Posted on 11/12/2006 10:01:34 AM PST by jamesrichards
Minimum Wage Hike Now Likely
The biggest winners in last week's congressional elections may be workers currently earning the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. Democrats have made a top priority to boosting the federal minimum wage for the first time in almost a decade — and President Bush has signaled he will go along.
Voters in six states — impatient with the Bush administration and the out-going Republican-led Congress — voted last week to hike their state minimum wage, bringing to 28 the number of states that have acted on their own to boost wages.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the presumptive House speaker, said she wants to immediately move to raise the national minimum wage. Her counterpart in the Senate, Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, has said he will make a wage increase one of the first few bills that the chamber takes up next year.
The federal minimum wage, which sets the floor for hourly pay in many low-skilled jobs nationwide, was last increased in 1997 — making the last nine years the second-longest stretch without a boost since the legal minimum was established in 1938. Back then it was 25 cents an hour.
Democrats said workers were forced to go to the states and to ballot-initiatives for relief because lawmakers on Capitol Hill have failed to raise the minimum wage — while raising their own pay each year.
“Washington wouldn't act on raising the minimum wage, so America did — and now the new Congress will,” said Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
Kennedy has proposed boosting the minimum wage by 70 cents three times over the next three years — bringing it to $7.25.
Congress came close to hiking the minimum wage last summer after Republican leaders packaged the Kennedy plan with a conservative-backed cut in the estate tax and a series of tax cuts for businesses.
Republicans had hoped the popularity of a minimum wage increase would buy support for the tax cuts, but Democrats and moderate Republicans in the Senate objected to tying the issues together and blocked the package after it had won House approval.
Republicans — backed by the Chamber of Commerce, small business owners and the American Restaurant Association — have generally opposed minimum-wage increases. They argue that an increase could force some employers to lay off some workers or cut some entry-level jobs to compensate.
For small businesses, “their cash flow is far more precarious,” said Marc Freedman, director of labor policy for the Chamber of Commerce.
“Their ability to absorb an increase in (wages) without an increase in production is very difficult,” Freedman said. As a result, Freedman argued, small business will raise prices, take less profit, cut benefits or lay off workers.
Supporters of an increase, including labor unions, insist that the federal minimum wage is the single factor determining how much money millions of Americans take home from their jobs — and that families can't make ends meet on $5.15 an hour.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal non-partisan research group, an estimated 6.6 million workers would immediately benefit if the federal minimum wage jumped to $7.25 by 2008.
Bush has signaled he is receptive to boosting the minimum wage. In a news conference Nov. 8, Bush said a hike is “an area where I believe we can find common ground.”
But, Bush said, he wants to ensure that any wage increase has “compensation for the small businesses” — a sign he still wants to see a some kind of tax cut tied into a wage hike.
Gop didn't campaign against what the dems would do.
No funding for the fence.
Conyers wants to make racial profiling against arabs illegal.
Do the people in virginia know about john conyers.
Leahy wants terrorists to get habeus corpus rights.
And damn Bush. The dems blocked his whole agenda through filibuster now he couldn't wait one second to run to the mike with tony snow and talk about passing their liberal agenda.
That is what the message people missed.
It is one thing to kick out the congress with a conservative congress.
But you kicked out the only conservative firewall.
Now major league RINO Bush is already giving the dems two bills to pass amnesty and minimum wage. And the whole party will be blamed for Bush.
Dems purposefully blocked all the gop bills to make them look bad but with bush the dems have their rino to pass their liberal agenda.
It would be one thing if cheney was in office but this white house is so rinoish it is scary.
The last few months seeing how they have dealt with israel I finally realized what rinos they are. Bush wants to give weapons to the plo.
This is like the dems having all three branches of govt.
It would have been better to have a dem president and a gop congress than a liberal congress and a rino to pass their whole agenda.
Bush now with his political tone deafness kicked out our congress now he is in full destruction mode of what is left of the party.
So far we have amnesty and minimum wage what else can we look forward too.
These are going to be a long next two years.
We have the liberal agenda coming.
So everyone will have to get a raise, and the gap will be the same. If the unskilled get a freebie, those who are skilled will need their wages increased. It's only fair.
The higher cost of wages will be passed on to the consumer. All the democrats are doing is making it harder for everyone. They just can't do anything right.
I heard John Mccain saying the same thing today on russert's show. No hike without a cut.
This looks to be a very, very bad two years.
Minimum wage increases, amnesties for illegal aliens, "moderate" judges (code for left-of-center), even more gun control and God only knows what else.
As long as the far-left's demands are met, everything will be "smooth" and "bipartisan." The second the conservatives ask for anything, it will be "Bush is dividing the country" garbage. Bush, please, grow a spine and veto, veto and veto some more.
And when the nuke goes off, they'll try to blame Bush for it.
Democrats are deadly. The MSM propaganda worked, and America lost.
Or maybe the biggest winners will be the union thugs who have their wages indexed to the minimum wage. (For example: minimum wage + $25.)
How is this so hard to understand? When the minimum wage increases, unemployment increases. The minimum wage should be abolished at all levels of government.
Whatever. But I wonder if the "Institute" factored in the number of those jobs that are going to be lost due to soemthing other than the market dictating what a non skilled laborer is paid. Small business will not raise prices as the first option. They'll cut costs and the most expensive cost is the cost of labor. It'll be incremental as the wage is ratcheted up over the years....
RINO - I'll second that.
My highschool age daughter got her first job a month ago. Part time in a burger joint but pays $6.00 an hour and she'll be up to $6.75 in 2 more months.
Baby steps for now but she'll be on the ladder to success in a few more years.
bingo
Minimum wage hike will be followed within 6 months with an inflationary rise in prices as the new wage trickles throughout the economy.
Minimum Wage Hike = Instant Inflation
What on earth is a liberal non partisan research group? If they're liberal, then they are, by definition, partisan. And not partisan in a realistic way!
Why dont they just save jobs by not increasing min wage and double the proposed tax cut?
GW will have an earlier time filling 2 SC positions, now. One with Alberto Gonzales and the other with Harriet Miers.
lol
This is obviously targeted at union indexes.
Doesn't it tell you something when Bush finds it easier to do something with a democratic majority and Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the house (like passing an amnesty for illegal aliens bill)?
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