Module 5 Interaction Presentation

wills1

Module 4 Interaction Project

Stagnant Wages in Colorado

Susie Wills

America Government

Professor Goulding

11/21/21

Interaction Project on Wages in Colorado

American citizens enjoy the constitutional mandate of civil rights and liberties through public participation. Besides Voting, protesting, petitioning, giving to political causes, United States citizens could attend meetings with federal officials to deliberate on states matters or contact representatives in the senate or the House of Representatives. For this assignment, I choose to exercise my legal freedom by interacting with two senators through the internet to deliberate on stagnant wages in Colorado State.

I contacted Senator Michael Bennet, Colorado's representative in the United States senate's financial committee, and Senator John W.Hickenlooper Colorado's representative in the public works committee. I sent letters through the senators' websites that are https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/ and https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov correspondingly (Junkins 2021).

My letter's content is to understand what the state government is up to in financial remunerations and their plan to better Coloradans' lifestyle. I had observed how stagnant wages had implicated financial burdens on Coloradans' necessities like healthcare, housing, college education, and childcare. I also presented to the policymakers grievances of the Coloradans state citizen's inability to reach the tenet of the American dream, which requires all members to afford a middle-class lifestyle. Colorado’s population is multiplying swiftly, and the economy, but there is a hitch in the employment sector and the salary remuneration committee. The wages are not commensurate to the employee's labor for several years, which is a demoralizing factor in the employment sector and a great hindrance to economic growth. According to "Stagnant Wages in Colorado" (2021), the state's economic prosperity was lagging due to the high cost of living, limiting citizens from meeting their daily needs. All the drawbacks were concerning Colorado's slow and inconsistent wages.

For transparency and verification of my information, I took a step further to highlight some employment-wage facts. In 2016, out of four employees, one would not satisfactorily fend for their family despite their median wages. Moreover, despite the increment of Colorado jobs by fifty-one thousand eight hundred, one out of four industries still paid employees low wages with minimal accessibility to food services, entertainment, arts, retail trade, and recreational facilities ("Stagnant Wages in Colorado," 2021). Furthermore, low-wage paying jobs had grown by 69% in Colorado, which was alarming. Employers were biased with favoritism on the white at the expense of people of color and discrimination against women. White Coloradans and men enjoyed a one-third higher employment rate than people of color and women.

The senators delayed response, but the outcome was positive. The same web portal I had used the senators posted relies upon my grievance amicably. Senator Bennet highlighted the possibility of recreating an accommodative economy for all Coloradans. Further, the senator elaborated on the reason for the stagnant wages. Mr. Bennet acknowledged the difficulty of having a single way to improve wages or increase pay for the underprivileged. Still, he promised to push the financial committees to offer financial grants to the Coloradan state financial and salary remuneration departments.

On the other hand, Senator John outlined the public works committee plan to empower employees to collectively bargain from employers fearlessly. Senator John further explored the probability of maintaining strong workers unions for employee protection and pay improvement. Although it's difficult to raise wages for all workers, I was able to crack the puzzle on Coloradan's state of stagnant salaries and possible future solutions through the interaction. According to "Stagnant Wages in Colorado" (2021), today's wages have risen by a positive deviation of 1.5 %.

My choice for interaction with senator Bennet was driven by the fact that his position in the state financial committees would influence matters on wages increment. Also, the economic committee handles a wide range of public finance and outlines the workers' remuneration structure. Therefore, Bennet's first-hand information would satisfy my curiosity and that of my colleagues on the Coloradan stagnant wages incidence. Further, Senator John's competency in the public works department would enable him to find several ways to balance job opportunities, employment rates, and remuneration services. Generally, the finance and public works departments work hand in hand to enable the state's economic growth and partner in law-making.

Analysis of Stagnant Wages in Colorado

After interacting with the current wage bill senators who are among the lawmakers in the Colorado state, I expected that it would help address the problem of wage stagnation. The HB18- 1377 bill advocated for equal rights among the employees to solve the wage stagnation. Although the authenticity of the bill is yet to be known as Coloradans’ senator, they have failed in implementing what the bill advocated. The senators have become partisans and are not fairly applying the wage laws. The government is partisan because some of the interview questions in the panels concerning maybe the previous wages earned, among others, are precluded during the selection process. The government laws are giving credit to national employers to change the selection and recruitment process in their works.

Additionally, as the low-income earners continue to have their wage increments, I realized that federal wage earners are still yet to have a wage increase. After interacting with the wage bill, I expected that the senator would help curb the stagnation of the wages, especially among the federal wage earners in Colorado. After interrogating several of the workers and some senators, the reason for stagnation is beyond senators' control and lies within the hands of the executive. For instance, in recent past years, the voters have decided to go to the ballot on their own so as to address the issue. The executive has remained silent on the matter. Senators need to adopt legislation that enhances better pay for workers in Colorado and not lower wages. For instance, in my interactions, it was worth noting that after Coloradans elected their leaders in 2016 government was expected to gradually increase the minimum wage to $12.00 each hour by the year 2020. The government established a wage floor for all Colorado employees and increased wages for those paid the minimum wage in our economy (Bell, 2018). The act was remarkable progress, but the full implementation remains in question on whether the increase of wage was made.

Consequently, my interaction with the senators and the government in understanding why the problem of wage stagnation is not possible to address compares and contrasts from previous interactions. Well, it is known that wage stagnation is an issue in Colorado. In my interaction with the government accounts on inflation, the problem is similar. There has been a persistent rise in prices despite wage stagnation over the years. For several Colorado employees, the increase in overall hourly pay between $27.44 to $28.32 in February 2017 and 2018 is fantastic news, but we must assess the efficacy of inflation and the likelihood of future increased wages before pronouncing our wage war won. Colorado's inflation rate is higher than the national average, owing primarily to rising housing expenses. Colorado's inflation rate averaged 3.7 percent in 2017, or 3.4 in exclusion of the wide variations energy and food expenses. Although the national inflation rate is determined every month, Colorado's rate is only published twice a year, in June and December. Adjusting for inflation is difficult due to the temporal mismatch.

Additionally, in my interaction to compare different inflation figures and their effects on wages, I found out that the unemployment rate is low. Thus the expectation would be a higher wage increase (Lotus, 2019). When we examine the 4.3 percent growth in wages from December 2016 to 2017, the same period used to calculate inflation, and Colorado wages increased by 0.6 percent. Other statistics continue to suggest that average wages are unchanged or declining for several jobs. Before factoring in inflation, the most current Quarter Survey of Pay for Colorado indicates that the average wages per week for all sectors rose by only 0.5 percent between the third quarter of 2016 and that of 2017 (Jones, 2018). Wages have decreased in 8 of Colorado's 21 sectors, accounting for 37% among all jobs. Four other sectors, which account for 28percent of a total of Colorado employment, saw average salary gains compared with less than 0.3 percent.

Since the wage bill was meant to reduce wage stagnation, I believe that senators need to support the motion and debate on the full implementation of HB18- 1377 contents. By supporting the law, the local authorities can satisfy the needs of the local communities. Additionally, I am encouraged to continue with my interaction with the government to aid in formulating measures to recover the problem of wages stagnation. Most workers impacted primarily by basic wage have low bargaining strength, and without wage bill provisions, workers could be at the whim of far more huge corporations with more funds (Bell, 2018). Rather than promoting policies that may result in lower pay for employees, we must promote measures to increase their wages in the subsequent legislations as senators.

Consequently, Colorado is one of the states in America, but as other states pay their wages in due times in my interaction, senators should refocus on Colorado that encounters different challenges in paying wages. In my interaction, I discovered the freedom of action among the Coloradan states officer. (https://news.yahoo.com/heres-much-minimum-wage-colorado-053138401.html ) For instance, in my interaction, I discovered that eight states in America, Colorado excluded their minimum wages were automatically increased to keep pace with inflation. This would be to guarantee that those employees' purchasing power does not erode year over year.

One of the lessons learned in my interaction is that the filibusters need to be removed from the assembly as they interrupt when significant bills are being discussed. Following the Democrat's attempts to save the 15 dollars’ minimum wage, they have to do away with filibusters. If the Democrat party hopes to keep its control of congress in 2022 and even beyond, in my view, it will have to do more than merely score legislative victories. In addition, the party also needs to stand up for many suffering Citizens without allowing obstinate Republicans and maybe a few disloyal Democrats to get it in the path (Perez et al., 2021). Another lesson is that democrats had voted to either pass the bill to increase the minimum wage or decrease it. For instance, if the senator rose to raise a motion to be voted upon by the assembly and 41 democrats denied to vote against then the wage bill would remain the same. However, if the majority votes in favor, the wage bill will have to change.

References

Bell. (2018, June 17). Economic mobility for every Coloradan. Retrieved from https://www.bellpolicy.org

Jones, R. (2018, April 2). New Data Shows Colorado Wages Struggle to Keep Pace with Inflation. Retrieved from https://www.bellpolicy.org

Junkins, K. (2021). Faculty Senate Committee Rosters for the 2020-2021 Academic Year.

Lotus, J. (2019, January 3). Here's How Much the Minimum Wage In Colorado Is Increasing. Retrieved from https://news.yahoo.com/heres-much-minimum-wage-colorado-053138401.html

Perez, Walker Bragman, Julia Rock, Joel Warne, A., Bragman, W., Rock, J., & Warne, J. (2021, March 5). The Daily poster. Retrieved from https://www.dailyposter.com

Stagnant Wages in Colorado. The Bell Policy Center. (2021). Retrieved 22 November 2021, from https://www.bellpolicy.org/2018/07/17/briefed-by-the-bell-wages/.