Free Republic

With the “Fight for $15 External link ” making headlines, opinions abound about whether raising the federal minimum wage will have a positive or negative effect on unemployment rates. Advocates of an increase cite the impossible task of making ends meet on today’s paltry sum of $7.25 an hour and say an increase would have little effect on the overall economy. Those against such a move predict that doing so would cause employers to lay off more and hire less—raising unemployment rates as a result. As is often the case with such emotionally charged issues, especially in an election year,...

Students at the University of Washington in Tacoma are getting an object lesson in the value of a dollar. As economic dominoes fall in the wake of a municipal minimum wage hike to $15 per hour in Seattle, university students find themselves digging deeper into their pockets to cover higher prices resulting from the mandate

"(CHICAGO) Yet another minimum wage proposal is in the works at City Hall where Mayor Rahm Emanuel was already talking up the issue."

After you heard President Obama's call for a hike in the minimum wage, you probably wondered the same thing I did: Was Obama sent from the future by Skynet to prepare humanity for its ultimate dominion by robots? But just in case the question didn't occur to you, let me explain. On Tuesday, the day before Obama called for an increase in the minimum wage, the restaurant chain Applebee's announced that it will install iPad-like tablets at every table. Chili's already made this move earlier this year. With these consoles customers will be able to order their meals and pay...

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Dozens of demonstrators lined up outside an east side Detroit McDonald’s restaurant in an effort to protest what one man called “slave wages” for fast-food workers.

Dozens of people gathered outside Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's locations Downtown on Thursday morning to protest low wages as part of a national campaign energizing fast-food workers. Carrying placards and shouting slogans such as “No justice, no doughnuts,” about 75 people rallied in front of the Dunkin Donuts in Market Square and the nearby McDonald's on Stanwix Street. The actions are part of push by labor unions, worker advocacy groups and Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25. President Obama says he would back a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour, and on Wednesday addressed income equality in...

Hourly wage increases advocated by labor groups could kill more than 450,000 jobs, according to a new report. Union-backed labor groups, including Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15, are staging nationwide walk-outs and demonstrations at fast food chains across the country calling for starting wages of $15 per hour. Their success could spell economic disaster for nearly 20 percent of the nation’s 2.5 million fast food workers, according to an analysis from the Employment Policies Institute. “We find that roughly 460,000 jobs would be lost in the fast food industry as a consequence of a $15 minimum wage,” the...

If Seattle fast workers demanding a big raise in the minimum wage get their way, they'll soon be replaced by robots says KIRO Radio's John Curley, who points to growing automation as a warning to those who want $15 an hour or more to flip burgers. A group of local fast food workers recently staged a one-day walkout and are calling on the Seattle City Council to increase the minimum wage from $9.19 per hour - the highest in the country - to $15 an hour. "We're asking for $15 because in order to support one person in a one...

The Huffington Post reports that McDonald’s could double its workers wages by raising the price of a Big Mac by 68 cents. It went large on the Internet on Tuesday. Unfortunately, what it originally claimed was a study by a University of Kansas researcher turns out to be something—a term paper, maybe?—given to Huffington Post by a KU undergrad. And there are serious problems with it. The correction on its provenance came too late, though: it’s all over the internets: McDonald’s can afford to pay its workers a living wage without sacrificing any of its low menu prices, according to...

Australian employer groups have slammed a $26.60 pay claim for 1.6 million low-paid workers. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) said the ACTU's claim for next year's National Minimum Wages Case was "excessive and irresponsible". "The claim - 5.9 per cent on the minimum wage - is more than double rises in the cost of living (2.6 per cent)," ACCI chief executive Peter Hendy said in a statement. He said the claim would unfairly target small and medium sized businesses, preventing them from putting on new staff. "Increasing the costs of doing business does not create one new...

<p>Already mired in workers' compensation costs and skyrocketing health care, San Francisco small businesses worry whether they can handle another blow delivered by the new minimum wage increase.</p> <p>Restaurant owners have been especially vocal in their opposition to the raises since most of their service staff will see their base pay go up to $8. 50 an hour from $6.75 an hour, on top of the tips they already receive.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Advocates for the poor hope city voters' approval of a minimum wage well above the federal minimum marks a precedent that spreads beyond this liberal bastion. Sixty percent of San Francisco voters Tuesday endorsed a citywide $8.50-an-hour minimum wage affecting virtually all employers, not just those receiving municipal contracts. The passage of Proposition L makes San Francisco the nation's third city with its own wage threshold. "Starting with some of the progressive cities, I expect this movement to move to a wide range of communities across the country," said Paul Sonn, a lawyer with the Brennan...

San Francisco-AP -- San Francisco is one of the most expensive places to live -- and voters there are trying to make it a little more affordable. They've approved a ballot measure boosting the minimum wage to eight-dollars and 50 cents an hour. That's more than three dollars above the federal minimum wage and will apply to virtually every employer in San Francisco. The federally required minimum wage of five-15 an hour is far below the federal poverty level. Yesterday's vote makes San Francisco the third city in the country to set its own higher wage threshold. Backers are hoping...

Voters here must decide whether employers should have to pay their workers a minimum wage that mirrors the cost of living in one of the nation's most expensive cities. Proposition L, one of 14 measures on the city ballot Tuesday, would impose an $8.50-per-hour minimum wage on all employers in the city, not just those awarded municipal contracts. The state's hourly minimum wage is $6.75, and the minimum required under federal law is $5.15. The initiative's backers, who include advocates for the poor, labor unions and San Francisco's elected supervisors, maintain that a city-specific pay mandate is long overdue in...

NBC’s Campbell Brown on the losers behind Bush’s child tax credit — minimum-wage families May 29 -- At Wednesday's signing ceremony President Bush hailed the tax-cut bill for how much it will help families. But NBC's Campbell Brown reports that's not true for families making minimum wage. By Campbell Brown NBC NEWS May 29 — At Tuesday’s White House signing ceremony for the tax-cut bill, President Bush lauded the tax cut for how much it would help families, saying it would add “$400 per child to 25 million eligible families” and promising that the check is in the mail. “Those...