Well, in the biggest match of the season, the Republicans dealt a severe blow to the poor working class today when it defeated a measure to increase the minimum wage by $2 over the course of two years.
Their reasoning? People who have minimum wage jobs now will be fired.
Does that make sense to anyone? Employers have employees because they need them. The minimum wage hasn't been raised in NINE years yet these same employers have raised prices of goods significantly in that time. Gas prices have gone up. Food prices have gone up. Housing costs have increased dramatically. Utilities have gone up in price ten-fold in some places. And the most important thing that should be rising to match these costs are the minimum wage.
And where are the Republicans? Asleep at the switch.
If you have a minimum wage job, it is now your duty to vote not-Republican in the next election.
This is just disgusting that people can't be paid better. If you pay people more, they spend more money. It would do what Bush said his tax cuts were going to do, but do it for real.
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6 comments:
Not just a minimum-wage job.
ANY job that pays less than $7.15/her--the new minimum under the bill.
-Bob
Who makes minimum wage? Pimply-faced teenagers.
Wages for many labor unions are often determined to be X dollars above the minimum wage. So when some politician starts flapping their gums about minimum wage, it's code for "vote for me and you'll get a pay raise."
That's not true. There are people out there getting screwed for minimum wage or less. There's people trying to support their families on Walmart and McDonalds salaries.
And teenagers spend the most money, giving them more would be a healthy boost to the economy.
Oh, but it is true. It's all so the union workers can make $22/hr. instead of $21/hr.
If people can't make ends meet at McD's or Walmart, we can and do help them out in other ways.
It's stupid to give teenagers from affluent families (80% of min. wage workers) a pay rise to help out these people.
And it does increase unemployment. The states with min. wage set above the federal level also consistently have unemployment above the federal level. And keep in mind, this doesn't threaten job security for people who make $50/hr., just the people in the lowest income brackets, you know, the ones you're trying to help out.
I'm not calling you a liar or anything, I would just like to see the study that says 80% of minimum wage workers are the children of affluent families.
The federal minimum wage is at its lowest point in 50 years.
"About 7.7 million American workers would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour...about 70 percent of those workers are adults over the age of 20. Nearly 42 percent of them work full-time. Over 62 percent are white; 15.8 percent are black; and 17.2 percent are Hispanic. At $5.15 per hour, a worker who works 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year earns just $10,712." (House Democrats.gov)
That's without any vacation or sick days. Yes, in this country the poor are hated by their neighbors and while the rich have many friends. (that's a quote)
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