Posted on 11/16/2006 11:10:42 AM PST by Quilla
It looks like full steam ahead for a significant boost to the federal minimum wage when Democrats assume control of Congress in January.
Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts said Thursday that increasing the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 would be his top priority as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
On the House side, incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., already has listed an increase in the minimum wage as one of the issues that would be taken up during the first 100 hours of the next Congress.
"Americans are working harder than ever, but millions of hardworking men and women across the country aren't getting their fair share," Kennedy said during a speech outlining his legislative agenda for next year. "We're not rewarding work fairly anymore, and working families are falling behind."
President Bush signaled readiness last week to consider some Democratic priorities such as a minimum-wage increase, overhauling immigration policy and finding compromise on renewing the No Child Left Behind education law.
Critics of boosting the minimum wage say it kills job creation as employers hire fewer entry-level workers to compensate for the higher wage expenses. Kennedy said the minimum wage has remained at $5.15 an hour for nearly 10 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Just in those states where incomes tend to be lower -- in the RED STATE SOUTH.
We're about to lose even more states to the Dems as people look for an activist government to save them from the effects of activist government.
That's quite an underanalysis of the issue.
Is the continued existance of the dollar menu really enough to convince you that there are no ill effects?
We have a small business, and we don't plan on hiring either. We're right at the turning point where we COULD use another pair of hands around there, but we'll just suck it up and each will do a little more work than we do now.
I'd like to see someone track this hike in the minimum wage against a spike in Unemployment and Crime over the next year. Low-wage jobs are needed for teens and adults who gave up on school, or don't speak English. If you can't even get a low-end job to start on The Path of Life, what's your alternative? Crime or welfare.
And to think that once upon a time I was THRILLED to get a job as a teen flipping burgers. Now, I guess kids just start at CEO? LOL!
Unemployment numbers will no doubt rise 2 months after this goes into effect. The minimum wage rise will be negated by consumer price increases.
Seems to me that if Webb and the rest of the Dimwit party wanted to help the avg. Joe here in the US, they wouldn't be wanting to raise our min. wage but they would be doing all they could to force China and India to raise THEIR minimum wage.
Now, why do you supposed they would never do that?
isn't it ironic that the democrats are always demanding the Iraqis stand up for themselves and take responsibility for their own destiny, if only the dems would demand the same of their constituents...
when are we going to cut and run from the war on poverty?
Of course this won't hurt the Pelosi business, because she uses illegals to harvest her grapes.
LOL.
Too True.
I think a raise to something like 6.15 would be okay and not cause a huge problem.
But, 7.25.......that is worrisome and could cause lots and lots of problems.
And they will enforce that how & by what authority?
You really don't think politicans think farther ahead then "I said it, you do it" do you?
It would be an extra $800/ month if you kept all four employees at the new wages.
While it doesn't seem that big, it could really hurt some businesses....
Your solution is what many will probably do.
Make it $1.10.
Oh, the horror! I might not want to buy their garbage anymore! /sarc
Your graph does not seem to show a straight correlation between increasing minimum wage as a fraction of average hourly wage and UNEMPLOYMENT FOR WORKERS WITH LESS THAN A HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION.
Why is it showing a downward trend when it reaches 0.4 or a little above 0.38 ?
I would expect it to be either linear (going up) but it clearly isn't.
Coming from a criminal/thief/murderer, what he wants is irrelevant. What fat boy and the others are over looking is that many people are going to laid off because their bosses can't afford to pay all of their employees that big of a raise.
Another thing that they don't understand is the minute they give all of these folks a raise, landlords, grocers, gas stations, etc are going to want 'their part' of the pay increase too, so they will raise their prices to compensate for what they think they are due, and no one really gets ahead. The big losers are the folks who got laid off because their small businessman could not afford raises for everyone.
It is a tiny percentage of the work force that actually makes minimum wage. There are department of labor statistics that show this. The Democrat's numbers are blatant lies that the press refuses to call them on, and the Republicans are afraid to call them on because they know they will be viciously attacked with more lies that the media will support if they do expose the lies.
As soon as the minimum wage gets raised, inflation and unemployment will follow soon after. Our economy shrinks a bit. Our competitiveness with imports decreases which shrinks our economy even more.
A portion of workers will make a bit more for a short time, but inflation will eat away at that, and a unemployment will make a considerable number of workers considerably worse off.
Liberals can't grasp the concept of cause and effect.
If the Dems really wanted to help low wage earners they would fight illegal immigration which floods the low end labor marked and depresses wages for manual laborers and some skilled trades considerably.
But they would rather try and buy votes with other people's money even if it damages the country overall.
Why is it showing a downward trend when it reaches 0.4 or a little above 0.38 ?
I don't think it does show such a trend. While there might be a couple of outliers, the overall trend is clear. Those couple of lowest points, outliers on the graph, are for the years 1999 and 2000 -- the best unemployment figures since 1970.
And I don't think we expect the trend to be completely linear. If the minimum wage is below the equilibrium price for low-skill workers, then it will tend to have little effect. It's only as the minimum wage exceeds this price that you get increases in unemployment. So we would expect the graph to first look a bit like a horizontal line followed by a line that slopes upward.
Union members rejoice, they're all getting a pay raise.
Damn you Kennedy
Does she and the other Dems supporting this really beiieve that any significant number of families are working for the minimum wage as their primary income?
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