Asheville Citizen-Times
| April 24, 2006
Section: News Edition: FINAL Page: 1A Kerra L. Bolton STAFF STORY |
| KBOLTON@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM RALEIGH -- One of the hottest issues scheduled for debate this summer in the General Assembly boils down to numbers. Can an estimated 101,000 North Carolina workers continue to get by on $5.15 an hour? Can businesses -- many already hurt by high energy costs -- afford to pay no less than $6 an hour? And the biggest question: Can advocates for increasing the state's minimum wage gather the 61 votes needed in the state House and other 26 required in the Senate when the General Assembly convenes in May? The minimum wage in North Carolina last changed in 1997, when Congress boosted the rate nationwide from $4.15 an hour. States can set higher rates. Eighteen have done so. North Carolina House lawmakers last year approved a proposal to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6 an hour, a boost that would aid about 3 percent of the state's work force. That bill is awaiting action in the Senate Finance Committee. Asheville restaurant owner Jimmy Pappas said he sees both sides of the issue -- from his standpoint and from those of his employees. "Nobody can make it on minimum wage," said Pappas, who pays more to attract better workers. "Take gas, for instance. It takes one hour of (minimum wage) work, to buy only two gallons of gas." At the same time, higher wages cut into profits. "You can't tell customers you're going to raise the prices," said Pappas, co-owner of Apollo Flame Bistro on Brevard Road. Some Western North Carolina agencies are forming a coalition and joining statewide efforts to increase the minimum wage. The Asheville-Buncombe Living Wage Campaign will formally announce its efforts May 10. The group also will encourage city and county governments to boost the salaries of their lowest-paid workers. Similar successful campaigns were waged in Durham city and county, Tennessee and northern Virginia. "If the state and federal government don't do anything about the wage issue and the drastic increase in the cost of living, we're going to have a real problem on our hands," said Melissa Fridlin, a co-founder of the new WNC living wage coalition. Fridlin also serves as regional coordinator for Working Families Win, a grass-roots organization. Barely making it Missy Tomberlin knows about being on the grass-roots of the state's living-wage debate. The 19-year-old Asheville resident has a baby due June 29. She's lived at the Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry women's shelter for a little over two months. There's a six- to eight-month waiting list to get Section 8 housing, and that's as a pregnant woman on the priority list. Tomberlin says she budgets for the basics, such as the cost of getting to and from work. It takes 75 minutes on the bus, including waiting for the transfer, to get from the shelter to the family-style chain restaurant where she works as a part-time hostess for $6 an hour. She works 20 to 25 hours a week. A bus pass with unlimited rides costs $30 a month. Without one, she pays $1.70 a day, or $68 a month just to get to work. "I'm working every day of the week," Tomberlin said. "I'm getting my GED and learning life skills. My dream is to have a healthy baby, work toward my goals and get my own place." Advocates say that it costs closer to $11 to $13 an hour to make ends meet. Full-time minimum wage work at $6 an hour equals a $12,120 gross annual salary. That is less than the 2006 federal poverty threshold for a two-person family, which is $13,200, according to the N.C. Justice Center, a nonprofit that advocates for the working poor. Bill Britt pays well better than the minimum wage at his second-generation, family-owned business. But he can offer insight on what small-business owners are facing. Overhead and gas prices are skyrocketing while profits are shrinking, said Britt, co-owner of Britt & Tilson Glass Co. in Asheville. The company used to supply paint and offer other items. But with Wal-Mart and Lowe's moving in, Britt specializes in installing commercial storefront and residential glass. He offers profit sharing and health insurance and pays three-quarters of the costs for hospitalization. Wages, benefits and higher gas prices all eat at his profits. Britt said increasing wages will inflate salaries for all workers. That would add to overhead costs that are already burdening employers. "Every cent and dime affects what we do or can't do," he said. Help or hurt Some opponents of increasing the minimum wage make that same argument. "Our research shows that North Carolina could lose 135,000 to 170,000 jobs with an increase in the minimum wage," said Gregg Thompson, executive director of the North Carolina chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses. "Small businesses, who are our members, have to absorb that increase in some capacity." N.C. Justice Center says its studies dispute that. According to the center, since 1979 economists found no increase in job loss due to minimum-wage increases. Nationally, after the 1996-97 federal increase from $4.15 to $5.15 an hour, the low-wage market performed better than it had in decades. "People get this," said Sorien Schmidt, the Center's legislative director. "Our work force is in crisis. There's a huge gap between the CEO and the poorest employees." Thompson says comparing increases for executives and employees is "mixing apples and oranges." "The CEOs and management are salaried people," Thompson said. "Salaried people and hourly-wage employees are two different arguments." Counting votes Ultimately, the numbers that will count most are the 61 votes needed in the 120-member House and 26 needed in the 50-member Senate -- votes that must come in an election year. State Treasurer Richard Moore, who is expected to make himself a candidate for governor in 2008, advocated for increasing the minimum wage earlier this year at a luncheon sponsored by N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry, the state chamber of commerce. "I think politics will come into play," Thompson said. "It's an issue which small businesses make up 98 percent of the jobs in N.C. and create 67 percent of all new jobs. If the legislature decides to increase the minimum wage we are hoping at the same time, they will look favorably to doing something to provide health care." A companion proposal to increasing the minimum wage could give tax credits to small businesses that provide health insurance to employees. It passed the House. African-American leaders such as Rev. William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, also will pressure lawmakers to pass the bill. "We don't have the luxury of giving up because we think it won't be passed," Barber said. "Our task is not be the thermostat to measure the temperature, but to be thermostats to change the temperature." Relief for workers would be burden for business owners JOHN FLETCHER/JFLETCHER@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM Leah Ball prepares to serve a pizza at Apollo Flame Bistro on Brevard Road in Asheville on Friday. Learn more about the minimum wage with our interactive quiz on CITIZEN-TIMES.com. WAGES AND TIPS Restaurants, barbershops, nail shops, limousine services have to pay employees minimum wage, according to state and federal law. But these businesses can set an hourly wage rate at $2.13 and must ensure that employees make enough in tips to bring them at least up to the minimum wage rate. State law says they have to make more than $20 a month in tips. |
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