Labor
Tom Harkin has made the concerns of working Iowans a priority throughout his Senate career. He currently serves as Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the Department of Labor, and is also a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Workers in the United States are no longer sharing in the prosperity that they have helped create. According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service - adjusted for inflation, average worker pay rose 8 percent from 1995 to 2005; median CEO pay at the 350 largest firms rose about 150 percent over the same period. Senator Harkin is working on a wide array of policy solutions to combat stagnant wages, downsized benefits, and declining buying power for hardworking Iowans.
Fair Pay for Women
More than 40 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act, women's wages still lag behind their male counterparts' wages - women make only 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes. The average woman loses an estimated $700,000 over her lifetime due to unequal pay practices. The average African-American woman earns 67 cents for every dollar that a white male earns and Latino women receive only 56 cents per dollar earned by white men.
In nearly 10 million American households, the mother is the only breadwinner. These families struggle to pay the rent or make mortgage payments, buy the groceries, cover the medical bills and save for a child's education. Tom Harkin believes we simply must do something about the longtime pattern of wage discrimination. He believes we can start closing the pay gap right now by simply paying women fairly.
That is why Harkin has introduced the Fair Pay Act in every session of Congress since 1996, to address the wage gap for jobs of equal value among men and women. This legislation would address the historic pattern of undervaluing and underpaying so-called "women's" jobs. For example, social workers (a female-dominated field) are paid less than probation officers (a male-dominated field) even though both jobs require similar levels of skill, effort, and responsibility. The Fair Pay Act says that where working conditions are similar, wages should also be similar.
Pensions
Harkin has been deeply involved in Congressional action to protect and improve pensions for hard working Americans. He has led the charge in Congress to protect older workers who got caught up in unfair conversions from traditional pensions to cash balance plans. Harkin first took action on this issue in 1999, when it became clear that as some companies converted to cash balance plans, people were working for years without any contribution to their pensions. This practice is called "wear away" and equivalent to age discrimination.
Specifically, Harkin successfully fought for legislation to prohibit the "wear away" of benefits by requiring companies to continue to pay into workers' pensions during a conversion from a traditional pension plan to a cash balance plan.
In addition, Harkin continues to fight for an Office of Pension Participant advocate at the Department of Labor. Individual pension plans are complex, as are the laws that govern them. Currently, multiple federal agencies share jurisdiction over pension law. This office would be a place for workers to call that would not only help them navigate the complicated laws about pensions, but also help them understand their own rights. Additionally, this office can serve as a watch-dog for harmful employer practices and loopholes that need to be called to the attention of Congress and the administration.
Specifically, this office would actively seek out information and suggestions on pension policies and on federal agencies which affect pension participants; evaluate the efforts of federal agencies, businesses and industry to assist pension participants; identify significant problems faced by employees and retirees; make annual recommendations documenting significant pension problems and recommending legislative and regulatory solutions; and examine existing pension plans and determine the extent to which current law serves pensioners in those plans.
Employee Free Choice Act
Harkin is an original cosponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. This bill will allow workers to choose whether they want to form a union through majority sign-up or through a longer election process outlined in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). However, the protracted NLRA process can be threatening and intimidating to many employees since employers can campaign against those working to form a union in the workplace.
The bill does not establish a new election process or eliminate secret ballots. It simply requires employers to honor employee choice. Under current laws, a company gets to decide whether it will recognize a majority sign-up vote. Under the Employee Free Choice Act, employees may decide.
In addition, the act will increase penalties for employers who illegally punish employees for trying to form a union. It will also create an arbitration process to aid in writing a first contract after a new union is established, if workers and management cannot reach consensus in a timely manner.
Unionized workers earn 30 percent more than their non-union counterparts. They average more vacation time, are more likely to have health insurance, disability insurance, and are far more likely to have a secure defined-benefit pension.
Minimum Wage
On March 18, 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. said: "We know of no more crucial civil rights issue facing Congress today than the need to increase the federal minimum wage and extend its coverage. . . . A living wage should be the right of all working Americans." Senator Harkin believes these words still apply today. We need to honor the work and dignity of almost 15 million people in the United States who subsist on the minimum wage, or on near-minimum-wage pay.
Raising the minimum wage is also more than a moral issue. It is also a cold, hard economic necessity. The real value of the minimum wage is at an all-time low. In 1968, the minimum wage was worth $9.19 in today's dollars. Since then, it has lost nearly half of its purchasing power. The upshot is that the minimum wage is no longer a living wage that was envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King. It is a poverty wage. And there is something fundamentally, morally wrong when any American works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, and is condemned to living in poverty. That's why Senator Harkin will continue to fight in Congress to ensure that at long last, these hard working Americans finally receive a fair wage.
Healthy Families Act
Hoping to restore real family values in the work place, Senator Harkin is an original co-sponsor of The Healthy Families Act, legislation that would require businesses who employ over 15 staff to provide seven paid sick days a year for their workers.
Studies have shown that 50 percent of private sector workers and 76 percent of low-income workers do not have paid sick leave at their current jobs. At a February Congressional hearing on this legislation, one witness testified the United States is behind the curve in providing sick leave for its workers, showing that 139 countries provide paid leave for short- or long-term illness, with 117 of those providing a week or more annually. There is currently no federal law providing paid time off for sick workers.
The Healthy Families Act will also provide leave for caring for a sick child. In most cases, parents are not allowed to leave sick children in daycare. Working families currently have few options if they do not have sick leave to take for an ill child. According to Harvard researcher Judy Heymann, children are healthier and do better in school when a parent can care for them when they are ill.
The issue of providing sick leave to employees is also a matter of improving public health. Reports have indicated 78 percent of food service workers do not have paid sick days. At a recent hearing, Harkin's testimony noted that recently at a hotel in Nevada, a worker who didn't have paid sick time went to work with a stomach virus and infected 600 customers and 300 employees. A recent Cornell study found that people coming to work when they are ill costs businesses $180 billion annually in lost productivity alone - not accounting for the cost of spreading illness to coworkers.
