[fieldmarshaldj]

Why not make it $100 an hour ?

[mylife]

It will kill jobs and put the squeeze on anyone whose wages are not tied to the minimum wage by driving up costs.

[jongaltsr]

I was working in a grocery store when the minimum wage went from 50 Cents to 75 cents.

That next week we raised the price on everything in the store and so did every other store in town.

[liberty or death]

It will cost 4 jobs in my company. Wife and I are selling out and taking our hard earned money with us. Working 7 days a week is actually fun so long as the government thieves don’t have their hands up your rectum steeling every penny and telling you you’re the greedy one.

Minimum wage is one thing but all the money and paperwork to keep worker comp, state income tax, state unemployment, fed unemployment, and all the payroll tax from both just makes creating and selling products no fun anymore.

[mountn man]

What a bunch of knuckleheads in the comments at the website.

Reminds me of DU...except without the vulgarity.

[Chode]

i guess having only as many children as you can afford means nothing so long as i/we have to take up their slack...

[morphing libertarian]

Gov providing more incentive to hire illegals and pay cash under the minimum wage. More low-end off-the-books jobs more illegal immigration.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Timothy Noah, The New Republic. "...whatever increase a minimum-wage increase brings about in the cost of hiring is offset by an increase in economic efficiency attributable to a drop in turnover and an increase in productivity. When you pay workers a decent wage — imagine this! — they give their employers better value."

That is one of the most breathtakingly stupid economic arguments I've ever read.

But we shouldn't be surprised. Mr. Noah is a graduate of Harvard College, from which he obtained a degree in English in 1980. He was on the prose board of the Harvard Advocate. That explains his robust and brilliant economic knowledge.

[entropy12]

Washington state already has minimum wage over $9/hour.
Unemployment rate in WA in Dec 2012 was 7.6% and dropping.
During the same month, national rate was 7.8% and steady.

However because of the highest minimum wage in country, teenagers are having tough time finding summer jobs. I know
this from first hand experience. My kids and their friends
were teenagers until last year.

[Teacher317]

$9 minimum wage: Poverty reducer or job killer?

Well, let's look at recent history:
In 2007, unemployment was mostly around 5.4%.
In 2008, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi passed a raise in the minimum wage.
In 2009, unemployment reached 9.8%, and still hovers around 8% even 3 years later.
During this entire 5 year period, poverty has not shrunk (we went from 17 million on food stamps in 2000 to 47 million today), prices are higher (gas went from $1.89 to $3.50, and milk went from $3.19 to $4.89 per gallon), and the national debt has exploded.

So, please tell us how any fair-minded and rational adult does not already know the answer to the title question?

[quantim]

I would pick lettuce for $50 an hour as that asshat McCain...

Never mind.

[Kickass Conservative]

Raise the Minimum Wage 20% when you Cut Entitlement Benefits 20%. Sounds like a winner to me.

[Little Pig]

This has absolutely zero to do with helping “poor” families, and everything to do with helping his union cronies. Union wages are tied to the minwage, so an increase bumps the income of all the union parasites.

[RC one]

The last time they raised the minimum wage, from $6.55/hr to $7.25/hr- back in 2008-09, the economy crashed, unemployment skyrocketed, and we're still not recovered from it. Just sayin'.

[jdirt]

Job creator—

for ilegal immigrants

[Venturer]

This argument to raise the minimum wage only appeals to total idiots.

If you raise the minimum wage the price of whatever the minimum wage worker works at goes up.

When that goes up everything goes up ,everyone seeks more money and it just starts the cycle of inflation again.

Within a couple of weeks the figure for the p[overty level has moved up and the same poor bastids who were on it before are right back on it.

[driftdiver]

Why does someone with no skills, education or work history deserve $9 an hour?

[ConservativeInPA]

"Even with the tax relief we've put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong," Obama said.

Can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em. I mean the breed part literally, since the bastard pResident knows from personal experience that a father's role is only to be a sperm donor. A family with two kids, has a fat lazy ass mom, two thug rats and two sperm donors. That's Obama's America.

[ConservativeInPA]

"Even with the tax relief we've put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong," Obama said.

Can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em. I mean the breed part literally, since the bastard pResident knows from personal experience that a father's role is only to be a sperm donor. A family with two kids, has a fat lazy ass mom, two thug rats and two sperm donors. That's Obama's America.

[central_va]

The lefties know that they have raised entitlements too fast. They are scared. The increase in minimum wage is their solution, Reducing benefits would never occur to them.