Daily Archives: February 12, 2021

President Biden is pushing to raise the minimum wage to $15. Here's how that would affect the economy. USA TODAY

Many making subminimum wage don't earn enough to qualify for unemployment. During the pandemic, 6 million restaurant workers were left behind. Some tell their stories below.

Introduction by Saru Jayaraman

Last month, members of Congress introduced a bill proposing a $15-an-hour minimum wage, a proposition President Joe Biden included in his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package.

Bidens initial decision (he has since said that the wage hike mightnot make it into the final package) demonstrates his understanding that the economy cannot recover after one of the most devastating pandemics in the nation's history unless millions of low-wage workers are able to recover.

Buried in the proposed legislation is a historic full phaseout of the subminimum wage for tipped workers. With the pandemic, this subminimum wage changed from being an issue primarily of racial, gender and economic injustice to one that is an even more drastic matter of survival.

Saru Jayaraman is the director of One Fair Wage.(Photo: Sekou Luke)

Tipped workers are being hit with new threats that make the already difficult task of eking out a living more precarious they have to enforce mask-wearing policies that anger the same customers they rely on for tips (adding to the decrease in earnings),and reports of harassment are up.

The subminimum wage for tipped workers, which exists in 43 states and at the federal level, is a legacy of slavery. Following emancipation, white restaurant owners sought to hire Black workers as bussers and servers without paying them, forcing them to live exclusively off tips. This was made law in 1938, when the United States enacted its first federal minimum wage lawyet continued to exempt restaurant workers, allowing them to be paid mostly in tips.

Today the federal subminimum wage is $2.13 an hour more than two-thirds less than the full minimum wage and hasnt gone up in a quarter of a century.

And while restaurant owners are supposed to make up the difference when tips fall short, the U.S. Department of Labor found that nearly84% of restaurants investigated have violated these rules.

Today, about 70% of tipped workers are women. In addition, tipped workers are nearly twice as likely to be poor.

According to a 2014 survey by theRestaurant Opportunities Centers United and Forward Together of 688 current and former restaurant workers, women in states that allow a subminimum wage report twice the rate of sexual harassment as women working in the seven states Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington that require the full minimum wage in addition to tips.

RELATED CONTENT: It's time to end subminimum wage for workers with disabilities, says Tom Ridge

Contrary to public disinformation campaigns, these seven states have higher restaurant industry sales, small business growth and job growth, and the same or higher rates of tipping as the 43 states with subminimum wages for tipped workers.

The survey also indicated that women who earn a subminimum wage are frequently forced to tolerate inappropriate customer behaviorto ensure they get good tips.

The pandemic exacerbated these issues. As of May, nearly 6 million restaurant workers had lost their jobs due to COVID-19. One Fair Wage, a national organization working to end the subminimum wage, and of which I am president, surveyed the 160,000 service workers who applied for the organization's emergency funds. Between March and May, 60% faced severe challenges accessing unemployment insurance because their wages were too low to qualify.

Those who returned to work were asked to do more for less working in restaurants that frequently had shorter hours and fewer customers for significantly less in tips.

Another survey on sexual harassment conducted by One Fair Wage, the UC Berkley Food Labor Research Center and the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment in December found that 41% of restaurant workers reported an increase in sexual harassment, and hundreds of women reported what were calling #MASKualHarassment the horrifying phenomenon of female servers being asked by male customers to take off their masks so the men can judge their looks and decide how much to tip.

With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting that adults have an increased risk of catching COVID-19 eating in restaurants, we rely on these workers to enforce social distancing and mask rules that are difficult to enforce on their current wage system.

Tipped restaurant workers are the only essential workers to not receive a minimum wage, and the only essential workers to be asked to remove their protective gear for a chance to earn their income.Restaurant workers, like those whose stories are featured below, are doing their best to help us survive this pandemic. And now, we need to help them.

Saru Jayaramanis the president ofOne Fair Wage, director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of several books on the restaurant industry, including "Forked, A New Standard for American Dining." She is also the former co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. Follow her on Twitter: @SaruJayaraman.

Chantel St. Laurent; Lewiston, Maine

I love working in restaurants, but had to take on a second job as a substance use counselor during this pandemic. It has been a lifesaver.

Working in the pandemic is scary. I have an 83-year-old grandmother I see weekly. I worry about risking her health. And what happens if theres an outbreak at the restaurant? A lot of us live week to week. If we had to go into a 14-day quarantine, I personally dont know how many of us would survive financially.

Tips are down. Way down. The restaurant has limited capacity and limited hours due to CDCguidelines causing our in-person business to decrease dramatically. Maybe people dont know how it works, but those tips are what I live on. Did you know most servers do not get a paycheck? I get a check, every two weeks, but the subminimum wage is so low that when you take out taxes, a lot of times the paycheck literally says, This Is Not A Check. Now that I am bartending, its a little better, like the time I worked 15 hours and got a $64 paycheck. I count on tips, not my paychecks.

Chantel St. Laurent(Photo: Handout)

I got into the restaurant industry when I was 19, but I have stayed in the industry to try to support my family and to be able to afford to go back to college. Restaurant work is really great in that way you can make money while still having a flexible schedule. I just graduated with my associates degree, and now Im working on my bachelors in social and behavioral sciences.

I work at a wonderful local restaurant. The people who own it, and all the people who work there, are like family. When the pandemic hit, the restaurant closed briefly and the owners got a Payment Protection Program loan. They used it to help every single employee and get as many of us as possible back to work doing to-go orders when we were able. That was really great. The owners also pooled tips and shared them among all of us, even employees who werent able to work because they suddenly had their kids at home or had health issues. Its a really caring environment.

But that doesnt mean its not hard.

In the middle of a pandemic, its really frustrating that were front-line workers but were getting paid less than everyone else risking their lives to help feed and take care of people in this crisis. I really love working in the restaurant industry. I love people, I love seeing them come in and have fun.

Im a lifelong Mainer, born and raised and now raising my own children as Mainers. And Im proud to be helping our state get through this crisis. I just wish our state would help me, by simply making sure Im paid the same, full minimum wage as everyone else on weeks where I make less than minimum wage. That doesnt seem like too much to ask. In fact, it seems like a simple step toward fairness thats way overdue.

Alyson Martinez-Diaz; Charles Town, West Virginia

I was working at a hotel restaurant, as the assistant front of house and bar manager, when the first shutdowns happened in March. The owners were just as unsure as everyone else of what was going to happen from then on out, but, thankfully, they assured us they would help us out in any way they possibly could. Everything felt uncertain, and they had to lay off nearly the entire staff. The owners offered to help guide every worker in applying for unemployment insurance. West Virginias system is notoriously broken.

I was one of five people who kept working five of us suddenly trying to keep a restaurant, hotel (which had been partially shut down) and an adventure business (which stopped taking customers) managed. We were lucky because we had a resort liquor license so we could sell booze to hotel guests staying on property and taking to-go orders. That kept us in business.

But I was overworked, taking on jobs as assistant kitchen manager, bartender, housekeeper, front-desk agent, manager and full-time advertising agent. I am forever grateful that the owners paid above-average wages. I made $11 an hour during the pandemic, with a few tips on top even though business was down. But the insane amount of work during that period took its toll in stress and strain, and I couldnt take it anymore. Plus my kids and family needed more of my time during all the chaos, including my husband getting laid off.

Alyson Martinez-Diaz with her husband Francisco Martinez-Diaz.(Photo: Handout)

So I found another job, as a server at an Irish pub, making the subminimum wage of $2.13 an hour. Tips were always unpredictable, but the pandemic really pulled the rug out. Nine restaurant employees got COVID-19. The owners shut everything down for two weeks. The state couldnt keep up to really even do contact tracing. During that time, the staff got no pay. None. Nothing. The owners said we should apply for unemployment, but I hadalready been fighting that system from my last job, and my slow-to-come benefits were drying up. I thought we should get paid under the FamilyandMedical Leave Act, but the owners said they were exempt. Making ends meet was hard enough before. My family and I barely made it through those two weeks.

I tried to find another job. I applied to nine other restaurants, but so many mom-and-pop businesses are closing. Things are getting really rundown. The entire county that I live in is financially suffering. Some people might not feel its worth it to go back to work for $2.13 an hour, especially when tips are so low and the risk is so high. But I was glad when those two weeks were over and I could go back to work.

And the risks are getting higher not just in terms of getting the coronavirus, but also in terms of desperation. We put up with poor treatment from customers in ways that we wouldn't before. There are so many examples I could give. Just the other day, I was bartending and overheard a group of men betting about when my left boob would fall out of my jacket. Then they tried to pretend they were just joking. One of them said to me, Take your mask off, honey. Lets see that gorgeous smile.

Thats something I get a lot of. These guys know we need their tips, and theyll imply if you do what they ask, they'll throw us more money. Its wrong and its sickening. Living on tips and a subminimum wage (and on top of that having fewer options because of COVID-19) means putting up with it.

I dont think our lawmakers in West Virginia or anywhere in the country would want anyone they love being treated this way risking their lives only to be harassed and paid like garbage. I want to say to our lawmakers: Please have a soul and help fix this. One day your own children could be walking in my shoes.

John Michael Alvarez; Denver

I was unemployed until two weeks agoafter I quit my job as a restaurant server last year. I got into an altercation with a customer who wasnt wearing a mask. I hadbeen risking my health, for almost no pay and lower and lower tips, exposing myself to a deadly virus, just to help people get a little joy in this moment. But a customer refused to put on a mask, then yelled at me for doing my job when I asked him to wear one. I lost my temper. And when my manager sided with the customer, I left.

I finally found a job advocating for restaurant industry workers, pushing Congress to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025.

John Michael Alvarez(Photo: Handout)

I feel like Ive been failed by the system in every way, even though I'm one of the lucky ones. I was able to collect unemployment during the three months I was out of work. A lot of restaurant workers who get their tips only in cash cant count those tips as wages for unemployment insurance. Lots of us are told we earn too little to even qualify for unemployment. The restaurant I worked at, our tips went on our paycheck. That ended up being a good thing in a moment like this. But still, the unemployment insurance system is at its breaking point. I havent gotten a check in over a month. Im living off of food banks now. Im a month behind on all of my bills. Im even using donated pet food. And I know Im not anywhere near the only person in this situation.

Working in restaurants for low wages and relying on fickle tips was hard even in the best of times. Maybe it makes sense in a few restaurants with big spenders, but in my restaurant we did tip pooling, so I didnt even take my tips home. They were divided up equally among all of us by the hours worked. Then, add in the pandemic, and tips were way down. We had to space the tables, which halved our capacity. So I was still working as many hours but taking home way less.

I dont think a lot of customers and a lot of policymakers realize how fortunate they are, and that the rest of us dont have a safety net of family or savings to catch us. Were on our own. We work hard to earn what little we have, and it can all be wiped away in a minute.

Regular folks are the people whose hard work, dedication and ambition make this country stronger. And we need to make sure our work is validated and compensated in a way that reflects the fact that we're essential. That should feel clearer now more than ever.

Haley Holland; Scottsdale, Arizona

I work as a hostess and server, and the amount of bullying that guests get away with is really unacceptable always, but especially now with being asked to wear masks. I try to be so gentle and nice about it, explaining the restaurant rules that if people are waiting inside and arent seated in the dining area, either they can wear a mask or they have to wait outside. We even have masks we offer them if they dont have their own. But I get the dirtiest looks, the rudest comments. Its abusive.

The other day, a woman came inside to pick up a to-go order. I asked her, very politely, if she could wear a mask. But she refused, because she said she had a health condition. Which is obviously completely her right, but I explained that in that case shed have to wait outside. When she made a fuss about it, my supervisor said the same thing. She knew that our policy was that customers didnt have to wear masks while eating in the dining room, so she went over to one of the dining tables and flopped herself down and just sat there, maskless, exuding hostility. Then when it came time to pay for her to-go order, she didnt tip. She didnt follow the rules rules meant to keep us and customers like her safe and Im the one who pays the price, in every sense. When she signed the bill, she literally threw it at me.

Haley Holland(Photo: Handout)

Two days later, she came back to complain about me. She said that I was rude and had embarrassed her. She lied and said that she hadbeen wearing a mask all along, but that I had made her feel like she had the plague. I was lucky. My manager apologized to her but I didnt get in trouble. But at another job, with a less supportive manager, theres no doubt I would have been penalized. On top of not getting paid, which is the biggest penalty of all.

I work is in a very affluent area. The tips can be really good. But the pandemic has not only subjected servers to routine harassment but also has ruined our tips. Ive worked in the restaurant industry my entire adult life and never, ever, had an employer make up the difference between the subminimum wage and the full minimum wage when tips fall short. I know thats what theyre supposed to do, but they never do.

Ive been very fortunate to work at some great local restaurants with managers who really seem to care about their workers. But lets be honest, at the end of the day, its always about the bottom line, and too many restaurant owners will do whatever they can to increase their profits. Restaurant workers are now public health workers, enforcing these lifesaving guidelines with customers, at the same time were forced to rely on those very customers to feed our families and pay our rent. Its just not fair, and it just doesnt work. And its restaurant workers like me who are paying the price.

Dominique Brown; Washington, D.C.

I worked for tipped wages in restaurants forabout seven years. I work as a concierge now. Its more relaxed, and I feel more respected.

I was born and raised in our nations capital, and after going to college in West Virginia, I came back to Washington, D.C., ready and excited to start working as an actress but realized I needed to make money. I started working in restaurants as a hostess and worked my way up to becoming a server and eventually trained as a bartender. Ive worked in some of the top restaurants in Washington. And I've also done some of the same work in New York City. I really love the industry. I love taking care of people. I love helping people come together through food. My love language is acts of service and communing over meals, meeting different people, talking about where we come from and sharing our stories I love that part of restaurant work.

But I dont like the instability and abuse. Ive had managers who expected us to do work off the clock and if we didnt, theyd take us off the schedule for the next week or move us to shifts with bad tips. I worked at one restaurant where there actually was a class action lawsuit for forcing us to do nontipped work on a tipped worker wage. In one case, I had to carry trays that were so heavy, I developed a cyst on my wrist. The manager didnt care. He just wanted me back at work. And when I returned to work against my doctors recommendations, after being pressured to do so by management, he had another manager write me up after I set a tray down while helping a guest. Restaurants can be a great environment to work when you have managers who care, but I feel like the subminimum wage gives some people permission to treat us like were subhuman.

Dominique Brown(Photo: Handout)

That goes for customers, too. Ive had customers who wanted to touch my hair. Ive had others, especially in Washingtonwhere a lot of businessmen come for conferences, who have been dismissive and disrespectful to Black and brown staff. This especially happened with a lot of white businessmen from the South. But were just supposed to laugh it off and take it so we can get our tips. Its a really problematic system.

It was bad enough putting up with all of this before the pandemic. But when the pandemic hit, it became clear how much the restaurant I was working at didnt care about any of us. They did some kind of GoFundMe for staff but didnt share the money with everyone. I didnt get a penny. And it turns out one of our co-workers died from COVID-19. I found out from a co-worker, not from management. Management didn't give what I thought was the proper amount of attention to staff after that happened. That's when it really hit me how little they valued our work and our lives. Plus, as much as I miss some of my regular customers, the ones I really made a connection with, I was tired of the customers who acted nasty and entitled, and didnt even have the decency to tip.

The restaurant I worked at in New York shut down in March, at the beginning of the pandemic. To add insult to injury, like so many other restaurant workers left jobless, I had trouble getting unemployment insurance and still havent received all the money Im due.

Now I work for a company that pays me a livable wage. I get benefits.

Id love to go back to working in restaurants someday, but things would need to change. My friends who are still working in restaurants are struggling more than ever to make ends meet. And it shouldnt be that way. These are hardworking professionals. Theyre worth more than that. Im worth more than that. And we need wage laws that respect our work and our worth.

Are you a tipped worker? What's your story? Tell us using letters@usatoday.com or #tellusatoday on Twitter.

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2021/02/09/these-tipped-workers-15-minimum-wage-matter-covid-survival/4373275001/

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For these tipped workers, $15 minimum wage is a matter of COVID-19 survival - USA TODAY

Many Hoosier voters dont know that Indianas minimum wage is really $2.13 per hour. That is what waiters and waitresses make at many restaurants in Indiana. That is how little I made as a waiter in 1996.

Tipped restaurant workers depend on tips. But when restaurants use the tipped workers to take and package orders for carry out or delivery, the servers make no tips. A waitress I know complained to me that her employer made her take and package 87 to-go orders in one shift. She made no tips. She was paid only $2.13 per hour. She could not live on that. So, she quit and went to a different restaurant to wait tables and get tips.

Indiana law outlaws slavery. But $2.13 per hour amounts to slave wages. It is time to help those who are being abused and mistreated by Indianas $2.13 per hour minimum wage. Tell the Legislature and the governor to GIVE THEM A RAISE.

Woodrow Wilcox, Dyer

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Letter: Give these workers raise | Letters To The Editor | kokomotribune.com - Kokomo Tribune

Eliminating the subminimum tipped wage would also eliminate a shameful relic of slavery. Tipping became prevalent in the United States after the Civil War, when restaurants and railway companies embraced the practice because it meant they didnt have to pay wages to recently freed slaves.

That past hangs heavily over many Black workers.

Lets face it, Wallace-Gobern told Inequality.org, 50 years after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war on poverty, Black people in the South still contend with economic hardships, persistent poverty, and the enduring legacy of slavery. We believe that in order for there to be justice for all workers, we must expand the capacity of Black workers, and for us that means that our work has to be concentrated in the South.

Currently based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Wallace-Gobern began her organizing work in Chicago as a student at Loyola University. Her work on a range of racial justice issues, from combatting racist stereotypes and attacks on Black students to fighting for Black professors to receive tenure, caught the eye of labor movement recruiters. When they offered her a job, she said she would only do it if she could organize Black people and Black women in particular.

Black workers are the canaries in the economic coalmine of our country, Wallace-Gobern told Inequality.org. When the canary died, that was a signal that the conditions were bad for the miners. Thats the role Black workers play. If you improve their working conditions, that will lift all workers.

She became the first executive director of National Black Worker Center Project three years ago, after stints with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (a predecessor of UNITE HERE), the AFL-CIOs Historical Black College Recruitment program, and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.

One Fair Wage rally for a $15 minimum wage for all U.S. workers, Feb. 8, 2021. Credit: Rebekah Entralgo.

Wallace-Goberns aim now is to strengthen the capacity of Black worker centers to win progressive policies like minimum wage increases, build up a cadre of Civil Rights 2.0 organizers, and advance a Southern strategy on racial justice and democratic freedoms.

The challenges are many. Particularly in the south, worker advocates are up against anti-union right to work laws and pre-emption restrictions that block cities from improving labor protections at the local level.

But Wallace-Gobern is optimistic about the future.

Young people are not turning their back on the legacy of the civil rights movement, but they are ready to lead if we step aside and give them space, she remarked. I welcome the opportunity for them to stand on our shoulders and take us to heights that I and my grandparents could never imagine.

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Ending the Subminimum Tipped Wage Is a Step Towards Building Black Worker Power - Inequality.org

Rigor and Honesty

To the Editor,

The minimum wage debate is one economists and social scientists have grappled with for decades. It is ongoing, and the labor economists who lead the research charge continue to draw conclusions often at odds with one another. What is aligned, are the intentions of those doing this important work seek truth to motivate social policy.

In the Beacon Hill Times recent editorial Minimum Wage Should be $15, I was disappointedthat none of the deep and pertinentquestions on the matter were mentioned!

Might doubling the minimumwage lead firms to respond by reducing their workforce? I for one was disappointedto see the Whole Foods on Cambridge Street, last week, reconfigure their small-item check-out lines to self-check-out.

Should the minimum wage be $15 everywhere? $15 goes a lot further in Mobile AL thanBrookline MA. Might we expect employment effects to be exacerbatedin low COL regions?

Could such a sudden and sharp broad-stroke increase in minimum wage lead to inflationary effects that reduce the real wealth gain from those affected under the policy in question? What second-order policies might we consider invoking to avoid mere nominal gains, and ensure the benefit results in actual increased buying power?

Instead, the editorial piece reads like ideological fodder for a left-of-center audience who seeks local consensus with their own priors. It needlessly provokes divisive Trump-isms (Make America Great Again) that serve only to center policy discourse more around political performance and gesturing, and less around the productive activity of careful reasoning via conversation.

This sentence I took the greatest exception to: it is below the dignity of anyone to work for wages that amount to not much better than slave labor. This is exceptionally dismissive of how tortuous and devastating chattel slavery was in the United States. There remains much to be done to give black Americans greater access to economic opportunity, something I am actively involved with in the Bostonareabut to liken living on minimum wage in America to enslavement!? That is beyond. There remain 40 million people enslaved globally, and I assure you they would give arm and leg to live on minimum wage incomes in the US. Moreover, low-income Americans are better off than even most of the non-enslaved global population. Please, lets have this conversation, but can we do so with rigor and honesty?

Leo Hsia

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Letter to the Editor - Beacon Hill Times

Attack my data, attack my analysis, but attack me? You dont know me, said Frank Gunter, professor of Economics, regarding responses to his video, titled Kitchen Table Talks 3.

Every quarter, Gunter writes a 700 to 900 word op-ed. Lehigh Universitys College of Business asked him to turn his most recent op-ed,Three Myths About Poverty, into a short video, prompting the third table talk of Gunters video series.

The video, which was posted on YouTube by Lehigh University College of Business on Jan. 29, has since been taken down from the schools channel due to significant backlash.

Lehighs media relations director Lori Friedman said the video was taken down to allow time for the concerns to be reviewed and to invite those in the Lehigh academic community to participate in the conversation.

As an academic institution, we welcome public discourse and discussion. We affirm the right of the faculty, as well as other members of the community, to express their viewpoints and engage in a respectful and open exchange of ideas, Friedman said.

Since the video was posted, both Gunters op-ed and his character have received hundreds of critical comments, most of which have been posted in comment sections on student-run Instagram accounts such as @dearpwi, @lehighstudentsforblm, and @dearlehigh.

In his op-ed and the video, Gunter attempted to debunk three myths concerning povertythat poverty is mostly a matter of race, poverty is a generational curse, and the poor have no agency.

The general belief is that if youre born into a poor family, God help you, there is nothing that can be done. But it turns out the reality is different, Gunter said in an interview with The Brown and White. What I was hoping the average reader would read and say is that cant be right, look into it, then discover that the facts are true and the analysis I provided is plausible. Maybe it would change their thinking about these important issues.

Gunters first conclusion of the video was that poverty is not mostly a product of race.

In 1940, it was estimated that 87 percent of black families lived in poverty. In 2019 most Blacks were not poor. Only 18.8 percent of Blacks were below the poverty line. In other words, four-fifths, over 80 percent of African Americans were not poor. Secondly, most poor were not Black in 2019, only 24 percent. The reality is most Blacks are not poor and most poor are not Black, Gunter said in the video.

Sara Boyd, 22, took issue with his conclusion.

Boyd said the data Gutner provided said most poor people are not Black and most Black people are not poor, but that this does not imply that poverty and race are unrelated.

Its lazy economics. Its incomplete research, Boyd said.

Lehigh Students for BLM, @lehighstudentsforBLM on Instagram, posted an infographic to contextualize Gunters claims.

The post laid out a more in depth statistical analysis of the US population by race in attempts to better debunk Gunters claims.

In response, Gunter said he stands by his statement that poverty is not mostly a matter of race.

Are (Black people) disproportionately represented? Absolutely, but what if we looked at the 2019 data and the numbers were reversed? What if we found that 80 percent of Blacks were below the poverty line and three-fourths of the poor in America were African American, Gunter asked. What would be the policy implication? If that was what the data found, I would say we have a severe racial problem in this country that is as bad as it was during Jim Crow in the 1930s and 1940s, but what conclusions can be made with the information we have, that 18.8 percent of Blacks are poor and 24 percent of the poor are Black? There is probably a racial element there, but race cant be the whole answer because the majority of the poor are white.

Gunters next conclusion of the video was that poverty is not a generational curse. To dispel this myth, Gunter explained a study that divided America into quintiles of income and explained trends in their quintile mobility.

Even in a period of time as short as three years, 31 percent of the persons who were in the lowest quintile are in a higher quintile now. Escaped from poverty. Over 10 years58 percent have escaped from poverty, Gunter said in the video. 84 percent of Americans have a higher income than their parentsthe myth is not true. Poverty is not a generational trap.

The @lehighstudentsforblm post said The rate of absolute mobility for people born in 1940 was 90 percent. For people born in 1984, this figure has dropped to 50 percent, indicating absolute mobility in America is not what it used to be.

In response, Gunter said he thinks that is true, however he believes the degree of remaining mobility is still substantial and has policy implications.

In the video, Gunter explained that even if someone is born impoverished, there are three steps one can take to nearly eliminate their chances of being impoverished as an adult: graduate from high school, work full time even if you are earning minimum wage, and do not get married until 21 while also not having children until you are married.

If you follow these three rules, according to the Brookings institute, you only have a 2 percent chance of being poor as an adult, Gunter said in the video.

Kate Luther, 22, is concerned with Gunters points about poverty being escapable and the three choices because she said it makes being poor sound like a simple choice.

Luther said Gunters points do not consider the obstacles one can face in life.

You never know, Luther said. Sometimes kids have to drop out of high school because something happened to their family and then they have to work to take care of them.

However, Gunter explained that he meant this to be motivational.

I think a lot of kids growing up in poor families might say Really, all I have to do is struggle through graduation, even though school stinks, and start working at a job, even though it starts out minimum wage and the boss hates me, and I love the girl, but wont get married until 21 or have kids until we are married, then I will be able to avoid the poverty that I see around me? Gunter said. Some young people might find that an influential force.

Boyd discovered this video shortly after it was posted and her initial reaction was that the overall data was cherry picked.

Boyd said she feels Gunters views were responsible for the type of data he used in the video.

When you have a worldview and look for data that informs it, instead of looking for data to inform your worldview, youre not actually doing research, youre not doing critical thinking, youre cherry picking dataeven when its not in line with the facts, Boyd said. I could not get away with this in any of my classes.

Luther and Boyd found Gunters language throughout the video particularly insensitive.

His use of the word Blacks as a noun was pretty much in line with the datedness of the data he was citing, Boyd said. It was very clear both his views on poverty and race and how to engage in research are stuck in a previous century that have no place here now.

Meanwhile, Garret Anderson,21, secretary of Lehigh College Republicans, said Everyone was so concerned about his wording and not what he was trying to say, thats problematic to me.

Gunter said he has done his research on which terms to use.

If you search to find out what is the preferred reference to African Americans, its almost a tie among the African American community, whether they prefer to be referred to as African Americans or as Blacksone of the style references I use in my book writing treats the two as alternatives, Gunter said. I think it is a matter of courtesy you are to refer to someone in the way they wish to be referred.

Gunter expected normal criticism to his op-ed, but not criticism of his character.

He said he was surprised that people who didnt know him accused him of being racist.

That is an insult now, you only call a person racist if you know 102 percent that they are. You dont read one op-ed that they wrote and say this person says something I dont agree with Im not going to argue with their data, Im not going to argue with their analysis. Im just going to call them a name. Thats surprising, Gunter said.

@dearpwi on Instagram posted the slides from Gunters video with an attached slide at the end that read While I dont endorse slavery, economically, it is genius, suggesting it was said by Gunter.

Gunter said the attached statement associated with him led to a lot of disturbed people, as it should if it were true, but that it was a hoax.

Slavery along with genocide are probably some of the worst actions that can be committed but its also bad economics slavery has been a dead end in economic development. It has destroyed every society that adopted it, Gunter said.

Friedman affirmed the inaccuracies of these claims.

The quote has beenfalsely attributed to Professor Gunter. Professor Gunter denies having made such astatement, Friedman said. A 2019 inquiry by Lehighs Equal Opportunity Compliance Coordinator into the origin of the quote, which was posted to an Instagram account that same year, found no evidence supporting the claim that thestatementwas made by Professor Gunter.

Because of controversy, Lehigh College of Business issued a statement to explain the motive behind the video.

Despite this statement, Boyd does not think Lehigh truly cares about an intellectual discourse.

Boyd was specifically bothered by the College of Business choice to delete comments that criticized Gunter and highlighted inaccuracies in his statements.

Marietta Sisca, 23, vice president of the Lehigh College Republicans, believes the anger toward Gunter in these comment sections is unnecessary and will do harm.

The outrage and ad hominem attacks against Professor Gunter dont address the body of his argument specifically talking about poverty, Sisca said. We cant have a civil discussion about this important and interesting issue, including the aspect of race, by silencing an economics professor trying to bring more complex aspects of the topic to light.

Gunter emphasized that there should be a meaningful dialogue.

The purpose of a university is to have people look at old things in new ways or things that nobody has ever seen before. Are you going to upset people? Of course you are, Gunter said. The whole purpose of the university is to have some really great women and really great men looking at these things and saying the truth as they see it, even if the world is offended by the truth.

See the original post:

Economics professor faces criticism over op-ed titled "Three Myths About Poverty" - The Brown and White

Displaying the thin blue line flag as a means of showing support for the police is under increased scrutiny due to the flags adoption by white supremacist groups, like those involved in the violent insurrection at the capitol on Jan. 6, and the related use of the flag as a statement of opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement.

I personally believe that events over the last four years have deeply and irrevocably connected the flag to racist bigotry and support for the use of state violence against racial minorities in the United States. In addition, I also believe that the iconography of the flag itself is deeply problematic. In other words, this flag is problematic both because of the beliefs of many groups that display it (e.g. The Proud Boys) and because of the history and attitudes referenced by the flags imagery.

Before the thin blue line was ever displayed on a flag, the idea was used as rhetoric by police departments in the United States to describe themselves as the only force that separates society from chaos. According to a 2020 narrative criminology article tracing the history of the thin blue line flag by Maurice Chammah and Cary Aspinwall of the Marshall Project, the idea of a thin blue line was first used to describe police in the United States in the 1920s and was popularized in the 1950s by Los Angeles Police Chief William H. Parker. It is worth noting that according to Chammah and Aspinwall, Parker was also notorious for making racist remarks. In summary, the origin of the thin blue line as a concept lies in the idea that the police separate ordered society from the chaos of a criminal element, and the idea was popularized by a police chief who was overtly racist. I believe it would be nave to assert that Parkers racism and his promotion of a policing philosophy that divides society into an us deserving protection and a them that does not, are unconnected.

Even without considering its racist origin, the thin blue line mentality is counterproductive to effective policing. Criminals do not exist as an element separate from society, they exist within it, and like all of us hold multifaceted identities. Reducing a human being to a label, to a criminal, makes it easier to wage war against them (or lock them away), but harder to recognize and address the forces within society that promotes criminal behavior. The thin blue line mentality makes law enforcement about punishing criminals, rather than promoting the wellbeing of society.

Of course, given the history of the United States, removing race from the equation is a mistake. When the us versus them of the thin blue line mentality is combined with the bigotry, racial bias and racist policies that have afflicted our nation in general, and our criminal justice system in particular, we get the broken system and tragedy of mass incarceration we see in the United States today. Furthermore, if we engage in an honest dialogue with our national conscience, we become all too aware that the us versus them of the thin blue line mentality was never entirely separate from the us versus them of slavery, the us versus them of Jim Crow or the us versus them of the modern for-profit prison system.

In recent years, the thin blue line flag has, rightly, become controversial because of its adoption by white supremacist groups, but I feel that more attention needs to be paid as to why white supremacists were drawn to the flag in the first place. Considering the full context of its history, the thin blue line on its namesake flag represents the U.S. divided along racial lines where the polices mission to protect and serve is applied to white people and their mission to enforce the law is applied to everyone else. Therefore, the thin blue line flag has no place in a society that claims to extoll the principles of liberty and justice for all.

Editors Note: The North Wind is committed to offering a free and open public forum of ideas, publishing a wide range of viewpoints to accurately represent the NMU student body. This piece is a guest column, written by a Northern Michigan University student, faculty member, or community member. It expresses the personal opinions of the individual writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of the North Wind. The North Wind reserves the right to avoid publishing columns that do not meet the North Winds publication standards. To submit a guest column contact the opinion editor at opinion.northwind@gmail.com with the subject North Wind Guest Column.

Excerpt from:

OpinionThe thin blue line flag, a problematic symbol - North Wind Online