Tag: minimum wage

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City Council Considers Minimum Wage Increase for PILOT Projects

A Memphis City Council committee discussed Tuesday raising the minimum pay for those working at companies incentivized to do business here.  

Councilmember Martavius Jones wants to raise the minimum hourly wage to $21 at businesses that receive pay in lieu of taxes (PILOT) incentives through the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) for Memphis and Shelby County.

“This is not that I’m against incentives,” Jones said. “I know we have to play the game. This is about what we incentivize and what dollar amount we incentivize.”

Currently, the minimum wage requirement for PILOT projects is $13 an hour, which Jones said is less than a livable wage. 

PILOT projects give temporary tax abatements in return for a commitment to contracting local minority- or women-owned businesses, creating jobs, and making other community investments. 

To date, EDGE has incentivized 128 PILOT projects. Recipients include large companies such as ServiceMaster and Amazon to local companies, such as Hollywood Feed and Superlo. 

Reid Dulberger, president and CEO of EDGE said while he would like to see wages increased, the resolution “has the realistic probability of hurting the people we say we want to help.”

Dulberger said EDGE must compete with neighboring communities that offer tax abatements. 

“It’s a competitive world,” Dulberger said. “We have wage requirements now that our competitors don’t have. We have a health insurance requirement now that our competitors don’t have.”

These additional thresholds are good public policy, Dulberger said.  But if the standards are set too high, good public policy becomes “ineffective,” he said. 

Councilmember Worth Morgan opposed the resolution, saying that Memphis does not have the leverage to require more without incentivizing more. 

“It’s pretty clear that if this resolution were to pass, we would potentially lose out rather than gain more,” Morgan said. 

Councilmember Patrice Robsinson said if businesses don’t want to come here, “then so be it.”

“We want them to make an investment in us and we have an opportunity to make an investment in them,” Robinson said. 

Robinson suggests having a sliding scale, offering greater incentives for companies that pay higher wages. 

“We have got to be intentional about working on poverty in our community,” Robinson said. “If we reduce poverty, we reduce crime, we increase educational rates.”

Though the base pay requirement is $13, Dulberger said for projects approved in the last five years the average wage is $58,000.

If EDGE was to increase the base pay today based on the 2020 Shelby County annual average wage, Dulberger said it would only raise it to $15. 

Councilmember Cheyene Johnson proposed amending the resolution to allow companies to pay $21 an hour if they first receive city council approval. 

“At least people can come in and explain why they can’t pay $21 an hour,” Johnson said. “They may have a reasonable explanation for it.”

Dulberger said requiring companies to come before the council would be a “significant hurdle,” possibly costing Memphis a number of projects. 

“They don’t want to come before any public body,” Dulberger said. “They want to know if they’re getting an incentive or if they’re not getting an incentive. They prefer it all be done confidentially.” 

The council will return to the discussion at their next meeting on Tuesday, September, 7.

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News News Blog

U of M to Raise Minimum Wage to $13 an Hour, Campus Workers Say It’s Not Enough

CREDIT: Maya Smith

Maya Smith

Students demand living wage for all campus workers at a fall protest.

University of Memphis president M. David Rudd announced Monday that the university has a plan to increase the minimum wage for campus employees to $13.

In an email sent to the university’s staff and faculty, Rudd laid out a two-part plan to increase the minimum wage of all regular hourly employees to $13 an hour by July.

“Since I started my tenure as present, our leadership team has made a firm commitment to raise the wages of our lowest-paid employees,” Rudd said in the email. “As I have mentioned on many occasions, we are doing so in a financially responsible and sustainable manner. We have an equally firm commitment to also keep the cost of education low for our students.”

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In 2018, the university increased minimum wage from $10.10 to $10.60 an hour, and then in 2019, those wages were increased again to $11.11.

Now, the plan is to increase the minimum wage to $12 in April and then to $13 by July 2020.

Rudd first promised a plan to raise the minimum wage of campus employees in July after Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris vetoed a Shelby County Commission decision to allocate $1 million for the U of M’s Michael Rose Natatorium because of the school’s failure to pay living wages to some employees.

The commission voted to override the veto, but the public debate prompted Rudd to publicly declare his commitment to a definitive plan to raise the campus minimum wage to $15 over the next two years.

Monday’s announcement is the first step the campus has seen toward that plan.

The Tennessee State Employees Association (TSEA) applauded Rudd’s Monday announcement: “TSEA appreciates President Rudd for keeping his commitment to increasing wages of University of Memphis’ Higher Education state employees.”

But members of the United Campus Workers (UCW) were surprised by Rudd’s announcement, said Jayanni Webster, West Tennessee organizer for UCW.

Webster said she spent the morning discussing Rudd’s plan with UCW members who have been pushing for $15 an hour since 2014.

These workers maintain that $13 isn’t sufficient and that their goal remains $15 an hour, she said. “We are not done with this issue, not one bit,” said Doris Brooks-Conley, a U of M custodial worker of 19 years said.

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Another campus custodian, Sharon Gale, who has worked at the U of M for five years, said she and co-workers have been asking for better pay “for a long time. It’s been really hard for me trying to keep up with bills and expenses. At the end of the day, we need the $15. Hopefully Dr. Rudd keeps his promise and we see it by the end of the year.”

UCW members are also concerned about whether or not these raises will affect employees receiving merit or cost-of-living raises this year.

Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer, the lone commissioner who voted to uphold Harris’ veto this summer, said the wage increase announced Monday is the “first step toward $15, which we hope to see not too far from this increase.” Sawyer adds that she is proud to have stood with Mayor Harris on this issue and that she will “continue to advocate until poverty wages are eliminated.”


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News News Blog

U of M President Says School Will Pay $15 Per Hour in Two Years

A week after the most recent conversation about living wages at the University of Memphis heated up, U of M president David Rudd sent a letter to faculty saying that his commitment to providing all employees with a living wage “remains firm.”

Last week Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris vetoed a Shelby County Commission decision to allocate $1 million for the U of M’s Michael Rose Natatorium because of the school’s failure to pay living wages to some employees.

Harris said then that he won’t support the funding until the university presents a plan to pay livable wages to all employees.

Rudd said that the mayor’s proposal raised “serious ethical concerns” and that the university will forgo the county’s funding offer for the project. Rudd also said last week that the university is in the process of implementing a plan to raise hourly wages to $15 an hour over the next two years.

“We have a definitive plan,” Rudd said. “We’ll be at $15/hour in two years. And in a sustainable manner.”

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In a Monday letter to the university’s faculty and staff, Rudd said over the past four years the university has implemented three “historic increases in our minimum wage from $9.20 to $10.10, $10.60 two years ago, and $11.11 this fiscal year.”

A living wage extends beyond hourly pay and also should account for employee benefits packages, Rudd said. When the new minimum wage of $11.11 goes into place this year, Rudd said, with benefits factored in, wages equal about $16.80 an hour.

University of Memphis President David M. Rudd

The university’s approach to increasing minimum wage is “thoughtful and methodical,” Rudd wrote, touting some of the school’s financial accomplishments, such as implementing four consecutive years of pay increases and keeping tuition the lowest of the state’s public institutions over the past five years.

“Over the past few years, I have repeatedly expressed my support for a living wage,” Rudd wrote. “We’re the only public university in the state with three significant increases in our hourly wage over the past four years. As I’ve also said before, we’re committed to doing it because it’s the right thing.”

Rudd said he believes the university will be able to pay a livable wage to all employees in two years, but in a “manner that is financially responsible and sustainable.”

He did not mention the amount of the proposed livable wage.

“We’ve made significant progress the past two years and I believe we can achieve our goal in two years,” Rudd said. “I will not, however, sacrifice financial discipline and the success of our university for political expediency.”

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What are other universities here paying?

As of July 1st, the lowest-paid employees at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center will earn $15 an hour, according to the university. This is the highest in the area. 

Southwest Tennessee Community College established a living wage plan in 2017 and raised every employee’s pay to at least $10.76 an hour. Since then, the minimum wage has increased to $12.24 an hour. The college said 31 employees currently earn this amount.

Christian Brothers University officials did not disclose its minimum hourly wage, but said the university is committed to a “just and living wage for employees” and that income equality is one of university president John Shannon’s top priorities during his first 100 days in his new role as president.


At Rhodes College, the minimum hourly wage is $12 an hour, but president of the college, Marjorie Hass, said last week in a letter to faculty and staff that the college is in the second year of a multi-year plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Time to Trickle Up

Despite decades of evidence that it doesn’t work, Republicans are still advocating for a trickle-down economy. You know their thinking: If we just get out of the way and let the magic job-creators do their sweet capitalism, unimpaired by all those government regulations and taxes, the money will flow down to the middle class like tips to Mitt Romney’s pool boy.

The latest manifestation came last week, when Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed a bill prohibiting cities across that state from establishing mandatory minimum wage and employee benefits, including vacation or sick leave days. Oklahoma City was trying to pass an ordinance raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. Nope. Not going to happen, said GOP legislators. They contended that efforts to increase the minimum wage could potentially harm local business communities. So much for small government.

Tennessee, of course, is ahead of the curve on this road to nowhere, having passed similar legislation last year. Meanwhile, the income inequality gap just keeps getting bigger and the middle-class keeps shrinking. According to a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office, raising the minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 to $10.10 would boost collective earnings by $31 billion for 33 million low-wage workers and lift an estimated 900,000 people out of poverty.

And what do you think those low-wage people will do with that extra $31 billion? They won’t be funneling it into off-shore investments. They won’t be stashing it in Swiss bank accounts or taking European vacations. They will spend it — on food, housing, appliances, maybe even a car. Many of them will move from subsistence living with government benefits to being able to enter the economy and inject it with fresh revenue. That means more money in circulation, money that will flow to businesses in need of customers. Call it “trickle up.”

A healthy, vibrant middle class has always been the cornerstone of the American economy. We’ve tried letting the rich get richer and waiting for it trickle down, and it hasn’t worked — except for the rich, who have indeed gotten much richer over the past three decades.

And here’s the thing, even $10.10 an hour isn’t a living wage. It’s $22,000 a year. But that’s better than $15,000 a year, your salary if you make $7.25 an hour. And no, most of those 33 million people earning minimum- or low-wage are not teenagers working at fast-food restaurants.

Now that the early presidential sweepstakes are heating up, the Republicans, even Romney, are making noises about fixing the income inequality problem. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell were on CBS’ 60 Minutes last weekend, saying they were all for improving the plight of the middle class — as long as we don’t, you know, actually raise the minimum wage. Or do anything other than continuing to sing the praises of a trickle-down economy.

The middle class is getting trickled-down on, all right. But it’s not with money.