It was disturbing to see that all but one of our local state lawmakers voted against a plan to increase the minimum wage in New York state. And then when the legislation passed anyway, Gov. George Pataki vetoed it.

Our legislators — Sen. Jim Seward and Assemblymen Bill Magee, Cliff Crouch, Daniel Hooker and Marc Butler — make more than $100,000 for half a year’s work. Yet, they did not support an increase in the $5.15 minimum wage for the hundreds if not thousands of their constituents who make slightly more than $10,000 a year.

All working men and women should remember those votes on Election Day, Nov. 2. The problem is that only Hooker has an opponent because most of the people in this region don’t have enough money to run for office and topple an incumbent.

Adjusted for inflation, the $5.15 federal minimum wage is at its lowest level since 1955, and at its lowest level compared to the average wage since 1949, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Congress has not increased the minimum wage since 1997.

Forty years ago when I got my first summer job, the minimum wage was $1.50 an hour. It is hard to believe that it has risen only to today’s level with the way the cost of living has gone up. Back then gasoline was about 25 cents a gallon; bread was about 25 cents a loaf. Think about it.

It’s not a wonder that a new U.S. Census Bureau report shows household median income unchanged from 2002 to 2003. Prices sure didn’t stay the same. And most unfortunately, the number of people living in poverty also increased during that period.

Don’t our lawmakers realize that low wages mean poverty? If poverty increases, that means people aren’t making enough money to get by.

The EPI also estimates that seven million people are earning between $5.15 and $7 an hour, and that 36 percent of them are primary earners in their households. New York has the 13th highest child poverty rate in the nation, up from 16th in 2002, according to a Children’s Defense Fund analysis of the new census data. Our child poverty rate grew from 18.7 percent in 2002 to 19.1 percent in 2003.

Increasing the minimum wage likely also would boost all the wages at the lower end of the scale. The result: fewer people living below the poverty line.

And I get tired of hearing the same ol’ reasons that many lawmakers and their supporters with chambers of commerce and business councils keep spouting to justify their positions.

The most popular one suggests that raising the minimum wage will mean fewer jobs because employers will not be able to afford to hire as many people. There are studies that support that argument, but other studies show that jobs are not lost because the kinds of businesses that employ low-wage earners don’t have any fat to trim. They hire because they need to hire.

The other big concern of business interests is that raising the wage would thwart economic development and the creation of new jobs in the state. It’s interesting that such a scenario hasn’t occurred in our neighboring states of Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, where the minimum wage is $6.75 an hour.

In many rural areas, such as ours, it seems just having enough workers also is a problem. Maybe the low wage is doing more to drive workers to other states than a higher wage would do to keep business away.

So, how long are our state lawmakers going to keep saying the minimum wage is a federal problem and not one to be addressed at the state level? Fourteen other states have decided differently.

The prospects in Washington are not good. In July, Sen. Edward Kennedy proposed a three-stage increase in the minimum wage to $7 by 2006 as an amendment to a class-action reform bill, but it failed when Senate leaders withdrew the underlying bill.

Sen. John Kerry favors a federal minimum wage increase and supports the Kennedy plan.

And our president? Bush "is willing to consider any reasonable proposal that phases in an increase over an extended period of time, provided it would not place unreasonable costs on small businesses or other job creators," says Tim Adams, policy director for Bush’s campaign.

Sounds like more double-speak to me.

We can’t wait for the feds to act. I urge our state legislators to take charge and override the governor’s veto of the measure to increase the minimum wage in New York before our poverty rate climbs any higher.

———

Cary Brunswick is managing editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at (607) 432-1000, ext. 217, or cary@thedailystar.com.