Posted on 02/26/2021 9:30:35 AM PST by USA Conservative
After the Senate parliamentarian ruled a minimum wage hike is not allowed in the COVID relief bill, Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) proposed a bill to require billion-dollar companies pay workers $15 an hour.
The requirement would apply to companies with revenues of $1 billion or more.
“For decades, the wages of everyday, working Americans have remained stagnant while monopoly corporations have consolidated industry after industry, securing record profits for CEOs and investment bankers,” said Hawley in a statement. “Mega-corporations can afford to pay their workers $15 an hour, and it’s long past time they do so, but this should not come at the expense of small businesses already struggling to make it.”
After 2025, the bill would require the minimum wage for the large companies to be indexed to the federal median wage.
The ruling that the minimum wage hike could not be passed through the reconciliation process — which Democrats are using to pass the relief bill without Republican support— was a setback for Democrats. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said he strongly disagreed with the decision, but is working on a backup plan.
Sanders said he would continue to push for a $15 minimum wage by looking at ways to raise taxes on companies paying workers less than that.
“In the coming days, I will be working with my colleagues in the Senate to move forward with an amendment to take tax deductions away from large, profitable corporations that don’t pay workers at least $15 an hour and to provide small businesses with incentives they need to raise wages,” Sanders wrote in his statement. “That amendment must be included in this reconciliation bill.”
It’s not clear if the needed 50 senators would vote for the Hawley, Wyden or Sanders proposals.
Costco has already set a new minimum wage standard: $16 an hour.
That puts the warehouse-style retailer, which topped $4 billion in profit in 2020, ahead of rivals including Amazon, Target, and Best Buy.
Also this week Signet Jewelers (SIG), the world’s largest retailer of diamond jewelry, announced it’s raising its minimum wage for all U.S. employees to $15 per hour, to take effect by the spring of 2022.
Yahoo Finance and the Harris Poll recently found Americans overwhelmingly support raising the minimum wage.
This news might come as a relief to the small businesses in America.
Government-mandated shutdowns may have killed 50% of small businesses in America. The bankruptcies are just beginning.
Nearly a year since coronavirus-related shutdowns began affecting large swaths of the American economy, more businesses are filing for bankruptcy as Chapter 11 filings were up nearly 20 percent in 2020 compared with the previous year, court records show
When I was 16 I had a job as a Stock Boy in Woolworth, after school.
The Manager was always about checking things. One time he found that an electric can opener box was empty, device stolen, box left on shelf. He calculated the value then handed me one of those things that put price stickers on items. He had me raise the price of a certain bar of soap by 10 cents. There were no scanners then. He compensated for the ‘Shrinkage’ and kept his Bottom Line stable. This was a very common practice.
This is just what will happen in these stores with these mandatory bonuses and wage increases. The cost will simply be move on to Consumers, especially in the Produce areas of Supermarkets. Everybody realizes this but it goes on anyhow.
Most people can easily see the folly of trying to legislate away the Laws of Physics. Would Gravity, Inertia, and Entropy cease to exist if a majority of legislators votes it so?
When a supposed “conservative” like Josh Hawley proposes decoupling the Law of Supply & Demand from economics, and dictating different “prices” based on “ability to pay”, it inspires ... disgust. Big Business has paid Congress to enact advantages and trade policies that enrich the Club, while keeping others out. Congress can properly help Small Business by eliminating those artificial advantages.
Shouldn’t I get reparations?
For quite a few years I worked for less than $8 an hour.
“He compensated for the ‘Shrinkage’ and kept his Bottom Line stable. This was a very common practice.”
And how did things work out for Woolworth?
So first step; make the e-verify wages are deductible and not verified wages are not for the first 5 years or so, then bake in the $15 minimum. Following the dem logic going back to the Reagan amnesty in 1986.
In some sense, I don’t care. IMHO America and the world’s largest companies benefit greatly an from a partnership with government - printed money, zero interest rates, open borders, Covid lockdowns, and globalist ideology.
On the other hand, $15/hour minimum won’t at all affect the worst among them - like Google or Goldman Sachs. The only thing worse than oligarchs, is the politicians and government they work with. It will still hit small business the hardest.
Print $$$ into oblivion and then force wages higher....Weimar 2.0 here we come.
YES!
The people who are most hurt by the $15 an hour wage are those on fixed incomes like people living on a pension or people who are unemployed. Everything will cost more so in the end the wage earner doesn’t win, the company will not lose as they will put up prices to match their outgoings. We have it here in Australia at about $22 and hour. That is a poor wage - a family could not live on one person working at that rate. Even though our unemployment and age pensions might seem generous numbers wise in reality it may be harder in bigger cities here to live because of the cost of produce, rent and utilities. High wages mean high prices - there is no avoiding it! For your particular scenario the larger companies usually provide the cheapest good like Walmart, Costco etc. So only putting their wages up may help the smaller business but not the poorer person if they aren’t getting the wage rise.
The idea to upgrade into WoolCo seemed to have failed. Of course in my area several ‘Department Store’ companies were busted by the Wal Mart invasion. Among those no longer in existence are Bradlees, Zayre, Ames, Calder, Kings, Stones, Rich's, and others which do not come to mind. Certainly Sears is going south as is K-Mart and other specialty stores.
As I recall, Woolworth morphed into certain specialty stores such as shoes. I have not kept up, but that Corporation as I last read survived closure of all the Five & Dime outlets.
No, the billionaires won’t pay $15.00 an hour.
Their customers will.
Woolworth did not adapt to the market and thereby failed.
Up until the 1970’s Woolworth met the demands of the market, but times have changed and Woolworth did not adapt.
As a kid, I did like the local Woolworth, but the 1970’s are long gone.
There are many more ways to potentially solve the problem of lack of pay than to mandate a floor wage. The one I most favor is profit-sharing, which has been implemented time and time again with employee-owned companies.
Hawley is an idiot. The government has no business telling companies how much to pay their employees no matter what the company makes. This idea of his shows he is really not a Republican.
Senator Hawley is only trying to head off a Democrat disaster. The Democrats are going to pass something anyway, so he’s introducing a bill that would be less destructive to business.
The Democrats have had much success with incrementalism during Republican administrations and congressional majorities. We either do the same when outnumbered by Democrats or lose.
GROSS OR NET REVENUES???
Big difference.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.