Poverty is on the rise in Wisconsin, according to a new analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Applied Population Laboratory. In 2014, the most recent data in the study, the poverty rate in Wisconsin reached 13%, the highest since 1984. The rate increased 20% in just five years between 2010 and 2014.

More than 750,000 Wisconsinites are living in poverty today. Many of those people actually work, but they are still below the federal poverty level. Meanwhile, health care costs are going up, college costs are going up, and housing costs are going up. But wages are not.

In February 2011, Governor Walker implemented his “Budget Repair Bill,” Wisconsin Act 10, which revised the state’s public sector collective bargaining laws and triggered weeks of demonstrations and rallies by hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites. Upon passage, the bill curtailed the rights of thousands of public sector workers, cutting pay and benefits for more than four hundred thousand public employees. Collective bargaining is now near impossible, due to the decline of unions in Wisconsin. Because of this law, all unions can negotiate is base pay, and even that is limited: any raises they win cannot exceed inflation.

Act 10 bars public-sector unions from bargaining:

• Pension
• Health coverage
• Safety
• Hours
• Sick leave
• Vacations

The decline in union membership from 2014 to 2016 has also coincided with a rise in wage inequality in Wisconsin. Average wages increased by only 2.0% in Wisconsin from 2014 to 2016, significantly lower than 5.2% wage growth in the rest of the United States. The wage of the median worker only marginally increased by 0.5% in Wisconsin, from $18.20 to $18.30 in Wisconsin. 

Meanwhile, across the rest of the US, median wages increased by 4.3%. While middle-class workers in Wisconsin fell behind their counterparts in the rest of the nation, the top 1% in Wisconsin saw their hourly earnings rise by 11.5% from 2014 to 2016.

Accordingly, the ratio between the hourly earnings of the top 1 percent and those of the median worker has grown by 10.9% in Wisconsin. This rise in income inequality exceeded the comparable increase in the rest of the country (2.0%).

We need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The current minimum wage is a starvation wage. It forces hardworking Wisconsinites to depend on public assistance, and turns our tax dollars into profits for corporate America.

According to a 2014 report from Americans for Tax Fairness, American taxpayers spend at least $6.2 billion each year supporting Walmart employees, and therefore subsidize Walmart profits. Walmart claims it can't afford to pay its workers $15 h/r, but in 2015, its chief executive officer was paid more than $19.8 million ( that works out to more than $9,500 h/r for a 42 hr work week ), and it made nearly $15 billion in profits. If Walmart had paid all its workers at least $15 h/r in that same year, it would still have made a profit of over $10 billion. This phenomenon is called corporate welfare. The term is often used to describe a government's bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment for corporations.

Here's a few examples of corporate welfare in Wisconsin, specifically from the WEDC ( Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation ), a privatized agency created by Governor Scott Walker in 2011 to replace the Wisconsin Board of Commerce:

• In June 2015, it was reported that in July 2012 Kohl's received a 62.5 million dollar award to create 3,000 jobs in Wisconsin. Kohl's only created 473 jobs.
• in 2012, $18 million was awarded to Kestrel Aircraft which was expected to create 665 jobs, but only created 24.
• $15 million went to Plexus Corp. to create 350 jobs, but created none.

All of these awards are composed of taxpayers' money.

A common concern with rising minimum wage is inflation. The solution is indexation. Once we increase the wage and strengthened the 90%'s purchasing power, the minimum wage can be tied to the Consumer Price Index and become an indexed wage, so that no matter what the inflation rate is, Americans would still have the same amount of purchasing power.

Wisconsin wouldn't be the first state to implement a wage increase. Seattle is gradually increasing their minimum wage to $15, the current wage is $13. Seattle's inflation in 2016 was 2.5% — not very different from the 2.2% experienced by other urban consumers in the West, as indicated by the Consumer Price Index in Table 10. Even if all of the 2.5% inflation was due to the increase in minimum wage, it would mean a mere 2.5 cent increase for a cheeseburger. Do you think that would be worth having a fairer distribution of income?

For example, had the 1968 floor of $1.60 per hour been indexed to inflation, it would be $10.90 per hour today, more than 50% higher than the current minimum wage of $7.25.

In order to keep small businesses running, we should replicate Seattle's policy:

• Small employers (businesses with fewer than 500 employees) will reach a $15 an hour minimum wage in seven years. Also established is a temporary guaranteed minimum compensation responsibility of $15 an hour to be met within the first five years, which can be achieved by combining employer-paid health care contributions, consumer-paid tips, and employer-paid wages.
• Large employers (businesses with 500 or more employees, either in Seattle or nationally) will reach $15 per hour in three years. The wages of employees who receive health care benefits will reach $15 per hour in four years.

Small businesses would be threatened if the minimum wage was increased to $15 suddenly. A gradual increase would allow small businesses to adjust to the wage, and increase their income. Local businesses will be able to expand their payroll, and hire more employees, decreasing our unemployed working force. This is needed as soon as possible - the number of unemployed Wisconsinites has been gradually increasing, quicker than you think.

In May 2017, the number of unemployed Wisconsinites was 96,437. In August 2017, the number rose to 106,270 - a 10.3% increase over 4 months.

It seems like the obvious solution to a low wage is to go to school and get a degree or learn a trade. However, the average working American can't pay for college out of pocket, and many are forced to take out loans. Unlike other types of personal debt that have been decreasing in recent years, student debt has been steadily increasing. In all, 44 million people --- current students, graduates, and those who left college before graduating --- now owe more than $1.45 trillion in student loans. 

This is more than five times the amount of student debt in 2014, and more than all credit card and auto loans debt in the United States combined. And an increasing number of those 44 million people will carry on their student debt throughout their entire lives. Many Wisconsinites can't afford an education.

We are a state in the richest country of the world. This is unacceptable.

Join us by signing this petition and calling on our Senators and Representatives to pass this important legislation now.