AISD Prevailing Wages

(Community Matters) I opposed a citywide living wage while on the Liveable City board 10+ years ago. But, today I am in favor of one. Our federal minimum wage adjusted for inflation is below that in the late 1960’s and even detractors claim to support pushing responsibility and authority closer to the people, to the states and municipalities.

Hard for AISD to take this step of requiring the federal prevailing wage since we’re living in such tough times with education funding. But, we’ve got to pay people at the lower ends of the pay scales more. We’re completely out of wack incentivizing executives to lower wages so dramatically while rewarding them so disproportionately. Even from a nonaltruistic perspective, our country’s economic engine depends on a strong middle class. Yes, yes, yes, I know . . . 400 million new members of the middle class around the world. But, they don’t make up for 40mm Americans slipping into lower & poverty. We elect politicians to protect our citizens and promote their well-being.

I say all this knowing that our global economy is rapidly further commoditizing manual & cognitive routine jobs of middle-skills – see Labor Market Polarization.