By Bill Nemitz
Portland Press Herald, July 16, 2014
Today we celebrate one of the good guys. ...
[Jim] Wellehan, the longtime owner of Lamey-Wellehan Shoes, is the star of a two-minute video launched recently on social media by President Obama. ... A little context: The federal minimum wage currently is $7.25 per hour. Maine’s minimum, at $7.50 per hour, is barely better. If the Obama administration has its way, the federal minimum will increase in three steps to $10.10 per hour.
The average hourly wage among the 100 or so employees at Lamey Wellehan? Try $15 per hour. ...
Consider: The minimum wage was $1.60 per hour in 1968. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $10.79 today – meaning America’s lowest-paid workers are 33 percent worse off today than they were almost a half-century ago. ... Consider: According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average employee’s tenure with an employer is 4.6 years. At Lamey Wellehan, well, let’s go back to the video …
“I can name every one of them,” Wellehan says of his employees scattered over seven locations throughout Maine. “Nancy, she’s been here for 35 years, Don has been here for 25 years, Chris has been here for 25 years, Lucy’s been here for 25 years, Sharon’s been here for 28 years … Sara’s new, she’s only been with us for five years …”
In addition to their living wage, (which includes commission on every pair of shoes sold), Lamey-Wellehan workers boast a health plan and a 401k retirement package that bolsters their 5 percent contribution with a 5.5 percent company match.
They also get extensive professional training in everything from foot problems to gait analysis, meaning “they provide better service and our business grows every year,” Wellehan said. ...
Raise low-paid workers’ income, he said, “and they’re going to spend that. That’s known as the ‘multiplier effect.’ ”
What’s more, he added, it’s the fiscally responsible thing to do. “People making more money are going to be less dependent on government aid,” Wellehan said. ...
“We’ve got to be a more cohesive, unified economy with a reasonable sharing of what we’ve got,” said Wellehan. “It needs to happen. Do you want a better economy or a worse economy?”
I’ll vote with my feet on that one.
Starting with my next pair of shoes.
Copyright 2014 Maine Today Media