At just $7.25 an hour, or roughly $15,080 per year, the current federal minimum wage is leaving millions of hardworking Americans in poverty. There is not a single state in America where a worker earning the current federal minimum wage can afford an average two-bedroom apartment by working a standard 40-hour work week.
The fight to raise the minimum wage is about more than boosting pay for millions of the country's lowest-paid workers -- it is also a matter of restoring human dignity.
We have seen some genuine momentum for the fight to raise the federal minimum wage in recent weeks. President Obama re-ignited this fight by declaring his commitment to raise the minimum wage during his State of the Union address. Then, two key members of the Congressional Democratic Leadership - Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Rep. George Miller of California - introduced a strong proposal that increases the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 and indexes it to inflation thereafter.
While we have been working with our allies, including Progressive United, National Employment Law Project and others, to push for a vote on this legislation in the Senate, but now it's time to raise the heat on the Republican leadership in the House. Your member of Congress -- Rep. Titus -- has not yet come out in support of the Fair Minimum Wage Act. Rep. Titus needs to know that as a constituent you expect her to support a bill that provides America's lowest-paid workers with an urgently needed raise that will also boost the consumer spending that fuels our economy.
The Fair Minimum Wage Act is significant for a number of reasons. First, it would generate more than $32 billion in new economic activity, translating to 140,000 new full-time jobs as higher sales lead businesses to hire more employees, according to estimates by the Economic Policy Institute.
Second, the legislation will index the minimum wage so that it automatically increases every year, giving workers a raise they can count on without having to wait for Congress to act. At a time when corporate profit margins in the U.S. economy are at an all-time high, employees' wages as a percent of the economy have hit an all-time low.4 Raising the federal minimum wage rate so that it at least keeps up with inflation is the least this Congress can do to address this out-of-control economic disparity, and provide much-needed relief to millions of Americans.
Third, the Fair Minimum Wage Act remedies an injustice that has persisted for decades -- the freezing of the minimum wage for tipped workers at a meager $2.13 per hour. It would raise the tipped minimum wage to 70% of the federal minimum wage and thereafter, index it as well. This is of particular importance for women workers, who make up a disproportionate part of not just the low-wage work force, but the tipped workforce as well.5 Thus, raising the minimum wage, especially the tipped minimum wage, is an essential component of the ongoing fight to close the wage gap.
Lastly, raising the minimum wage is a necessary and common-sense step to take during a fragile economic recovery. According to a recent study, disproportionate numbers of new jobs created in the current economic climate are jobs in low-wage occupations like cashier and food preparation, where the minimum wage sets pay scales.6 With the economy still struggling, Congress needs to use every tool available to ensure the quality of new jobs created, so that we have a meaningful recovery - and nothing will have greater impact than increasing the minimum wage for all workers.
It is crucial for us to generate support for the Fair Minimum Wage Act in the House because it will provide broader momentum for increasing the minimum wage in both chambers of Congress.
* My argument for raising the minimum-wage to $17 an hour (it will help reduce "wage subsidies" (aka entitlements such as food stamps).
* Click the link below to sign the petition and urge Rep. Titus to co-sponsor Representative Miller's legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
http://credo.actionkit.com/sign/imported_petition_2049/
Try livin on 10.00 an hour nowdays. NOT!
ReplyDeleteWhat a horrible idea. It doesn't work to raise the minimum wage. You need to read more Walter Williams editorials so you can learn what common sense is.
ReplyDeleteHere is the problem with your logic. When minimum wage increases, wages only increase for THOSE workers and there is not a corresponding percentage increase for those making more than minimum wage. As well, the cost of all the products that everyone needs go up accordingly, to cover the increased wage expenses. So, all a minimum wage increase Really does is leave those in low level jobs no better off, because they might make more dollars but those dollars are worth the same or less since the cost of items they need to live have increased, and everyone who has worked years to get pay raises and make more than minimum wage effectively sees there wages and earning power Decrease since they do not get a related pay bump but do have to pay more for the things they need.
ReplyDeleteIncreasing minimum wage, especially in a down economy, only leads to increased poverty not less. It puts people that are just over the poverty line now under it, as costs increase, and essentially leaves minimum wage workers exactly where they were in actual buying power.
Minimum wage was intended for jobs that were typically taken by young people with no responsibilities or skills, to protect them from being completely taken advantage of. As you grow, it is expected you will show some initiative and increase your skills and pay level. Increases to the MW only undos all those years of hard work for those who have shown that initiative.
True: That's why I wrote $17 Should be the Minimum Wage
ReplyDeletehttp://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2013/03/17-should-be-minimum-wage.html
$10.10 an hour is a lot for a small business owner to pay employees.
ReplyDeleteSo by your logic, if we LOWER wages, prices will go down?
ReplyDeleteEven $10 an hour is not a living wage, but at least it's a step. We need to step away from the long-failed "trickle down economics" mindset and look at this logically. When people make more, they spend more. More products need to be made, more services rendered, etc. to keep up with the growing demand. More jobs are created, more money is made, more money is spent, more goods and services are needed ... and on. The less people make, the less they spend, the less product ... I must admit that I'm all for the average worker, no matter what his/her occupation, so morally, the plain argument that people need to be able to feed themselves if they work 40 hours a week is extremely viable to me as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm not an economist (I did take macro- and micro-economics in college and that is all), but it seems to me that common sense should dictate wages. If the prices of goods and services are going up, but worker's salaries aren't (some wages have stagnated and many have gone done in REAL WORLD [not inflationary] dollars), so where's the extra money going? (stockholders and corporate heads wages and dividends are where). Shouldn't wages rise at least as much as the prices of the goods and services that are being produced? The argument for higher wages needn't be simply moral and Christian (it's the right thing to do), but if true and real logic plays into it, higher wages are good for everyone and create more jobs as people buy more.
Bubba's Tree Service and Larry's Lawn Care simply can't afford to pay it. So Hosea and Pancho will join them in the unemployment line.
ReplyDeleteI was earning $7.25 an hour 40 years ago as a sheet metal metal worker. I was paying my counter help $9.00 an hour 25 years ago at a video rental store. $10 an hour is not too much in 2013 or you should not be in business.
ReplyDeleteYou pay someone $7.25 an hour, you are OK. You pay them $10 an hour and you go out of business? I don't think so. Only maybe if you have 1,000 employees.
ReplyDeleteIf any of this comes to pass, could someone please think about us seniors living on $5.00 or less per hour?
ReplyDeleteHow do you protect the poor and free enterprise at the same time because a true free enterprise economy requires the poor to exist in order to provide basic services so yet again how do you as a people limit what is a fair price for gas or milk and what is a fair wage if average income in our country is 100k minimum wage should be no less than 45k why are we as a free people forced to pay outrageous prices for energy and work for extremely low wages where is the true freedom greed controls this nation more than anything else
ReplyDeleteTypical linear thinking that does not consider the effects upon the rest of the economy.
ReplyDeleteHow about Florida? How about Florida? Its never going to happen in Florida due to the states Legislature is corrupt.
ReplyDeleteRaising the min wage does NOTHING but increase the price of goods and services for all. It doesn't help the working poor as they now also have to pay more for everything. Doesn't bring the bottom up but does bring the middle down.
ReplyDeletepaying a living wage would be the great thing for this country, $15.oo hour. Its better than the SLAVE labor being paid today, while the owners live like kings. So what ruins YOUR business, when people get tired of working for YOUR slave labor wage, and starts there OWN business, and takes part of yours leaving you short. Something you can learn, Roman Emperor Claudius.
ReplyDeleteRaising minimum wage has done nothing but cause people to live in poverty. If a company has to pay more for wages, then the cost of the products go up equally to cover the cost of production and distribution. However, those earning more than minimum wage suddenly have a harder time making ends meet.
ReplyDeleteA perfect example is that once upon a time, say in the 50's, both people in a household did not have to work. We owned houses, owned cars and had a great outlook on community.
Skip forward to when minimum wage was first raised. then a few years later. Suddenly now a lot of people are having a hard time making it through the week. So much for raising minimum wage.
Here's a thought. Teens and young adults lived with their parents. They got a job somewhere and STUCK WITH IT. They earned their way "up the ladder". Not jumping from job to job.
Minimum wage is a beginning. Maybe if people didn't jump from job to job, they could earn more. Not instantaneously, but by actually being worth something to their employer.
Let's just pay everyone the same wage. That way, the lazy good for nothings can have what the hard working people have, even though they don't deserve it.
It's not about living on $10 an hour, it's about being worth $10 an hour.
2038 The problem needs to be addressed from the top, not the bottom. To begin, there is no earthly reason whatsoever that homes or any living quarters should cost so much. This type of ridiculousness is nothing more than political and egotistical nepotism and cronyism to allow some to assume that they are better than others. All so-called leaders should be herded up and driven into the 'DEAD' Sea!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen did minimum wage change to living wage? The last time I was making minimum wage ($3.35) was in the 80's when I got my first job (dishwasher in a restaurant) as a high school student. Since then I have graduated from high school and college and attended additional training to develop my skills, because I wanted to make more money and get health care benefits. Maybe I should have sat on my ass and bitched about my employer not paying me enough instead of going out and doing something to improve myself. I have made as much as $40/hr. until this wonderful economy came along and our government decided more people needed freebies at my employer's expense and got laid off. I am still grateful to make $25/hr. with a new employer, but we can't keep burdening those of us who do work with more taxes for those of us who don't work or want to make the effort to improve. Yes, some people have fallen on hard times, but more government programs are not the answer. Communism is a great utopian idea until you add people to the equation who are either lazy, unmotivated or feel they have a right to what you have worked for without doing anything.
ReplyDeleteWhy not $15 per hr, or $20? Or $25? The logic is the same. As long as it's someone else' money I'm in favor of it.
ReplyDeleteMost businesses have budgets. If you have a budget for labor for X amount of dollars. Within that budget for labor you hire that a certain amount of employees.
ReplyDeleteWhen you gave government say we are going to increase the hourly wage close to $3 more an hour? The business budget on labor will not change. So get you get less employees making more money, and having to pick up the slack for the ones they can't hire/replace. So you will have less people - doing more work - yet will be paid more.
No doubt will be screaming about 'slave labor' then too.
The economy sadly is not at a point where most businesses can increase their labor budget. You might have higher wages, but less people working in the end. If the economy doesn't pick up? That won't change either.
There are many aspects to this picture that we need to look at.
If you live on minimum wage it is probably because you are
ReplyDeletelazy and unmotivated. Minimum wage is for no skilled labor and nothing more. The idea that a minimum wage is a wage to live on is flat out stupidity. Finish high school, go to college or a trade school, and get an education. Now you QUALIFY to make more. Until then, bust your arse like the rest of us have!!
I think if this goes thru then they should also pass a law that ALL people under a certain wage bracket should also be increased equally.
ReplyDeleteUPDATE --- Did I say $10.10? --- $15.00 an hour and indexed to inflation.
ReplyDelete