$9 an hour is not enough
Soon, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and I will introduce legislation that would gradually increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, and raise the minimum wage for tipped workers for the first time in more than 20 years. Our proposal, like President Obama’s, would also provide for automatic increases linked to changes in the cost of living.
Raising the minimum wage is one of the simplest and most effective ways to help working families succeed. It also helps our economy by putting additional money in the hands of consumers who will spend it right away in their local communities.
Contrary to publicized myths, research proves that increasing the minimum wage will not cost us jobs; in fact, our proposal would create at least 100,000 jobs through increased consumer spending.
Blowback
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The Economic Ignorance is Strong in this columnist.
Explains why he chose journalism.
Math, economics…hard.
Writing about whatever his fertile mind creates…simple.
ProfShadow on February 26, 2013 at 6:24 AM
Yeah, lets make it $125. an hour. Why not? While we’re at it, lets vote to give everybody who works at minimum wage a mansion and a Mercedes. Or a BMW.
No matter what you make it, it’s still the minimum wage. And you know what? If they did that, this journalist and a whole bunch of others would demand a pay increase way above $125. an hour because they would cry “I don’t work no minimum wage job!”
No matter what you make the minimum wage… it will always be entry level with the same buying power, or less, as it is today. Why people don’t understand that is beyond me.
JellyToast on February 26, 2013 at 6:30 AM
All this talk of the minimum wage and I still can’t find the amendment in the Constitution that allows it in the first place.
BierManVA on February 26, 2013 at 6:32 AM
I realized that my entire argument could have been summed up by simply differing to Quentin Tarantino.
“Here’s the world smallest violin playing just for the waitresses.”
~Reservoir Dogs
Flashwing on February 26, 2013 at 6:37 AM
Ugh, differing should have been deferring. I fail.
Flashwing on February 26, 2013 at 6:37 AM
http://youtu.be/fuUUpPWWK1k
Milton Friedman on minimum wage.
http://youtu.be/fXexa00BAJg
Walter Williams on Stossel.
“Govt Aid is a help!”
Well uh no it is not dear reader Govt is a roadblock….
EPA inhibits industry, regulation undercuts the drive to gorw.
http://www.adamsmith.org/wealth-of-nations
Read wealth of nations it explains it all….
Wage is the interaction between supply and demand on taskings and you sell your skill and efficiency at action.
End of story, of course people who are stupid enough to elect giggles the SCOAMF economic guru of ‘Profit and earnings Ratio’ probably really do think “hey it is a great idea to have a national decider”
idiots.
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 7:17 AM
And, given where some fertilizer comes from, that’s an apt description.
What happens to those “working families” who are laid off because their employers can’t pay them more?
Oh, that’s right, we’ll blame the employers for being “greedy” and “heartless.” Because mathematics is unfair. Or something.
englishqueen01 on February 26, 2013 at 7:23 AM
Yup…it is NEVER Granny McRictus, Searchlight Stalker, or SCOAMF’s fault….never it is ALWAYS the evil person who surrenders their savings and credit to try to fufill utility needs or desires of the market who is drowned in the river by interference’s ‘fault’ never the a**hole politician’s.
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 7:26 AM
Remember the last time Dems raised the minimum wage and then we fell into a massive recession?
Good times.
Spliff Menendez on February 26, 2013 at 7:29 AM
why it is almost as though they enjoy the disequilibrium or something….
the people would be better served by elimination of the welfare state for all but the most disabled and removal of the minimum wage.
Everything is out of wack b/c of interference in the interaction between supply and demand.
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 7:34 AM
Tom “Bullshit” Harkin strikes again.
Iowans ought to be embarrassed for putting a turd in office all of those years.
beatcanvas on February 26, 2013 at 7:36 AM
“uh you know I’m out of ideas or the ability to ethically debauch our people’s purchasing power any further…uh why don’t we start removing competitive inhibitors to our international competitiveness and work our tails off for 30 years for a change?”
//Mirror Universe Helicopter Ben
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 7:39 AM
They understand it. They just use it as a populist tool for political gain.
fossten on February 26, 2013 at 7:39 AM
“uh you know I’m out of ideas or the ability to ethically debauch our people’s purchasing power any further…uh why don’t we start removing competitive inhibitors to our international competitiveness and work harder for 30 years for a change?”
//Mirror Universe Fed Chairman
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 7:41 AM
Not to mention it effectively gives everyone else a paycut. Especially those in the 12-18 dollar an hour range.
Bet its the powder keg that inflation needs to finally blow up. If peoplehave to pay other people who are only worth 280, $400, it will ripple throughout the economy as the dollar is devalued.
Morons.
Spliff Menendez on February 26, 2013 at 7:45 AM
“Suffer the consequences of a choice” involves choosing to study instead of partying with friends and hooking up, right?
Or not just up-and-quitting your minimum wage job at McDonalds because your boss couldn’t give you the week off to go to the beach for spring break and then having to listen to how much fun your buddies (who did quit) had without you, right?
You see the point yet?
rogerb on February 26, 2013 at 7:50 AM
Oh I know I am 40, I have never earned minimum wage for more than 45 days unless there was a recent raise.
I started at 3.35 an hour at a diner as a dish washer showed drive got a raise to 3.70 as a dishwasher. Went to a pizza joint in the next town started at minimum wage still 3.35 an hour became a shift manager making 4.75 minimum wage hiked up to 3.85 on its way to 4.25 and I did not get a raise to tack on to the advance in minimum wage until the economy revaluated to cope with the change.
I lost being 1.40 above minimum wage in base purchasing power.
The ONLY people who get “protected’ that way are the damned union junkies.
Minimum wage follies are a dog chasing its tail until it does of a heart attack…
the flaw people are angry at is purchasing power and devaluation of the currency but since they worship the Preisdent like a God they cannot allow themselves to blame the interferers so they instead blame the creators.
Idiots.
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 7:52 AM
Are you serious?
After food and housing, there’s like $50 left on a minimum wage paycheck to cover anything remotely close to something like that. $50 a month, not $50 a week.
Seriously, do the math. It’s not hard. Multiply the federal minimum wage by 40, and then by four. Then go on zillow and see what a cheap apartment costs. Then add in food, bus fare/gas, insurance, and every other random charge that comes along with simply existing in america.
It’s not enough.
triple on February 26, 2013 at 8:05 AM
I see…and you blame non of the dynamics on the government’s fiscal policy or interference in the market do you?
It is just Uncle Scrooge screwing the worker isn’t it?
Hey genius you’re irritated at the devaluation of the dollar which HELLO the employer does not control giggles the SCOAMF does.
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 8:08 AM
You’re just making that up.
This issue isn’t new. It didn’t pop up yesterday, you only think it did. This debate has been going on since the 70s, and we have tons of evidence of its effects.
triple on February 26, 2013 at 8:08 AM
If we tie the minimum wage to inflation year-to-year, the employer shouldn’t feel any ill effects at all. After all, they’re obviously making more due to.. inflation? F’ing duh?
triple on February 26, 2013 at 8:10 AM
So work two jobs.
OldEnglish on February 26, 2013 at 8:10 AM
Remember the last time congress decided to raise the minimum wage? I’m not talking about the last time it came into effect, but the last time it was voted on. Surprise, surprise, shortly there after (I’m talking within a couple of months) unemployment skyrocketed and the economy went into the crapper.
Meanwhile, teh left blames the colapse on the eeeeeeeevil Bush tax cuts. YOu know, those tax cuts that, shortly after them happening the economy improved and unemployment dropped and stayed until…well….the minimum wage was voted to be increased.
DethMetalCookieMonst on February 26, 2013 at 8:12 AM
You’ve been making minimum wage since the 70s have you?
I lived through climbing out of minimum wage in the 80s and working near it through college in the early 90s until I got the skills to be a Haz mat worker.
You can’t join the military? You have no other avenue but being an extra in a Springsteen ballad eh? Purchasing power sucks…don’t look now because the feds are spending 1 trillion spare on top of ~4 trillion in revenue and stifling our economic efficiency with hyperregulatory fiat.
You and giggles think just Royally edicting a higher wage carries no negative consequence, so again I challenge you why stop at 10.10 why not join me in calling on the President to raise it to 25.25?
It is the “fair thing after all.”
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 8:14 AM
What is this “you” crap? I make well above minimum wage, I just don’t despise the working class. I don’t think I’m better than people just because I make a decent living.
triple on February 26, 2013 at 8:16 AM
This coupled with the sequester will tell me who the uneducated American people really are at heart. When I was a kid we wanted to work and grow into the economic force we saw our parents being. It was understood you did not get gifted their lifestyle just for showing up it was earned.
If the current working poor are stupid enough to reward the idiocy of the democrat vision with more power it means we’re probably at best Fwance and at worst Zimbabwae.
I need to know when to consider this nation so special education that industry and investment here is like paying a hobo to do brain surgery.
I have my suspicion that Canada is the future.
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 8:16 AM
I mean seriously, these people can’t afford to get a haircut, and you’re acting all high and mighty because you have a better job.
You’re the worst kind of person.
triple on February 26, 2013 at 8:17 AM
You’re still here blathering nonsense? Wow!
22044 on February 26, 2013 at 8:18 AM
*You* your passion and inability to grasp that you are enabling the very people undercutting the rewards of labor tells me you are either:
1) a union democrat
2) a minimum wage earner
3) a genuine kind hearted person like myself who has adult family members stuck in the working poor but will not work through why purchasing power is declining
4) an Axelbot paid to stir the waters.
Economics does not work the way you want it to, and supply and demand and price interaction are not subject to Royal proclamations….
well they can be…if you engage in price controls and start holding guns on people.
America is entering a brave new world baby
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 8:19 AM
When were you a kid, lets say around 1975? The minimum was $2.10.
In inflation adjusted dollars, that’s $8.84, or pretty damn close to the $9 obama wants now.
You people had it good, but you don’t want anyone else to have the same chance you did.
triple on February 26, 2013 at 8:20 AM
Somebody call the waahmbulance!
22044 on February 26, 2013 at 8:20 AM
No I am not, I am a person who handed 500 bucks to a 25 year old working at a pizza joint as a manager I know so he could take welding classes and advance.
Thanks for playing could you do me a favor and instead of destroying our national economy trying to play Santa Claus with other people’s money you know use your own and join the Shriners or something?
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 8:21 AM
Yeah I was earning minimum wage back when I was 3 alright….
thank try again….
you may note that 1975 is right around when the economic impact of our shift to fiat currency took total hold….
now you rage at a symptom rather than the root cause…
sooner or later you’ll get around to understanding something or you won’t.
You want to put out the fire with gasoline and dynamite there tiger.
“genius move”
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 8:22 AM
Wow eh. Flashwing had a serious discussion that was thought out & logically reasonable.
And this is your response.
You have had no arguments on this thread whatsoever that have anything to do with reality.
triple & eh: If you don’t like the wage you are making there are a couple of things you can do & many of us have done those things:
1. Go to college or a trade school & acquire skills that will get you paid for (I did this. Quit a minimum wage job bcs I didn’t want to be making $hit for the rest of my life).
2. Start a business! Bill Gates quit college & did that. Steve Jobs?
Minimum wage jobs go to people who are just starting out, have no skills, &/or want to start out &/or want to move up. I have a niece who holds a supervisory position, no college, in an oilfield dispatch company & she gets paid very well now & she started out at minimum wage with no skills.
She works hard.
There are opportunities out there like these & more.
The problem is many of these people you are talking about who choose to work for $hit do not have the motivation, intelligence, etc. to do something different to improve their situation.
Working for minimum wage should not be a career choice.
The Federal Govt makes it easier for these people to continue their refusal to improve their lot in life with all of these UnConstitutional laws & programs.
You see, I went through the “I’m sick of making minimum wage” experience, quit my secretary job in the Seattle area, went to college, did NOT go on welfare (divorced mother), & got a BS in a hard science.
My husband & I are also ranchers & we decided our profit margin was much too thin & so we decided to take a chance & buy a semi truck & now hubby drives for extra $$.
Motivated people who actually do something to improve their lives are people who leave minimum wage jobs behind.
Those jobs are stepping stones in life for young people & maybe some older retired people just looking to make a few extra dollars now & then.
These jobs are not meant to make you rich. Bcs the skills it takes to do them are not very uncommon.
However, it is possible to be in a minimum wage environment & make more $$. My daughter has done it. She is working as an office assistance/secretary in a CPA office & makes $15/hr bcs they love her & value her ability to run their office, fix their tech problems, & make it a fun place to work. She makes a comfortable living, though she’s not rich, & is going to be taking a few college classes this Fall so she can get a degree to better herself.
And she is a single mother who is not on welfare living in an oil boom city. And making it.
Being poor is not supposed to be a comfortable thing.
I have noticed when you feed the wild animals, you get rid of their instinctual desire to fend for themselves.
People are no different.
triple & eh, you are both advocating socialist policies & laws that the Federal govt has no power to involve itself in.
At the very least, these are issues for your state. Not the Federal Govt.
Badger40 on February 26, 2013 at 8:23 AM
I’m glad you agree. /
You’re one of the thickheads who cried all over Hot Gas when some chick lost her job for disrespecting the Arlington National Cemetery a few months ago.
You haven’t grown up.
22044 on February 26, 2013 at 8:25 AM
If the ONLY impact on efficiency was inflation and Uncle Scrooge was making artificial gain from it guess what tiger I’d argue less against your stupidity since at that point it would literally be a dog chasing its tail BUT ta-da the Feds interfere with the investor class with regulatory fiat….
Giggles wants to increase labor costs, energy costs, shave the whales, mandate hiring preferences by race etc etc etc
all this “costs” moron
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 8:25 AM
So obviously the solution is to let people make $7.25/hr when 20 years from now gas will cost twice that..? That makes a whole lotta sense.
triple on February 26, 2013 at 8:27 AM
Inapplicable!
22044 on February 26, 2013 at 8:33 AM
The ignorance is strong in this professor! LOL
Al in St. Lou on February 26, 2013 at 8:34 AM
and this is why you understand econ like a 3 year old at whatever age you’re at there tiger…
no no of course not the answer is to let the govt keep printing a spare trillion or two per annum that the fed itslef has to buy 90+% of the bond offerings further debauching our currency…
let me ask you something related but not obviously so…
the “seuqestration is an extinction level event hype!” that Ogabe is spreading….
is the federal Govt going to spend more or less in FY12 than FY 13 as it stands right now today?
Meaning when the dust settles in real expenditure not baseline budgeted expenditure will spending go up next FY even if everyone in the gvt just went on autopilot right now and not a new single piece of spending is passed?
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 8:34 AM
As a business owner, if I was forced to pay an artificial wage for the labor I am getting, & no, my profits are not increasing bcs the Federal Govt says hey, pay this guy more, then I am forced to make a decision.
You see, again, my profits have not increased, nor will they bcs of some dictate from the govt.
What happens is I am forced to take on the extra labor myself, &/or I pay another person this new wage & instead of hiring 2 people at the old wage, I make one guy do 2 guys job.
Or I may have to go out of business bcs the artificial wage has now increased costs so much (along with other things like unemployment insurance, benefits etc.) that I am not able to make all the increased costs pencil out & still run my business.
These things are happening.
They do happen.
You seem so outraged that people with poor job skills are not making enough.
Why aren’t you outraged about these same people not hunkering down & taking a risk & trying to better themselves?
No one is poor in this country where you have all of these welfare & food assistance & housing programs.
No one.
Badger40 on February 26, 2013 at 8:36 AM
Which force is intentionally causing inflation? Who is printing money? Is it Walmart, THE KOCH BROS?
Which force is intentionally increasing energy prices?
mudskipper on February 26, 2013 at 8:37 AM
And I haven’t seen you wonder why the cost of everything rises so much in the 1st place.
Don’t you think it might have something to do with all of the taxes & onerous UnConstitutional laws & regulations from the Fed & it’s outlaw agencies that might have something to do with this?
I actually don’t think you consider any of this in your diatribes.
I think you think somehow magically raising this wage somehow does not affect anyone but the worker positively.
I don’t think you ever think about the cost to the business owner.
I think you think of people who hire others as a bottomless money pit who are just evil & stingy & don’t want to pay people more, but can.
You have no concept what it means to run a business & be responsible for hiring people or budgets & profit margins.
Badger40 on February 26, 2013 at 8:39 AM
This is an erroneous ignorant statement.
Rising inflation does not mean rising profits.
I am in the cattle industry.
Beef prices are at an all time high.
And our profit margin isn’t any better.
Bcs the price of doing business has skyrocketed along with those rising beef prices.
And there is even a shortage of cattle in the US. Beef numbers are lower than they have ever been, domestically.
I would discuss with you those rising costs of doing business, but I can see by a statement such as this you are not interested, nor evidently, mentally capable of discussing such things.
You believe in magical money trees.
And that employers grow them & money is magically available in unlimited quantities with no strings attached.
Badger40 on February 26, 2013 at 8:44 AM
You know you can cut your own hair, right?
Man, I’m just saving you money all over the place, triple.
Good Solid B-Plus on February 26, 2013 at 8:48 AM
BTW guys, remember, triple is one of those distinguished thinkers who thought OWS was going to change the American political landscape forever.
Lulz.
Good Solid B-Plus on February 26, 2013 at 8:49 AM
Indeed….and i was just as awed by his economic literacy then…
You do note he refuses to answer my question on “Seuqestrageddon” will the US govt spend more in FY2013 than FY2012?
If the answer is yes then at best the govt faced a reduction in the rate of growth due to baseline budgeting.
If our nation cannot weather an 87billion dollar cut we’re just about done then.
harlekwin15 on February 26, 2013 at 8:53 AM
This isn’t Gattaca, triple. People are allowed to expand their skillbase and get to a point where they have an ability that is worth more to an employer than 7 bucks an hour.
Good Solid B-Plus on February 26, 2013 at 8:54 AM
triple, you argue this in a vacuum, as if there are no benefits available to those “working poor” making minimum wage. That’s nonsense, and you know it.
In PA, a single mother making minimum wage has an effective yearly salary of about $54K per year if all eligible benefits are accepted. She’s better off making minimum wage than she would be making that very same $55K per year in wages, because after taxes, she would receive $48K.
We don’t need to raise the minimum wage if we subsidize it so thoroughly.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-27/when-work-punished-tragedy-americas-welfare-state
Jeff Weimer on February 26, 2013 at 9:08 AM
Tom Harkin, making more jobs that Americans won’t do.
Knott Buyinit on February 26, 2013 at 9:30 AM
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