Why isn’t this discussed in conjunction with immigration issues? It’s often recent immigrants (legal and illegal) who are the ones making minimum wage.
Minimum-wage hikes sweep states
Voters in a record number of states will decide Nov. 7 whether to hike the minimum wage, continuing an unprecedented two-year trend of state action on an issue that remains bottled up in Congress. (See map.)
Democratic organizers in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio succeeded in certifying ballot initiatives that would require employers to pay more than the $5.15-an-hour floor Congress approved in 1996 – and has since refused to raise.
Already this year,lawmakers in 11 states — Arkansas, California, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia — have enacted new statutes boosting their minimum-wage rates. Of that number, six for the first time increased wages above the federal rate, bringing to 23 the number of states whose lowest-paid workers will make more than the federal minimum.
Something tells me that texas won’t be raising the minimum wage.
Also interesting that they are not just targeting “Big Box” retailers, e.g. Walmart.
#2 – What makes you say that? I mean, of course they aren’t targeting Wal-Mart or other big box retailers. How could you do that?
I’m no fan of Wal-Mart, but I can’t see how one could get away with making Wal-Mart pay set a minimum that was higher than company B just because they are a big box retailer and company B is, for example, a frozen yogurt kiosk in a mall.
They do that sort of thing all the time. Big business hate it, because they’re better off if you hurt the small and medium sized competitors. They can take the hit, while some of their competitors might even have to shut down.
It’s the “in thing” because it’s an election year, and the left is trying to come up with a national issue to drive voter turnout.
The poll numbers show the war in Iraq isn’t going to do it for them, maybe this will.
#3
Municipalities have tried to enact “Big Box” ordinances to force those companies to pay way over the minimum ($10/hr). In Chicago, Mayor Daley actually used his first veto ever to block such an ordinance. Wal Mart said they were not going to pursue build a store in Chicago anymore, and Target was looking at pulling out of their recently built location until the veto.
So, is $10 an hour a living wage in Chicago? Can you feed a family on that? I doubt it.
I doubt it too. I’d love to know where the idea came from that a job at Wal-Mart or Target should be one capable of providing a wage to support a family…
…besides a liberal. That’s obvious.
#8.
… unless they are in management, then conservatives will insist that it is only appropriate that their wage should be capable of supporting a family of 10,000, even if they are running the company into the ground.
#9: My ex daughter-in-law was a Target assistant manager. She got something like $12000 a year in 1998. Not too good…and Target pays a bit better than WalMart.
#11. clarification – upper management.
Minimum wage isn’t mostly about immigrants either. Read Nickled and Dimed for a good understanding of trying to live on minimum wage.
James, I see you are back on Liberal watch or are you just Sniper Trolling??
Ohio’s admendment is 2 pages of fine print.
some of the bad parts are that any employee or employee representative can request a copy of their companies entire payroll including home addresses and every employee including management.
There will be no privacy and there is no controll or requirement for the person to keep the information private.
Talk about a bad admendment! This type of thing to raise minimum wage should be done through the legislature and not the constitution
I support a worker visa — but for the EXACT OPPOSITE of why Bush supports it.
Bush and his business buddies want worker visas so they can legally bring third-world wages to America.
I support a worker visa so we can unionize immigrant workers and get them a living wage with health and retirement benefits.
#8 I doubt it too. I’d love to know where the idea came from that a job at Wal-Mart or Target should be one capable of providing a wage to support a family…
>> besides a liberal. That’s obvious.
Fiscal conservatives are also for a high minimum wage.
A sub-living wage, with no benefits, is effectively a government subsidy of that industry.
Knee-jerk Faux conservatives love a low minimum wage. Old-school, thinking conservatives know better.
Many states are aiming at LIVING wage, and not raising min wage…
If we could LOWEr the profit margins, the goods products would go down ALSO.
Why would anyone be for something that would INCREASE unemployment among the poorest?
just cureous. what was the mininum wage soposed to cover. I mean is it soposed to be enough to raise a family? how big a family? If that is the case in a lot of the country that whould be $20 an hour.and that is not enough for the coasts. What whould be a fair wage? how does the group feel about a maxamum wage. Should there be a limit to what you should be allowed to recieve. sorry about the misspellings public school education.
sorry about the misspellings public school education.
No, just laziness on your part.
#14
Just felt like playing wack-a-mole, or in this case wack-a-lib.
Really, its a game that never gets old.
#17
Wow, I can’t imagine someone being more wrong in a post than you are with that one. Fiscal conservatives are for no minimum wage, and are for letting the market decide the correct wage for everything.
A sub-living wage is sign you shouldn’t depend on that job for a living, nothing more. Only a quack would try to make it into something more meaningful than that.
Minimum wage pay was never intended to support a family. It was intended to provide a baseline pay for unskilled workers. One more example of how the government’s tampering with economics makes things worse.
#23 – Wow, I can’t imagine someone being more wrong in a post than you are with that one.
Comment by James Hill — 9/24/2006 @ 6:39 am
I’ve read a lot of your posts. I think you can imagine just that.
yeah raise the minimum wage so our inflation rate will go up – yeah that a great idea *heavy sarcasm*
doesnt this country have enough problems w/ inflation without adding to it???
Never had a minimum wage job, never drew unemployment or welfare, and do not understand the fuss. If your willing to work for minimum wage then what’s the difference between five or six or even seven dollars an hour? I have held low paying jobs, sometimes just to hold home and hearth together until something better came along, but minimum wage is a joke when you get paid percentage, or piece work, or some such.
For those that dont understand…
$5 per hour is about $10,000 per year.
$6 “” per hour is about $12,000 per year..
the base is like this…
40 hours per week, 52 weeks a year.
Wage times 2, times 1,000…
Its easy to figure.
NOW…
RENT.
$600 per month, is $7,200 per years.
Food, at $150 per month for 1 is $1800 per year.
Utilities are about $100 per month, is $1200 per year.
Bills,
TV $50, Phone $30, Cellphone $40+, internet $50, is about $170.
Before you get a life you are about $10,200. +2040 for bills= 12,240.
video games at 1 per month….$600 per year
girl/boy friend $50 per month, $600
Children, about $50 per month, $600+ per year.
CAR, Varible, but at LEAST $40 per month, $3600 per year
A life will cost you At least $5400
All together, this is about $17,640
these are averages, LOW ones.
Thats about $9 per hour and $18,000 per year..
national average, is what?? $27-34,000 per year?? or $13.50-17 per hour…
ECA –
What is it about the two words, “entry-level”, that you do not grasp?
So ECA you would spend as much on videogames as you would children or girlfriends? And you expect videogames to be part of people’s basic expenses? First, drop your cellphone,internet, and cable, and you’re back to reality.
Or at the very least, drop either the landline or the cell. And cable would be the very first expense I would cut if for some reason my income suddenly dropped by a substantial amount.
And you can get internet for substantially less than $50 – IIRC, Verizon’s slow version of their DSL is between $15 and $20/month, less than AOL dialup.
$600 a year for video games? Sheesh.
#31 – TV $50, Phone $30, Cellphone $40+, internet $50, is about $170.
That seems reasonably accurate for those 4 services.
#34 – So ECA you would spend as much on videogames as you would children or girlfriends? And you expect videogames to be part of people’s basic expenses? First, drop your cellphone,internet, and cable, and you’re back to reality.
Drop the cell, net, and cable but not the videogames? Why the highly useful and versatile cell phone and not the obsolete land line? When you stand on the high ground and pass judgement on the poor… what after a roof, some Raman, and some utilitarian clothing do you think they should be allowed to have?
People living at the bottom need to work far harder for what little they do have, and even harder yet to seek better employment opportunities. I can say with certainty that I have not obtained work since 1997 that wasn’t first found, researched, and contacted through the Internet. I consider the Internet to be a utility like electricity. I cannot live without it and I will not try to live without it and I won’t judge someone else for trying to maintain a tight budget that includes it.
TVs are a defacto standard in American homes. Only 4% on Americans live without a TV. I’m one of them. While my home life is infinitely more peaceful than it used to be in the TV days, even I am starting to wish I could just turn on the news or C-Span like in the old days. I would agree the if your budget is tight then HBO should get cut, but basic cable or satelite is increasingly important to people for things other than watching Fear Factor.
When you do the math, those who live paycheck to paycheck are increasingly in danger in America. Even if they can meet the food/shelter/clothing test, they can be destroyed by really stupid things. A serious enough mechanical failure to a car can spiral into a crushing debt, lost hours at work, even job loss. Medical emergencies are the real killers though. Without proper health insurance something as simple as a common bacterial infection, a broken arm, or a flu bug can have devastating effects on an entire family.
The wealthy just throw money at problems. The poor, in exttreme cases, die from common everyday problems.
In the richest nation on Earth, I don’t think that is acceptable.