Monthly Archives: February 2021

National

You’re paying to subsidize a sub-standard minimum wage

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The last time Congress increased the federal minimum wage was in 2007, reaching the current $7.25 an hour on September 20, 2009. The debate to raise the minimum has raged since the depths of the Great Recession to today. As of this writing, only seven states have no minimum wage laws or have a minimum wage below the federal standard.

The benchmark for a new federal minimum wage is $15.00 per hour, $31,176 per year. The annual pay rate assumes a 40 hour work week with some degree of paid sick time, paid holidays, and paid vacation. It also does not account for federal or state income taxes, FICA, or employee benefits contributions.

Twenty-nine states have already passed legislation supportive of a higher minimum wage across the political spectrum. Florida voters approved a $15 per hour minimum wage by 2026, with the first jump to $10 per hour in September 2021. Alaska, Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and West Virginia, red or purple states already have higher wage standards. Eighteen states have passed laws or Constitutional amendments that index state minimum wage based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or other cost indexes. In contrast, Oklahoma still has a law on the books that employers with fewer than ten employees can pay as little as $2 per hour if no federal minimum wage existed.

According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, no one can survive in any state making the federal minimum wage. It is not even close. In Mississippi, a childless individual would have to make $13.99 per hour to earn a “living wage.” For someone living in Jackson or Mobile, the number would be higher.

Corporate America has little incentive to support an increase in minimum wage due to WOTC

In 1996, the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 created the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC). The legislation provides tax credits for employers that hire marginalized people during their first year of employment. The credits are payroll and hours-based, ranging from 20% to 40% of the total salary in the first year of work. The full tax credit in some edge cases can be $10,000 per year. Tax credits provide a dollar-for-dollar deduction on taxes, which is different than a tax write off which provides a deduction on gross income.

An employer can receive the tax credit by hiring an individual in a wide range of categories. Ex-felons, anyone receiving aid through a state-approved plan or TANF, a qualified veteran, SNAP recipients, or the disabled collecting SSI are all eligible. The federal government also has created Designated Community Resident (DCR) zones, called Empowerment Zones, Enterprise Communities, or Renewal Communities. People living in these zones can be eligible.

Created to benefit small businesses, WOTC requires paperwork and accounting that is littered with legal landmines. Smaller business owners frequently avoid the red tape or aren’t even aware of the programs. Large employers, on the other hand, have entire teams and software to manage the process.

An employee only has to work 120 hours for an employer to get a tax credit equal to 20% of their salary, at federal minimum wage that comes out to $174. The average tenure of an employee working in retail or fast/casual dining? Six weeks. A staffing company supporting an employer such as Amazon at its fulfillment centers can stack these credits as employees churn through their doors. 

You are paying for welfare, but you’re not paying who you think you are

At the current federal minimum wage, a feedback loop of corporate welfare creates a system that enriches employers, mostly Fortune 1000 and large enterprises, in three different ways. The current tax code incentivizes employers to hold the line at $7.25 because the benefits go far beyond cheap labor.

Employers benefit first from the tax credits as mentioned above. A single person making $7.25 an hour will qualify for SNAP benefits in most cases. The reality is most people who collect food stamps are working poor. A United States Census report of SNAP recipients indicated 79% live in working households. For married couples, the rate jumped to 84%. Among those collecting SNAP benefits, over 16,000 active-duty soldiers.

Once you remove the working poor and their children, disabled Americans, and the elderly, less than five percent of people receiving food stamps are unemployed adults. In fiscal 2020, SNAP benefits cost  $89.6 billion. The average taxpayer contributed $31.26 annually to assist the employable out of work. However, another $594 per taxpayer went to corporate welfare, artificially propping up employer payrolls with SNAP benefits.

By keeping the minimum wage low, employers continue to have a large pool of WOTC eligible hires, perpetuating the tax credits. The American taxpayer indirectly supports employer payroll through supplemental nutrition aid and other programs. If you follow the money, the benefactor for these programs is not the working poor but the companies’ shareholders. For some of these companies, there is a third and more insidious incentive.

An employee on SNAP working at Dollar General, Walmart, Target, or other employers that accept EBT will likely use their benefits where they work. Those benefit dollars become gross sales for the employer.

To summarize, WOTC provides a tax credit to write off up to 40% of an employee’s payroll. SNAP benefits create a pool of employees to hire from, creating continued eligibility for WOTC. A federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour keeps employed Americans eligible for supplemental nutrition aid, providing $89.6 billion in additional gross sales to the grocery industry. 

What about the minimum wage creating inflation and eliminating jobs

It is undeniable that an increase in the federal minimum wage will cause an increase in the cost of services and goods. However, many examples exist of successful, profitable companies that provide quality products at market prices and pay competitive wages.

Costco announced on February 25 it will be raising its minimum pay to $16 per hour. Winco is the lowest-priced national grocery chain, and the average wage is $12 per hour. Target and Walmart have both made commitments to raise their minimum pay. 

The challenge for a small business isn’t the increase in wages. When the job market tightens again, smaller employers will be competing for workers wanting higher salaries. If they don’t match the market, they will face higher turnover, employee theft, and low morale, creating indirect costs. 

What about the impact of cost for a commodity like a Big Mac? According to Expatistan.com, a McDonald’s combo meal in Seattle, where McDonald’s’ minimum wage is $16 per hour, is around $9.00. In Jackson, Mississippi, where the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, a McDonald’s combo meal is about $7.00. There is no economic evidence to support the theory that an increase to the minimum wage results in a dollar-for-dollar increase in consumers’ goods and services.

For businesses, there are key costs that would decline with a minimum wage increase. Employee theft, both of money and product, decreases when better wages are paid. For example, Costco has almost no employee shrinkage.

Companies that have increased wages, such as Walmart, have seen a sharp decline in employee turnover. People who are paid and treated better at their jobs stay at those jobs. Even in roles where training is minimal, an employee won’t reach full productivity for three to six months. In an environment where employees are continually churning, recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, and lower productivity all cost the business more.

Some jobs will be eliminated with an increase in the minimum wage. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the United States would lose between 1.4 and 4.0 million jobs by 2029. However, the same report estimates the number of people living in poverty would decline by 1.3 million, even with the job losses. When we look at the last 30 years, most jobs eliminated disappeared due to technology, robotics, and mechanization, not due to wage costs. This has created additional challenges. A person from Generation X entering the job market could start at a company as a clerk or in data entry and work their way up through the ranks. These entry-level jobs white-collar jobs don’t exist anymore, forcing younger generations into service roles, apprenticeships, and other low-paying roles after completing their education.

What does history teach us

There is one example in US economics where the federal minimum grew 87.5% just 90 days after Congress approved the change. Harry Truman pushed for a boost as the United States was newly emerging from a deep post-World War II recession. Just as today, business leaders and economists predicted massive job losses and potential economic depression. In December 1949, when the increase kicked in, national unemployment was at 6.6%. Three years later, the unemployment rate was 2.7%.

Some argue that the post-1949 economic boom was created because Europe and large parts of Asia were devastated by World War II. The UN World Economic Report from 1951-52 doesn’t support that theory. On the contrary, the report shows robust global growth, with post-war France and Germany growing far faster than the United States. By 1961, total European GDP was far ahead of the US, even as the United States enjoyed the highest standard of living on the planet.

If history is a predictor for the future, American prosperity will benefit from an increase in the federal minimum wage. It will help move more people out of WOTC, decrease corporate welfare, and help more Americans be self-sufficient.

BIPOC, Local

Black Restaurant Week comes to Puget Sound

Running from February 19 through February 28, Black Restaurant Week is launching its inaugural campaign for the Northwest Region, highlighting Black-owned culinary businesses in our community.

A surge of societal upheaval was building in 2016 as American culture grasped for a suitable response to the highly publicized deaths of Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and so many others. Warren Luckett was working as a wholesale wine distributor in Houston, Texas, at the time, and his thoughts returned to the visceral realities of those deaths.

For Luckett, the family dinner table was the space he could explore his feelings and ideas about issues larger than himself, and he noticed growing angst among young Black millennials like him, wanting to have a conversation about the reality they saw around them. What better place to hold that conversation than a dinner table?

Pairing his love of food and his background in business, the dream of Black Restaurant Week was conceived—a solid seven days dedicated to celebrating the flavors of African-American, African, and Caribbean cuisine through a series of events and promotional campaigns intended to introduce Black culinary businesses and professionals to the community. Falayn Ferrell and Derek Robinson, then cochairs of PR and marketing for the Houston Area Urban League Young Professionals, responded to his request for help. In April of 2016, the trio launched the first Black Restaurant Week in Houston, providing a metaphorical table for the community to gather around. Since those local beginnings, Black Restaurant Week has grown with regular events across the country.

This is the first year that the event has been in the Pacific Northwest. Participating restaurants receive marketing and promotional support aimed at highlighting the diverse cuisine of these eateries. This support comes during a time when a University of California, Santa Cruz study revealed that Black-owned businesses are suffering on a disproportionate scale. Since the pandemic began, 41% of Black-owned businesses have closed, compared to 17% of white-owned businesses.

The organization recognizes that a week of marketing and promotions isn’t always enough to compete with larger, better-funded chains. They have introduced a series of events to support the restaurant beyond the specified week, with business panels, catering showcases, and food truck festivals. This year, they hosted virtual town hall discussions with access to video of those panels and a summary of tips and ideas from them. Further services include a plethora of operational and financial resources for running a culinary business in the modern market.

Results for the event have been impressive. In 2020, Black Restaurant Week supported 670 Black-owned culinary businesses and helped them to realize an average sales increase of 34%.

There are plenty of incentives for diners to “follow your fork” in support of community favorites. The event hosts special deals, prizes, and games like Black Restaurant Week Bingo, which rewards diners for multiple purchases. They have also opened participation beyond traditional dine-in restaurants and now include food trucks, sweets, and more.

Beyond the original mission, Black Restaurant Week is also promoting the campaign to support the Texas Emergency Restaurant Relief Fund to aid Black-owned and Latin-owned businesses affected by the winter storm.

Luckett’s original mission intended to support Black-owned culinary businesses and help establish an environment to have discussions about racial disparities. The event is designed to introduce local customers to a variety of culinary options, and organically provides a starting point for conversations about racial disparities in our community. Just as Black history doesn’t disappear on March 1, these restaurants continue to exist beyond the week of events and benefit from continued patronage, and can hopefully serve as that family dinner table—providing a space and foundation to discuss those larger issues.

For more information, you can visit BlackRestaurantWeeks.com.

BIPOC, National

New video of Rochester, New York PD pepper spraying Black child emerges

Video

From Malcontentment Happy Hour, February 22, 2021

Warning: This story contains video of police activity that some may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

Rochester, New York Police released another 86 minutes of video of the before, during, and after of a 9-year-old girl in crisis being pepper-sprayed. The disturbing video shows that the mother of the child did not call 911 about her having suicidal ideation or being in a mental health crisis. Instead, the mother is seen chatting with officers about her former significant other having a warrant for his arrest, and that he stole one of her cars.

The video goes on to show the child waits 19 minutes for treatment after being pepper-sprayed, and the EMTs request the cuffs are loosened for being too tight. An NPR report indicates the mother requested a social worker or mental health specialist to come to the call, and officers refused. Hospital officials also denied the child a mental health evaluation.

The mother is now suing the city while three officers are suspended, one without pay over the incident.

BIPOC, National

Merrick Garland: Nominee for U.S. Attorney General

During the Judicial Committee hearing yesterday, Merrick Garland told Senators that he was shocked by videos of Black Americans being killed, but also pointed out that the eye-opening coverage and resulting protests could serve as a catalyst for finding remedies.

Biden’s nomination for US attorney general weathered questions from the Judicial Committee on Monday, including pointed, leading, and barbed questions from some of the hyperpartisan members. Merrick Garland is currently the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit and was famously nominated by President Obama to the Supreme Court, although Senator Mitch McConnell refused to allow that nomination a vote in the Senate—blocking the nomination. He has also previously worked within the Department of Justice, including a role as deputy assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division. In that role, he oversaw the high-profile domestic terrorism cases including the Oklahoma City bombing, Ted Kaczynski, and the bombing at the Centennial Park during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) questioned Judge Garland on racial issues from several directions during the hearing. Throughout, Garland maintained a firm stance, stating that he believes “discrimination is morally wrong. Absolutely.” Cotton continually returned to questions about racial issues. “Are you aware President Biden has signed an executive order stating his administration will affirmatively advance racial equity,” Cotton asked. “Not racial equality, but racial equity?”

Garland’s reply: “Yes. And I read the opening of that executive order, which defines equity as the fair and impartial treatment of every person, without regard to their status, and including individuals who are in underserved communities where they were not afforded that before.”

Cotton appeared preoccupied with a Trump-era case against Yale University, alleging admissions discrimination against white and Asian American students, which was dropped earlier this month by the current Department of Justice. Garland replied by stating, several times, that the statistics Cotton repeated could not be interpreted without the context and facts of the case.

Ted Cruz (R-TX), possibly seeking to find a positive sound bite for conservative audiences criticizing his ill-timed Cancun vacation, asked Garland about keeping the Department of Justice, something that the nominee has prioritized since being nominated. Cruz used his time to raise debunked conspiracy theories related to Eric Holder and already disproven allegations of the Department of Justice being used for political purposes under the Obama administration. Cruz did set aside some time to praise previous attorney general, William Barr while ignoring the fact that under Barr’s direction the Department of Justice was found to be directly used by the previous administration as a weapon against political opponents and to insulate Donald Trump and his allies.

In an exchange that Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) likely didn’t expect, Garland responded to the question of defunding the police. “As you, no doubt know,” the nominee said, “President Biden has said he doesn’t support defunding the police, and neither do I.” The nominee went on to cite the horrors of the January 6 insurrection attempt and the attacks on officers during the violence as a reason to support law enforcement. More than 140 Capitol Police officers were injured during the assault on Congress that Hawley helped to incite.

“I do believe,” Garland continued, “that we do need to put resources into alternative ways of confronting some actors, particularly those who are mentally ill and those who are suicidal.”

Not all of the hearing was spent on partisan attacks, however, and some highlights did appear. Judge Garland:

  • Pledged to protect the Justice Department from political pressure
  • Vows the DOJ will pursue all leads in the investigation of the Capitol attack
  • Has reservations about the death penalty
  • Sees no reason to discontinue the Durham probe at this time
  • Highlights the mission of the Division of Civil Rights to protect the rights of the “most vulnerable members of our society.”

In an emotional moment during the hearing, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) asked the nominee to share a private conversation they had about his family history involving hate and discrimination. Garland, clearly emotional and fighting back tears, related a brief anecdote. “I come from a family where my grandparents fled anti-Semitism and persecution. The country took us in and protected us. I feel an obligation to pay the country back.”

Garland stated in his remarks prior to the hearing, that equity and fairness are important to him. He went on to say, “that mission remains urgent because we do not yet have equal justice. Communities of color and other minorities still face discrimination in housing, education, employment, and the criminal justice system; and bear the brunt of the harm caused by the pandemic, pollution, and climate change.”

BIPOC, Editorial, LGBTQIA, Local, National

Malcontentment Happy Hour: February 22, 2021

Video

Our live webcast from the Seattle Anarchist Jurisdiction

The show from February 22, 2021, featured David Obelcz and our co-host Jennifer Smith.

  • Most Tacoma Police Department officers will have body cams by end of the week
  • UW students suspended from attending in-person classes after a snowstorm kegger
  • Rochester, New York Police release 86 more minutes of video of 9-years-old girl pepper sprayed
  • Justice for Elijah McClain inches closer
  • Malcontented Minutes
    • Ohio bomb squad is called on Sprinkles the cat
    • Mashpee-Wampanoag First Nation will keep their tribal lands
    • Mariners president resigns after telling the awful truth about baseball
    • Lake Travis residents in Texas help each other in face of winter disaster
    • Catholic League leaders say Joe Biden’s LGBT obsession is hurting Christians
    • LGBTQ virtual spaces help keep college students connected to combat isolation and depression
    • U.S. shelters for migrant children near-maximum capacity as Biden Administration struggles with “kids in cages’
    • A mariachi band from Houston serenades Ted Cruz outside his home to bring a bit of Mexico vacation to him
    • Mancin Music on TikTok video absolutely shreds Kashmir by Led Zeppelin
    • Kayne West and Kim Kardashian are calling it quits
  • Chad Wheeler arrest video and audio released by Kent Police
  • Walking while Black incident in Plano, Texas
  • Insurrection Update
  • The tale of three vehicular assaults and three different forms of justice in the United States

BIPOC, Five Facts, National

Charges dropped against Plano, Texas Black man walking in street during snowstorm

Five Fast Facts

  • Rodney Reese, 18, was arrested on February 16 for walking in the road in Plano, Texas
  • Someone called 911 to report a Black man stumbling along in the middle of a snow-covered street wearing a short-sleeve shirt and they requested a welfare check
  • Reese repeatedly told officers he was fine and he was walking home from work, police continued to follow him for two-minutes despite denying any aid and then told him he would be detained
  • Officers accuse Reese of resisting arrest but elected not to charge him, and instead charged him with a misdemeanor, being a pedestrian walking in the roadway and arrested him
  • The acting police chief had the charges dropped, saying officers had no cause to stop or detain Reese based on the reason for the call and his response.

PLANO, Texas — A misdemeanor charge has been dropped against a Black man who was arrested last week for walking home on a street during a snowstorm in Texas.

Rodney Reese, 18, was arrested Feb. 16 in Plano and charged with being a pedestrian in the roadway, news outlets reported.

Keep reading at ABC News

National

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale comes to the rescue of frozen Houston residents

Video

From Malcontentment Happy Hour, February 21, 2021

Five Fast Facts

  • Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale has turned his showrooms into shelters.
  • Anyone is welcome to use the beds and sofas in his showrooms, take in a movie or basketball game on his big-screen televisions and sit down to a hot meal
  • Food trucks are on-site to provide food and sanitary stations have also been provided.
  • Since Tuesday, about 350 people a night have taken him up on the offer at two of his three stores.
  • He and his employees made sure that everyone had masks and were safely distanced from each other, then McIngvale passed out blankets and sweatshirts

Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is known for his showmanship, even airing television commercials in which he’s actually wearing a mattress to draw attention to his stores. But McIngvale is becoming more famous for something else: turning his expansive showrooms into lifesaving shelters. He opened his Gallery Furniture stores to people who fled Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019. Now he’s doing it for those who have been hit hard by a deadly winter storm that has left more than 3 million Texans without power and running water in record-setting freezing temperatures.

Read more at the Washington Post

Editorial, National

Insurrection update for February 21, 2021

Video

From Malcontentment Happy Hour, February 18, 2021

A summary of events from February 15 to February 18, 2021

The fallout from the January 6, 2021, Insurrection continues

  • Former social media icon Donald Trump and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell are at war for the soul of the Republican Party
  • Six U.S. Capitol police officers are suspended with pay and another 29 under investigation for aiding insurrections on January 6
  • Leo Bozell IV, son of the founder of NewsBusters, was arrested for his participation in the insurrection
  • Johnathan Mellis aka Cowboy Screech is angry Antifa is getting credit for the insurrection and he wants the world to know it was Trump supporters who did it
  • Eric Munchel and his mother Lisa Eisenhart are refused bail
  • John Sullivan aka Jayden X is allowed to continue to use Facebook, Twitter, and encrypted communications software by a D.C. judge

Weather

Update: Stevens, White, & Snoqualmie Passes closing due to extreme avalanche danger, Pineapple Express arrives

UPDATE: Washington Department of Transportation added White Pass to the mandatory 6 PM closure.

[SEATTLE] – (MTN) Washington Department of Transportation announced they would be closing Stevens Pass, White Pass, and Snoqualmie Pass at 6 PM on Sunday due to an extreme risk of Avalanche. Our earlier cold snap and snow event created some of the deepest snowpacks in the country, but the looming Pineapple Express weather system will make the snow highly unstable. The three closures essential cuts the state in half.

Both mountain passes have had periodic closures today, and require chains for all vehicles except AWD/4WD. Stevens Pass has had 64 inches of snow in the last 7 days and 425 inches of snow so far this winter season, while Alpental at Snoqualmie has had 440 inches.

Operators of Stevens Pass ski area announced they were closing at 4 PM today. Operators at Snoqualmie Pass announced Alpental was closed, the sledding and tubing area would close at 3:30 PM, and the remainder of the ski area would close at 4 PM. Both ski areas appealed for people to stay “in bounds” due to the growing danger.

In the lowlands, the coming week will be warm, wet, and windy. In our local forecast area of Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville, residents should prepare for potential power outages tonight. Although the official forecast is calling for winds of 10 to 20 MPH and there is no advisory or warning, the weather model we trust is favorable for borderline Wind Advisory conditions early Monday morning. Temperatures on Monday will reach the mid-50s, 15 degrees warmer than a week earlier. Although lowland rain amounts won’t set any records, the lowland snow combined with the heavy rain that followed has left the ground saturated. The lowlands could see a growing risk of landslides as the week progresses.

Breaking News, National

Alternative Social Media Site Gab deletes Twitter account and site is down

1 Comment

[SEATTLE] – (MTN) Alternative social media platform Gab, a favorite of alt-right and extremist groups such as the Proud Boys, is down, and the Twitter account was deleted today. Gab, which uses Sammamish, Washington Epik Software as registrar, is hosted on Cloudflare. The website returns a 521 error, indicating a security configuration problem or the site has been taken offline. Twitter stated that they have not taken any action against Gab’s account.

Andrew Torba who founded Gab in 2016, claimed that the site picked up over 600,000 when Parler was de-platformed by AWS. As Parler struggled to find a new technology solution, Torba reached out to then Parler CEO John Matze through social media, offering advice for restarting Parler. Matze was fired from Parler on January 29, 2021, and says it was without cause or severance.

Gab has played prominently as one of the platforms used by insurrections to plan the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Users of the site posted videos and information about the Capitol, how to pry doors open, office locations, and videos of events inside the Capitol. After the failed coup, CEO Torba bragged Gab was adding 10,000 users per hour. The CEO also claimed they were working with law enforcement in their ongoing investigation of the attack but wouldn’t share any further details.

Gab, a microblogging site similar in concept to Twitter, became publicly available in May 2017. On October 27, 2018, neo-Nazi Robert Gregory Bowers killed 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His bio on Gab included statements such as, “Jews are the children of Satan,” and posted on his Gab account right before he attacked the temple, “Screw your optics, I’m going in.”

After the massacre, Gab suspended Bower’s account and cooperated with the FBI. The day after the shooting, PayPal, GoDaddy, with offices in Kirkland, and Medium terminated their business relationships with Gab. Gab’s host provider Joyent also ended its relationship, taking the site offline. On November 4, 2018, Epik Sofware agreed to be the registrar for the Gab domain.

Torba has been known to use these types of events to create publicity for himself and the social media platform. With the Twitter account deleted and the 521 error from Cloudflare, it appears there is more to this story than an attempt to make headlines.