Posted on 09/13/2006 12:04:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
As expected, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a minimum wage bill Tuesday that will boost the hourly rate by 75 cents in January, followed by another 50 cents a year later. The result will be $8 an hour, which will be the highest state minimum wage in the nation, if other states' rates remain the same.
The increase is a compromise between the Republican governor and Democratic lawmakers who had been at odds over the issue for the past two years.
At a bill-signing ceremony in Los Angeles, Schwarzenegger reiterated that California's economy simply wasn't ready until this year.
"When I became governor, California's economy and finances were in a wreck," said the governor, who vetoed minimum wage bills the last two years.
However, in this election year, in which polls have shown that raising the minimum wage is a popular issue among voters, the governor has changed his tune, arguing that the state's economy has sufficiently improved to pay the lowest earners more.
Schwarzenegger originally proposed a $1 raise, the same amount as a bill introduced by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, but lacked the legislation's call for indexing, or automatic increases tied to the inflation rate.
Even while both sides said they would like to reach a compromise, the governor appointed a previously dormant Industrial Welfare Commission in May to consider and implement his proposal.
--snip--
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Now...$6.75
January...$7.50
January 2008...$8.00
No. It's not. It won't become law until January 1st.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks after signing into law Assembly Bill 1835 that will raise the state minimum wage from $6.75 to $8.00 per hour, during a ceremony in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2006. The increase will take place in two steps: a 75-cent-per-hour raise on Jan. 1, 2007, and another 50 cents on Jan. 1, 2008.
(AP Photos/Reed Saxon)
The Fat Lady couldn't make it there in time, Sooooo...
We're in big DEbt-ooooo.... But what the heck-oooo?
And before long, Dems and RINOs like Arnold will say $8 will not be enough. The slippery slope of stupidity continues....
Will it become more difficult for the unemployed and graduating students to actually find work?
Living north of California in Oregon, should I be worried about an increase in the flow of California hippies?
Or will this just be a blip on the radar, the frog sitting in slowly heating water?
Looks like Babs will have to give her staff raises.
Half the businesses here hire illegals anyways, and this will only encourage them. Why pay $8 when you can pay $4?
Why didn't he just raise it to $20 an hour? $40K a year is a better living wage!
They're pretty much all already here.
It could drive more illegals up here, but then again, the people employing illegals don't exactly do everything "by the book," so this wage hike won't affect them.
Silly me.
Ya see the Gub has an old flame coming out with a new book ...
I betcha hope they make a Lifetime movie using the book .. party time..
A photograph of Arnold Schwarzenegger and his then girlfriend Barbara Outland Baker taken in Malibu, California in 1972 is displayed on the cover of Baker's self-published memoir. Barbara Outland Baker, 58, met Schwarzenegger in 1969 and they dated for six years, living together for four of them, a time during which he became the world's most famous muscleman. (Courtesy of Barbara Baker - UNITED STATES/Reuters)
Arnold Schwarzenegger and his ex-girlfriend Barbara Outland Baker (R) pose for a photo in Schwarzenegger's office in Santa Monica, California June 17, 2004. Barbara Outland Baker, 58, met Schwarzenegger in 1969 and they dated for six years, living together for four of them, a time during which he became the world's most famous muscleman. Photo taken on June 17, 2004. QUALITY FROM SOURCE (Courtesy of Barbara Baker - UNITED STATES/Reuters)
Add to this the whole "homo agenda" effort in public education, the 'social health care' plan, and the Liberal tendency to accept and excuse radical Islam and you have a very strange brew brewing in that state...
Every time I read of Arnold signing off on another leftist agenda item or hiring a leftist homosexual chief of staff or whatever I remember all those posts from people who wanted to amend the constitution so he could run for the presidency. And I laugh. And then I think of Rudy Giuliani
who would govern much like Arnold (isn't Rudy a "fiscal conservative" but "social liberal" too?).
Look at Arnie and see Rudy.
The legislature still writes the laws. But, it sounds like something the CA legislature might go for when they re-convene. They seem willing to sponsor just about any pipe dream. Hey! $20/hr. And make firing illegal. We, too, can be French!
Though to be fair, someone like Bruce Willis would probably do a much better job, even though he's from Hollywood too, imo.
Gov. Schwarzenegger signed AB 1835 by Assemblymember Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View) that will raise the minimum wage to $8 an hour by January 1, 2008, which is greater than any other state.
"Raising the minimum wage is something I have wanted to do for a long time and I am happy that this year, we have the right bill and the powerhouse economy we need to get this done," said Gov. Schwarzenegger. "Since I came into office, we have added nearly 600,000 new jobs, unemployment is less than 5 percent, and the state's revenues are up by almost $20 billion. The California economy is a raging, roaring success and now is the time to make sure that everyone is getting to share in this prosperity."
Currently, the minimum wage is $6.75 an hour. The $1.25 increase in the minimum wage will be phased in, with an increase of 75 cents on January 1, 2007 and an increase of 50 cents on January 1, 2008. The last time the minimum wage was raised was more than 4 years ago in January 2002.
In 2004, Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have hiked the minimum wage by $1 because it was "not the time to create barriers to our economic recovery or reverse the momentum we have generated." In 2005, he said he would have been willing to sign a $1 minimum wage increase, but was forced to veto a measure that contained indexing, saying the "autopilot mechanism fails to account for changes in the economy which could have deleterious effects on the economic health of the state."
According to 2004 U.S. Census Bureau data (the most current information available):
Economics 101: the economy is never ready for these stupid mandates. Let the darn market work!
Not being in California I really don't know, but does it really have a "powerhouse economy" at present?
January...$7.50
Expect a 10-15% drop in low-income employment.
January 2008...$8.00
Another 5% at least.
Liberals -- hurting their supporters for 2 centuries.
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