to be a green vote. “
A source very close to the DFL Senate Caucus tells Bluestem that "I'm going to be a green vote" is trending within the group.
At Thug in Pastels, SEIU Local 26 President and DNC member Javier Morillo-Alicea writes in Minimum Wage & Movement Politics: On the Fight For Indexing:
There are encouraging signs. We know the grassroots mobilization has had an impact. We hear it from legislative aides exhausted from taking calls and answering emails. We hear it from legislators themselves, some of whom are thrilled and some of whom are annoyed and say things like “you’re only hurting yourselves” (pro tip: a sign you’re winning).
Check out the current status of the Whip Count. Have you heard from your state senator about where she or he stands on a $9.50 minimum wage and indexing it to inflation? Let us know for the MN Senate minimum wage constituent Whip Count.
Image: A popular meme.
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