#capitalist class

the real reason Zohran won NYC

Capitalist class in 2020:

Yesterday, Democratic Mayor Catherine Pugh showed that she was, like the Baltimore Sun, on the same side as the Charm City capitalist class. Yvonne Wenger of the Sun reported today (”Pugh vetoes wage hike”) that Pugh vetoed the $15 an hour wage increase, by 2022, putting the measure in question and that Councilman Edward Reisinger, shown in the picture above, said that he would not support a veto override because of Pugh’s reasoning (it will cost the city $116 million over seven years her administration claims) and the city’s “outstanding fiscal challenges” such as a deficit of $20 million, budget shortfall of $130 million for city schools, and spending associated with the DOJ decree related to police brutality in the city. While there is no doubt that the city is facing such challenges, it seems that those are being solved to some extent, perhaps not by the correct means (”Deal may deliver funds to City Schools,” Baltimore Sun), but such challenges are no reason to throw the proletariat under the bus and set it on fire. Wenger goes on to say that Pugh was worried of the plight of employers from the city, making it “harder” for certain workers to get jobs, and said that she is fine with the state increase of the minimum wage to $10.10. Not only does such a wage still fall within the purview of a poverty wage for the proletariat, but the $10.10 marker is a way to weaken those pushing for $15 an hour, but holding up the Democrats as a paragon of virtue, and by extension the labor movement itself. The article does on to say that the Council may not have the votes to override the veto are in question, with Mary Pat Clarke, the sponsor of the legislation, angry that Pugh vetoed this, saying that this is shameful, a sentiment echoed by another councilman, John Bullock, of West Baltimore, and Ricarra Jones, the chair of the First for $15 Baltimore Coalition. Jones argued that Pugh betrayed her campaign commitment to raising the wage to $15.By contrast Donald Fry of the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), who is shown in the picture above, representing parts of the Charm City Capitalist Class, praised Pugh’s veto. Of course, there is much more than the Sun put forward.

For one, the Sun is not acknowledging that it holds relatively the same position as Mr. Fry of the GBC. In supporting Pugh’s veto, he claimed the wage increase would have “threatened jobs,” increased labor costs, wouldn’t have allowed the city to “remain competitive for growth and jobs” and said that the veto demonstrated “prudent fiscal management.” In a statement released after the bill passed the City Council, Fry reiterated the same ideas, echoing the Sun editorial I noted in my previous post, arguing that the “concerns expressed by the business community” and others were being ignored, claiming that the law would “place Baltimore at a serious competitive disadvantage” and would mean the payment of “millions of dollars in higher labor costs annually.” This is not one bit surprising even as the bill was “watered down” to pass the council. The increase in the wage would be gradual, staying at current levels until 2019, when the wage would increase to $11.25, then to $12.50 the following year, $13.75 the year after that, and finally $15.00 by 2022, where it would stay from then onward. Hence, while $15 an hour is roughly a living wage in Charm City (depending on the number of people working and family supported, living wages range from $12.81 to $39.85) the proposal is fundamentally a moderate one due to the gradual wage increase. This would give the Charm City Capitalist Class and petty bourgeoisie (who doesn’t have to comply with the provisions until 2026) in the city long enough to “adjust.” Even tipped employees are partially exempted with employers allowed to consider tips part of worker’s wages if they receive a “minimum cash wage” (if you subtract the wage amounts and the “tip credit” ($2.77) year by year) of $8.55 in 2019, $9.73 in 2020, $10.98 in 2021, and $12.23 in 2022. While this is harsh and cruel as tipped workers have less pay, lest us not forget that the law allows the minimum wage to increase beyond $15.00 based on a “cost of living as measured by the percentage increase” based on the Consumer Price Index or other indexes, with the amount determined by the wage commission. Still, this moderation of the law is, at minimum, troubling. That doesn’t mean that we can’t give it critical support but that we should push for a better, law without varied exemptions for tipped workers (probably to appease the restaurant industry), full-time students, employees with disabilities, employees under age 21, and those working at the Maryland Zoo, to name a few.