94 - Progressive Victory! Maryland Enacts First Living Wage Requirement For State Government Contracts

BLAST THE RIGHT

Jack Clark

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4.7 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2007

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Maryland has passed the first statewide living wage statute.Under the law, employers with state contracts will generally have to pay workers a minimum amount — $11.30 an hour in the Baltimore-Washington corridor and $8.50 an hour in the rural counties, where wages and prices are usually lower.Among those workers mostly likely to be lifted above the poverty line by this measure are those who work

Transcript

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0:00.0	Readings, this is podcast number 94 of Blast the Right.
0:23.9	I'm Jack Clark from TheRationRadical.com.
0:27.2	Today we're going to discuss a big progressive victory, a major step forward on the economic
0:37.0	justice front.
0:38.4	It's the enactment by Maryland of a statewide living wage requirement for government contracts.
0:44.8	The right is all in a tizzy and well they should be.
0:48.6	You won't believe the nonsense they're spouting.
0:51.6	Let's get right into it.
0:53.6	My sources are the Boston Herald, the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, acorn.org, the New
1:01.0	York Times, several papal and cyclicals and social justice teaching documents, jobs for
1:06.8	the future.org, and America Magazine.org.
1:12.0	One of the most shocking things I can remember in my political activities is the first time
1:17.4	someone said to me, it was actually in an email I believe, that they think it's okay
1:22.7	that someone working a full-time job that society needs done isn't paid enough to keep
1:28.7	them and their family out of poverty.
1:31.9	To me, to insist on the propriety of paying someone a sub-poverty wage would be a violation
1:38.2	of the most basic moral principle embedded in our social contract.
1:42.6	If you play by the rules, keep your nose clean and work hard, you and your family can at
1:48.0	least get by.
1:50.8	Before we get into that wonderful Maryland statute, a few bits of background information.
1:56.2	Did you know that, according to the most recent Bush administration figures, we have 37
2:01.9	million Americans living below the poverty line?
	...

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