Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 89
CHAPTER 2
workers earn so little that they require public benefits, such as Medicaid, food stamps, and
housing assistance, to support their families.”117
President Obama has the authority to improve workplace standards at firms that do business with the federal government. The administration has pushed hard to eliminate waste
and abuse in federal contracts, and better treatment of workers could save money for the
government. He can issue an executive order requiring federal agencies to take all possible
steps to raise workplace standards, including paying better wages. Past presidents have used
their authority to redress discrimination in the contractor workforce. In March 2009, Obama did in fact
Figure 2.10 What Priority Should the Federal
announce plans to reform federal contracting policies
Government Give to Addressing
in ways that reward high-road firms.118 But in March
Problems of the Working Poor?
of 2011, an official in the Office of Management and
100%
Budget announced that these plans had to be put
119 Time is running out for the president to
on hold.
follow through on his pledge.
90
The government has a limited ability to influence
the behavior of private sector companies, but the gov35%
ernment is the customer in the public sector—or, to
80
put it differently, the taxpayer is the customer. Polls
consistently show that the U.S. public wants the government to do more to help ensure that working fami70
lies can afford a decent standard of living. See Figure
2.10. So then, most Americans are likely to agree that
60
the federal government should be doing business with
Important Priority
high-road companies that pay their workers a living
Top Priority
wage, not with low-road companies that pay poverty
50
52%
wages. Demos suggests a point system to reward conLower Priority
tractors that pay their workers living wages. The govNo Priority
ernment already uses a performance-based system to
40
evaluate contractors on the quality of their work, so a
component on how they compensate their employees
30
would be a simple addition to the existing evaluation
system.120
Bargaining Power
In an economy with full employment, workers have
some bargaining power when it comes to wages and
benefits. High unemployment has the opposite effect—
people who are out of work and desperately need jobs
can’t afford to make many demands about the pay
and benefits. The less bargaining power a worker has
with her employer, the less pay she will accept to do
the job. If an employer breaks the law—discriminates
on the basis of race or gender, fails to pay overtime,
20
10
11%
0
2%
Important/Top Priority
Low/No Priority
Source: American Values Network (2012), “Poll: Voters Prefer
Candidates Who Talk About Working Poor.”
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? 2014 Hunger Report? 79
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