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Editorial: It's time to raise federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour - Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times ^ | Sept. 2, 2024 3 AM PT | The Times Editorial Board

Posted on 09/04/2024 6:17:46 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

It’s been 15 years since workers earning the federal minimum wage got a raise. The cost of living has gone up more than 45% since then, with rents and home prices rising faster than incomes in most regions of the country. Yet the nation’s wage floor has stayed stuck at $7.25 an hour.

That is poverty pay, and an increase to the federal minimum wage is long overdue. It’s mind-boggling that Congress has gone so long without making even modest adjustments to help the lowest-paid workers. This is the longest stretch of time without an increase to the federal minimum wage since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which established the right to a minimum wage.

Certainly there have been some attempts to lift the wage floor. Most recently Democrats floated the Raise the Wage Act of 2023 that would have gradually increased minimum pay to $17 by 2028. Republicans countered with $11 phased in over four years. Neither proposal has moved forward.

As part of her economic plan, Vice President Kamala Harris has called on Congress to send her a bill raising the minimum wage. She supported $15 an hour during the 2020 election, but hasn’t named a number this time.

Donald Trump, not surprisingly, has sent conflicting messages on raising the minimum wage over the years. In 2016, he said he wanted to raise the federal rate to at least $10, but later said minimum wage hikes should be left to the states, which is effectively what’s happening now.

Some 30 states and the District of Columbia have enacted higher wage floors, and many cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City, have adopted higher base pay than their states in recognition that it...

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Humor; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: california; californication; laslimes; losangelesslimes; minimumwage
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It’s been well above that for some time...not in law but in economic reality - look at what places were hiring people for fast food and gas station jobs, complete with full 401k benefits and other benefits.

But, if it will make these people feel better on paper, raise the law to being a $9.00 minimum wage.


21 posted on 09/04/2024 8:51:32 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: fwdude

L.A. Times must die. They are so stupid, they shouldn’t have a platform.


22 posted on 09/04/2024 9:26:15 PM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder to find.)
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To: cowboyusa

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Seems like pretty clear language to me. The power to fix wages is not granted to the Federal government by the Constitution so the Tenth Amendment applies. You are correct


23 posted on 09/04/2024 9:53:32 PM PDT by stremba
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To: OldArmy52

You cheap so and so! Why not make it $20000 an hour so we can all be filthy rich millionaaires?! Surely there is nothing that could go wrong with that.

(Google “nominal fallacy” in case you don’t get the sarcasm here)


24 posted on 09/04/2024 9:59:47 PM PDT by stremba
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To: Steve_Seattle

Most of us make quite a bit more than that. If you are making minimum wage you either are likely

1. A kid just starting out in the work force
2. Making some bad life choices

Most career-type jobs (and indeed many jobs that normally aren’t considered such) pay more than min wage. You don’t need a degree either. Trade employees like plumbers, carpenters, auto technicians, welders and electricians make significantly higher than minimum wage.

Further, anyone making money wage and trying to run a household will be eligible for the EITC plus various benefits like subsidized housing, food stamps and Medicaid that effectively increase their income beyond the amount you posted.


25 posted on 09/04/2024 10:07:23 PM PDT by stremba
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“We’ve screwed up OUR state, and companies are fleeing. So we need everyone else to screw up THEIR state so that the exodus might stop, or at least slow down”.


26 posted on 09/04/2024 10:52:26 PM PDT by FrankRizzo890
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To: Steve_Seattle

“How many of you tough talkers could live on that, or even 150% of that?”

We don’t have to, because we have real jobs. Screw you


27 posted on 09/05/2024 12:35:20 AM PDT by 1756-L85E
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Buccees in Texas pays their workers upwards of $25 an hour. When you have a thriving business, by sharing the wealth and profits with your employees you create happier employees and increase productivity.

You walk into a Buccees, the bathrooms are spotless, the people serving product to people are friendly and there is enthusiasm to do better. No union, no equality, it’s opportunity based. Do good, earn more. Do bad, you are first coached, then replaced if you do not improve.


28 posted on 09/05/2024 3:24:34 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (They aren't RINO's, they are Democrats. Let's call them what they are and be done with it.)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

Here we have “Parker’s Kitchen,” limited to coastal Georgia and South Carolina. They pay about the same, have good food, and are clean. From what I hear on the web, “Buccees” could give them a run for their money if it ever came out this way.


29 posted on 09/05/2024 3:44:39 AM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (“History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes” - Possibly Mark Twain.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Unbelievably stupid people making asinine childish economic requirements with a straight face and liberals believe this shxt.


30 posted on 09/05/2024 4:38:51 AM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Yeah, that’s the ticket. Raise the min wage, and then watch business owners adjust consumer pricing to reflect the raise in min wage, which forces more people to stay home because they can’t afford to buy anything, which then stagnates everything, and businesses close because they have no customers. Has any liberal or socialist/communist ever even thought about opening an economics textbook?


31 posted on 09/05/2024 5:06:44 AM PDT by USAF1985 (Joe McCarthy is a hero...he was absolutely, 100% correct! (Let’s go Brandon!))
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To: cowboyusa

The MW has passed three tests in the supreme court.


32 posted on 09/05/2024 5:11:16 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Minimum Wage just needs to be treated like SS and adjusted annually automatically and just be done with it.

Min Wage is an absolute joke today.

Min was 3.35 when I started working... today that would be the equivalent of 9.28 today.

The minimum wage the year I was born (1971) was $1.60, today that would be worth 12.43

This is just inexcusable.


33 posted on 09/05/2024 5:12:25 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: Vermont Lt
LOL. There is no historical data to back up the supposition the raising the minimum wage increases inflation.
34 posted on 09/05/2024 5:12:54 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: USAF1985

See 33. The federal minimum wage is a joke, and it needs to just be tied to inflation and adjusted automatically every year and be done with this nonsense every election year.


35 posted on 09/05/2024 5:13:38 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: stremba
What about inflation? If they raise minimum age to $10/hr a Big Mac will cost $5,000???
36 posted on 09/05/2024 5:14:43 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

$7.25 an hour? Why not make it $50, California? C’mon, man!


37 posted on 09/05/2024 5:17:21 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (The country bounces along like Custer on the way to Little Big Horn, thanks to Dear Leader)
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To: Steve_Seattle
The undercurrent from Free Republic is they think it is their God given right to get as much labor out of their workers and if US workers won't work for 3rd world wages offered then they will import foreign scabs. This goes from fry cook all the way to software engineer. I wonder how many here really have a problem with the open border as log as they will work for peanuts?
38 posted on 09/05/2024 5:19:46 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: COBOL2Java

We can’t have $2 million dollar US made hammers....


39 posted on 09/05/2024 5:20:26 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: HamiltonJay
The federal minimum wage is a joke, and it needs to just be tied to inflation and adjusted automatically every year and be done with this nonsense every election year.

Hear hear!!

40 posted on 09/05/2024 5:22:01 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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