{"id":5271,"date":"2006-04-17T21:33:16","date_gmt":"2006-04-18T01:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2006\/04\/17\/bainbridge-speeds-past-the-wo"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:53:59","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:53:59","slug":"bainbridge-speeds-past-the-working-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2006\/04\/17\/bainbridge-speeds-past-the-working-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"bainbridge speeds past the working poor"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a> Maybe it takes a cynic to see the irony.\u00a0 Our Prof. Yabut was bemused <\/span><\/div>\n
that\u00a0f\/k\/a’<\/em>s friendly weblogging foil, the\u00a0vociferously-conservative Catholic, <\/span><\/div>\n
Steven Bainbridge<\/a>, opined within the past week (“Holy Week”) both on the <\/span><\/div>\n
relationship between\u00a0the <\/span>miniumum wage and the working <\/span><\/a>poor<\/span><\/a> (basically, <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
none, he says)\u00a0and<\/em> on the\u00a0relationship between cars and one’s <\/span>religion\/<\/span><\/div>\n
spirituality\u00a0or politics (a\u00a0bit murky). Meanwhile, he also <\/span>confessed to AutoMuse<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/div>\n
his dual\u00a0lust for sinfully expensive cars and “driv[ing] fast on curvy roads <\/span>(like <\/span><\/div>\n
Malibu Canyon or Mulholland Drive)” [via Blawg Review #53<\/span><\/a><\/em>]. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\"tiny We don’t know if Steve’s Confessor is paying attention to his<\/span> socially irresponsible speeding habits, but you can be darn<\/span> sure a plaintiff’s p\/i lawyer will be doing so, should Prof. B. ever<\/span> be involved in a vehicular crash along Mulholland Drive, or any-<\/span> where else. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Tonight, we’re not going to psychoanalyze or sermonize over Steve’s fixation <\/span><\/div>\n

on Porshe 911’s and similar occasions of sin.\u00a0 But, we do want to focus on <\/span>his\u00a0April 11 post “<\/span>Drum on the Miniumum Wage<\/span><\/a>,” which\u00a0had as its immediate<\/span> provocation <\/span>Kevin Drum<\/span><\/a>‘s article\u00a0at Washington Monthly<\/em>, dated April 11, 2006). <\/span>Volokh Conspiracy<\/em>‘s Jim Lindgren<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> immediately endorsed Steve’s position.\u00a0 We <\/span> dissent on the facts. the law and the equities. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Prof. B. <\/span>has joked<\/span><\/a> that his ideas often provoke me (an acknowledged agnostic<\/span> and ex-Catholic) into asking just what Jesus might think\/do\/<\/span>drive<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 In his minimum<\/span> wage post, he cavalierly concludes — based on a 2002 The federal Bureau of Labor<\/span> Statistics <\/span>Report<\/span><\/a> — \u00a0that:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/a> “the minimum wage debate is not really a debate about how much<\/em><\/span><\/span> money the working poor <\/em>make<\/em>.\u00a0 Instead, it is mainly a debate about<\/span> how much working teenagers and twenty somethings<\/em> in their first job<\/span> ought to make.” (emphasis added)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The BLS Report states that “Minimum wage workers tend to be young. About <\/span><\/div>\n
half of workers earning $5.15 or less were under age 25, and slightly more than <\/span><\/div>\n
one-<\/span>fourth were age 16-19.”\u00a0\u00a0It also says that about 2% of workers over 25 earned <\/span><\/div>\n
the <\/span>minimum wage.\u00a0 This leads Prof. B to pontificate:<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
“Sympathy for the working poor thus ought not to be<\/em><\/span> a driver of minimum wage debates.”<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
And, it leads me<\/em> to wonder what Jesus’ Statisticia<\/em>n would do with the same <\/span><\/div>\n

numbers. <\/span>You see:<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"graphClimb\"<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
48% of the “young workers” Steve is talking about are 20 or older. <\/span><\/div>\n
The study he uses does not tell us how many of them are heads of <\/span><\/div>\n
household or have dependent children, nor if they are in their first <\/span><\/div>\n
jobs, as Steve suggests — nor whether they are trying to work while <\/span><\/div>\n
studying for a better-paying career.\u00a0\u00a0 The “teenagers” in the BLS <\/span><\/div>\n
study are 16 to 19, and they make up 28% of all of the hourly-wage <\/span><\/div>\n
workers who earn the fedeal minimum wage or less.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Steve doesn’t give actual numbers of human beings, but the BLS <\/span><\/div>\n
does. There were 2.2 million<\/em> hourly-wage Americans earning the <\/span><\/div>\n
federal minimum of $5.15 or less<\/em> in the 2002 report — with 1.6 million <\/span><\/div>\n
of them making less<\/em> than the minimum.\u00a0 605,000 Americans under <\/span><\/div>\n
age 20 were making the minimum or less. Over 1.5 million workers <\/span><\/div>\n
were over age 20.\u00a0 A million of those workers were over 25, and <\/span><\/div>\n
99,000 were over 65 years of age. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
More important, though, it seems that Prof. B’s Ivory Tower is so high (or <\/span><\/div>\n
he’s driving so fast),\u00a0he has failed to notice that:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"graphClimbN\"<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
(1) Being above the minimum wage is not exactly an automatic <\/span><\/div>\n
ticket out of the “working poor<\/em>” category.\u00a0 In the BLS Report <\/span><\/div>\n
“<\/span>Profile of the Working Poor<\/em>, 2003<\/span><\/span><\/a>” (March 2005),\u00a0we learn that <\/span><\/div>\n
7.4 million persons<\/em> were classified as “working poor”\u00a0in 2003 —<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
that means that they “spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force,” <\/span><\/div>\n
but still had “income below the official poverty threshold.”\u00a0 The <\/span><\/div>\n
working poor made up 5.3% of the American workforce. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
If age matters, you should know that more than seven million of <\/span><\/div>\n
the working poor were over 20 years old.\u00a0 If twenty-five is your <\/span><\/div>\n
magic number, then consider that 5.7 million of the working poor — <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
77% — <\/em>are <\/em>25 or older<\/em>.\u00a0 [Table 2]<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\"tiny If you were making the federal minimum wage in 2003, <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
and managed to work 40 hours per week for the full <\/span><\/div>\n
52 weeks (you probably didn’t get any paid vacation), <\/span><\/div>\n
your annual income was $10,712. <\/span>(by com<\/span>parison, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
the <\/span>average<\/span><\/a> annual salary for all covered <\/span><\/span>workers <\/span><\/div>\n
in 2002 was $36,764)\u00a0 [We have no figures on the <\/span><\/div>\n
average income of Porsche 911 drivers, but surely <\/span><\/div>\n
someone out there does.]<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"spiltWineF\"<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
According to BLS, “The actual poverty thresholds vary <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
in accordance with <\/span>the makeup of the family. In 2003, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
the average poverty <\/span>threshold for a family of four was <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
$18,810; . . . and for <\/span>an unrelated individual aged 65 or <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
older, it was $8,825.”<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
(2)\u00a0 Dan Glick of <\/span>Sick Transit<\/span><\/em><\/a> explains (and even I<\/em> figured out), <\/span><\/div>\n
that the “only 2%!” of the workforce argument misses that <\/span><\/div>\n
“most employers \u2013 even minimum-wage employers \u2013 give<\/span> <\/span><\/div>\n
periodic raises. A retail worker making $6 (or for that matter, <\/span><\/div>\n
$5.50 or even $5.16) an hour won\u2019t be counted in those statistics.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
“Raising the minimum wage, however, would still cause<\/span> an increase in those workers\u2019 wages. . . . [A]ny employer large enough to have formal pay grades would also have<\/span> to raise the next couple of pay grades above minimum to maintain a reasonable structure.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"spiltWine\"<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n
As Glick concludes, there really isn’t much room for the claim that the <\/span><\/div>\n
minimum wage is irrelevant to the welfare of the working poor.\u00a0 Prof. B’s <\/span><\/div>\n
approach gives Ivory Towers, and fast cars, a bad name.\u00a0\u00a0His massaging <\/span><\/div>\n
of the numbers to make a problem regarding the poor in America seem <\/span><\/div>\n
to disappear (or to be irrelevant\u00a0to our political process) also has me won-<\/span><\/div>\n
dering about things such as Catholic Legal Theory (at least in its conser-<\/span><\/div>\n
vative political or economic manifestation) and its relationship to Pope<\/span><\/div>\n
Benedict’s first Encyclical —\u00a0 “<\/span>Deus Caritas Est<\/span><\/em><\/a>” (“God Is Love”), dated <\/span><\/div>\n
Dec. 25, 2005.\u00a0 That is a topic for another, imminent day. <\/span><\/div>\n
\n
update<\/span><\/em><\/strong> (April 20, 2006): For our promised follow-up on Deus Caritas Est<\/span><\/em><\/a>,<\/span><\/span> see <\/span>Catholic Conservatives Ignore Benedict on Political “Caritas”<\/span><\/a> (April 19, 2006); for more on minimum wage, see our post poor steve bainbridge<\/span><\/a> (April<\/span> 20, 2006), where you’ll learn that Steve continues his focus on teens and the minimum wage, and keep removing Trackbacks from f\/k\/a<\/em> on these<\/span> topics. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n
potluck<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\n
Lawtigation?<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/span><\/a> If you haven’t read Will Wilson’s post\u00a0at AG Watch<\/em> on <\/span><\/div>\n
Lawtigation, you should click over there.\u00a0 Speaking of certain activity <\/span><\/div>\n
in Massachusetts, Will says: <\/span><\/div>\n
\n
“Good, good. If one can\u2019t <\/span>go back in time<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>make laws with foresight<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/div>\n
of future concerns, ex pending facto lawtigation is the next best option. <\/span><\/div>\n
Let the AG start suing and then work out laws that apply to the lawsuits. <\/span><\/div>\n
Can\u2019t miss. Best litigation strategy ever.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“THNLogoG”\u00a0 The first annual edition of <\/span>The Heron’s Nest<\/em> Journal<\/span><\/span><\/a> arrived at my <\/span><\/div>\n
frontdoor today.\u00a0 It has all of the haiku (about 500 of them) selected for the online <\/span><\/div>\n
version of <\/span>The Heron’s Nest<\/span><\/em><\/a> in 2005. (<\/span>at<\/span><\/a> $15, including postage, it is a great value)<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Flipping to the Index, I realized that virtually all of our Honored Guest poets are <\/span><\/div>\n
represented in the volume.\u00a0\u00a0 In particular, tonight, I want to point out that\u00a0there are <\/span><\/div>\n
six haiku by <\/span>Gary Hotham<\/span><\/a> in the volume.\u00a0 Here they are.\u00a0 You can find them, respec-<\/span><\/div>\n
tively at these links: : <\/span>4#3<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>5#6<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>9#8<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>1#4<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>2#2<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0and <\/span>4#1<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
\n
day at the zoo —
\nthe elephant\u2019s shadow
\nin a small place<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
warm night —
\na soda machine rejects
\nmy coin<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/div>\n
“THNLogoF”<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
yesterday\u2019s snow —
\nthe dog\u2019s path
\none way<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\nunder us —
\nwater that roared
\nin the waterfall<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

on every step
\ndead cicadas —
\na day\u2019s list of things to do<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n
\nthe dog takes a sniff —
\nsnow that didn’t go
\nwith the first warm day<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n
gary hotham<\/strong><\/span><\/a> from The Heron’s Nest<\/em> (Vol. VII, 2005) <\/span><\/div>\n
“Dog neg”<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe it takes a cynic to see the irony.\u00a0 Our Prof. Yabut was bemused that\u00a0f\/k\/a’s friendly weblogging foil, the\u00a0vociferously-conservative Catholic, Steven Bainbridge, opined within the past week (“Holy Week”) both on the relationship between\u00a0the miniumum wage and the working poor (basically, none, he says)\u00a0and on the\u00a0relationship between cars and one’s religion\/ spirituality\u00a0or politics (a\u00a0bit murky). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1n1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12684,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271\/revisions\/12684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}