Page 7 - ATD10August2015

U.S. NEWS A7
Push for higher minimum wage ignites enforcement debate
DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — As a
campaign to raise the
minimum wage as high as
$15 has achieved victories
in such places as Seattle,
Los Angeles and New York,
it has bumped up against
a harsh reality: Plenty of
scofflaw businesses don’t
pay the legal minimum
now and probably won’t
pay the new, higher wages
either.
Some economists, labor
activists and regulators pre-
dict that without stronger
enforcement, the number
of workers getting cheat-
ed out of a legal wage is
bound to increase in plac-
es where wages rise.
Estimates on the size of
the problem vary, but the
Bureau of Labor Statistics
said that in 2014, roughly
1.7 million U.S. workers —
two thirds of whom were
women — were illegally
paid less than the federal
minimum of $7.25 per hour.
Other studies put the num-
ber higher. A report by the
Department of Labor in
December estimated that
in New York and California
alone, there are 560,000
violations of the law every
week, representing $33 mil-
lion in lost income.
Those figures represent
workers like Celina Alvarez,
who came to the U.S. from
Michoacan, Mexico, four
years ago and took a se-
ries of poorly paying jobs as
a cook after settling in New
York City.
At the first two restaurants,
Alvarez worked 12 hours
per day, six days a week for
a flat weekly wage of $350.
That comes out to about
$4.86 per hour. There were
no tips and no overtime
pay. Some weeks, Alvarez
said, she and other women
in the restaurant didn’t get
paid at all. Managers didn’t
care if they quit. They’d just
Monday 10 August 2015
Celina Alvarez, 51, works at Jugueria de regreso al Eden, her vision. “It is very important to sas City, Missouri, are both
shop in the Queens borough of New York. pass those minimum wage raising the rate to $13. Al-
increases ... Then, how do buquerque, New Mexico,
(AP Photo/Tina Fineberg) we make sure workers re- and, Portland, Maine, are
ally receive them?” both raising rates to just
hire someone else. state and local wage Twenty nine states now under $11. Most of these
have a minimum wage raises are being phased
“We were dispensable to laws, for the most part. higher than the federal in gradually over several
rate, but anti-poverty ac- years.
them,” she said. That means that cities and tivists have been cam- Those measures have been
The U.S. Labor Department states that hike their mini- paigning hard for munici- strenuously opposed by
investigates those types of mum wage above the fed- pal lawmakers to bypass many corporations and
violations and is already eral rate of $7.25 are on both Congress and their entrepreneurs, who say
state legislatures and set that many businesses with
doing a brisk business in their own. wages much higher. thin profit margins will be
Seattle, Los Angeles, and forced out of business or
enforcement cases. During That’s causing some con- San Francisco and its Bay fire workers to stay afloat.
the last federal fiscal year, cern that, without a robust Area brethren, Oakland Tia Koonse, a researcher
it said it recovered $270 enforcement mechanism, and Berkeley, have all be- at the UCLA Labor Center,
million in back wages for many workers could wind gun phasing in a minimum said there is no question
wage that will hit $15 per that some employers doing
270,000 workers. up being left behind. hour within the next few things legally now might be
years. Labor groups in Cali- tempted to start breaking
But the agency’s roughly “A lot of states are facing fornia are trying to get a rules.
1,000 investigators, who that challenge now,” said measure on the ballot in- “If there is not a credible
police 7.3 million busi- David Weil, administrator creasing the rate to $15 threat of a compliance
statewide. check, then what hap-
nesses employing 135 mil- of the U.S. Labor Depart- A regulatory board in New pens?” she said.
York took the unorthodox Some municipalities that
lion workers, don’t enforce ment’s Wage and Hour Di- step last month of hiking have raised wages have
the minimum to $15 for fast talked about following the
food workers. example of San Francisco,
Other, less expensive cities which created its own la-
have been shooting slightly bor standards enforce-
lower. Chicago and Kan- ment division.q
Facing rising dental costs, seniors head to Mexico
ASTRID GALVAN not insured, according to Mexican dentists who savings of up to $62,000. He
Associated Press a study compiled by Oral speak English and some- was told the extensive den-
LOS ALGODONES, Mexico Health America. A major times accept U.S. insur- tal work he needed — his
(AP) — Mark Bolzern trav- reason is because den- ance offer rock-bottom teeth needed to be raised
eled 3,700 miles to go to tal care is not covered prices for everything from a and he needed a crown on
the dentist. The 56-year-old by Medicare and many cleaning to implants. Den- every molar — would cost
Anchorage, Alaska, native employers no longer of- tists in Los Algodones say a $65,000 at a private dentist.
left home this spring, made fer post-retirement health large portion of their clients He looked for lower rates,
a pit stop in Las Vegas to benefits. What’s more, the are seniors. finding a dental school
pick up a friend, and kept Affordable Care Act al- In the desert outpost near where the work was less
heading south, all the way lows enrollees to get den- the border of California expensive because it was
to Los Algodones, Mexico, tal coverage only if they and Arizona, men in white performed by students. But
a small border town teem- purchase general health shirts stand outside of of- it still cost $35,000.
ing with dental offices. coverage first, which many fices with signs advertis- He paid $3,000 in Mexico
About 60 percent of Ameri- seniors don’t need. At the ing root canals and teeth and has been back several
cans have dental insur- same time, seniors often re- cleanings. Other signs ad- times. The cost of dental
ance coverage, the high- quire the most costly dental vertise prescription drugs care has surged in the last
est it has been in decades. work, like crowns, implants like muscle relaxers at low two decades and contin-
But even so, the nation’s and false teeth. rates — no prescription ues to increase at a rate of
older population has been As a result, many are seek- needed. 5 percent annually.
largely left behind. Nearly ing cheaper care in places For Bolzern, seeing a dentist
70 percent of seniors are like Los Algodones, where in Los Algodones meant a Continued on Page 27