(The following story by Joan Kent appeared on the La Crosse Tribune website on January 20. James Kinsman is Chairman of the BLET’s Wisconsin State Legislative Board.)
LA CROSSE, Wisc. — “It’s like a kick in the stomach when you tell someone to live within their means when they’re making about $10,000 a year,” James Kinsman said at a hearing on the minimum wage held by Rep. Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, at La Crosse City Hall on Wednesday.
That’s the annual salary for someone working at the current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, said Kinsman, member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. It’s hard to pay rent, transportation, food and health costs on that, he said, recalling that he recently talked with an employee in a fast-food restaurant who is working three jobs.
Shilling was among Democratic legislators who are holding 12 hearings throughout the state this week to raise the issue of a proposed minimum wage increase to $6.50, which they say is being held hostage by Republican legislative leaders.
People on minimum wage, many of whom are women supporting families alone, earn less than the per diem, which her legislator makes in addition to his salary, said Vicki Burke, member, La Crosse County Board.
The cost of everything else, including rent, gas, and food has gone up in the eight years that the state’s minimum wage has been frozen, proponents of an increase said, noting that legislators have increased their own salaries.
“The increases are beyond the ability (of people earning minimum wage) to absorb them,” said Western Wisconsin AFL-CIO president Terry Hicks. “That is why they are working three jobs.”
Teacher Phil Gredler said he sees the effects of low wages when parents must work more than one job and cannot spend much time with their children.
“Pockets of poverty” in La Crosse are a serious issue for the city, said Mayor John Medinger, lamenting that none of the 14 mayoral candidates attended the hearing. “There is an increasing gap between haves and have-nots in this country. People will only take this submission so long, so it threatens the social order.”
Small business owner John Ott spoke against an increase. “I have one full-time and one part-time employee,” he said, predicting he would need to lay off the part-time worker if the increase goes into effect.
It would be better if an increase were phased in, suggested Eve Zellmer, who said her two minimum wage employees are students learning the business.
The Wisconsin Restaurant Association supports the increase, said Dave Holtze, one of the owners of Forest Hills Public Golf Course, Restaurant and Banquet Facilities, and a member of the restaurant group board. But he said the increase needs to be uniform across the state. If La Crosse passes it, but neighboring communities do not, he said Forest Hills would be the only golf course in the area affected.
The state must lead on the issue, agreed La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce president Dick Granchalek, raising the issue of how nonprofit industries, such as Riverfront in La Crosse, would be affected.
“As a chamber, we have not firmly established a position on the specific proposal raised by the governor,” Granchalek said before Wednesday’s forum. “We have it on the agenda for our board meeting next week.”
In an interview, Granchalek said it is unfortunate the state minimum wage is “being turned into a political battleground right now. And the major political parties are posturing themselves to affect that wage.”
Granchalek said the chamber is especially concerned about Wisconsin cities setting their own minimum wage for their own communities, “therefore creating different islands of wage scales across the state.”
Tony Kavanaugh of Holmen said he opposed the increases, and believes the marketplace could fairly determine a minimum wage if all the laws setting an amount were eliminated.
The minimum wage makes it very difficult for college students, said University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student Dan Bahr. “Lots of these companies are not going to go out of business because of this,” he said. “And if it decreases their profit, I’m not going to cry a river for them.”
Dorothy Lenard, a candidate for La Crosse Common Council, agreed, saying many students must work two or three jobs while going to school. “I hate to see them get that worn out and tired,” she said. “It is getting harder for kids to get through school.”