Gephardt's Revolution Begins With a Global Minimum Wage

The last few weeks' headlines have been an extended testimonial to this interdependence. Our stake in the world economy was dramatized early last week when industry analysts reported that in 2003, foreign auto manufacturers captured a larger share of the American market than ever. The mad cow scare demonstrated that the health of the nation's beef industry, not to mention the health of the beef-eating public, could depend not only on our own food safety regulations but also on the standards in Canada.

Likewise, the repeated cancellations of foreign flights to the United States over the last few weeks showed that our first line of defense against terrorism is now in other countries.

And President Bush's new immigration reform initiative acknowledged that the United States could only control its borders by reaching an agreement with Mexico to regulate migration.

These disparate developments all sent the same message: No nation is an island anymore. America can safeguard neither its security nor its prosperity on its own. Decisions made abroad affect our lives more intimately than ever.

That's the insight at the heart of one of the most ambitious and intriguing ideas emerging from the 2004 presidential campaign: a proposal from Democratic Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri to establish an international minimum wage.

After a quarter-century in the House of Representatives, Gephardt is battling for his political life as he struggles to overcome Howard Dean's lead in next Monday's Iowa caucuses. But whatever happens to Gephardt's own ambitions, he has produced a path-breaking concept that deserves to be considered long after this presidential race is over.

The idea is simple. Gephardt says that as a condition of membership in the World Trade Organization, every nation should be required to adopt a minimum wage. The level would vary from country to country, depending on productivity and the level of development. But everywhere, he says, workers should be guaranteed a wage high enough "to allow someone to live like a human being."

The International Labor Organization estimates that at least 85 countries have a minimum wage on the books. But in many places, it is honored more in the breach. Gephardt, who has always valued the practical over the prophetic, is preaching a revolution: the idea that any country seeking to participate in the global economy should be required to pursue a decent level of existence for its workers.