Posted on 06/21/2006 10:17:11 AM PDT by Fractal Trader
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday defeated a proposal pushed by Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage in increments from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour by January 1, 2009.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, unsuccessfully tried to attach the proposal raising the wage for the first time since 1997 to a defense authorization bill that is expected to be passed by the Senate soon.
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
HAHAHA
The higher they make the minimum wage, the more jobs they open up for illegals.
The converse is also true. The less illegals you have, the higher the wage you will need to pay to American citizens. Therefore, no need to raise the minimum wage ... just get rid of the illegals and let the market forces work.
Hmph! The story didn't contain how many votes were for/against. It musn't have been close. otherwise they'd be lamenting how it might have passed.
Has nothing to do with either - raising the minimum wage raises the union pay scales too - that's what the Dims were after.
More good news!
I think this is the only issue that I depart from the views of my conservative bretheren. I think the Min wage should be raised. No one can live alone and provide any semblence of a "life" on minimum wage. I do agree that with a thimble full of initiative one should make more than minimum, but if we want our 16 - 18 year old's to truely learn life skills, we need to give them an honest chance. Our economy would survive just fine with an increase.
And so you don't want people to have to exert a "thimble full" of initiative. Just make the GUBMINT force employers to pay LAZY workers.
P.S. Mom... one of the most important 'life skills' that our youngsters can learn is that there is no free lunch, and that you must work hard and apply yourself, and not be a leach or parasite eating the fruits of others hard work.
You aren't supposed to live off minimum wage.
Minimum wage is intended for new hires, temp workers, unskilled laborers that are usually teenagers.
As you earn your keep, work hard, learn skills your wages increase. This usually happens as you pass your teenage years and move up the ladder. That is how it is supposed to work.
And if you don't want to spend your life doing this type of work, gain an education and you will start at a higher fixed rate for your entrance wage.
The market rewards skill, reliability, need, competence and education.
Besides, nothing prevents states from raising the minimum wage. I guarentee here in WA minimum wage is far higher then the set government standard. Why do we need the Feds to interfere with what constituents in their own states can pass if they desire it?
I support this move by the Senate.
Er..."forces"?! There is no such thing as far as human decisions are concerned. PEOPLE make the decisions. Not statistics.
And the higher go the wages for unions since they have contracts for raises tied to the minimum wage.
So raising the minimum wage is a two-fer for politicians. Unskilled, public school products AND union workers both vote for the folks who GIVE them someone else's money.
Your talking to a mother who raised two sons alone for 16 years (without a penny from Uncle Sam) and shoved them out the door at 16 to start sharing the household expenses. They are both quite successful grown men today. Please don't preach to the choir. You haven't changed my mind on minimum wage.
While true, it's the least important aspect of it.
The "least" important, eh? I think it's key to the problems of small business. But, that's just me.
This is good. My 16 year old honor student daughter has been trying to find a summer job for two months now. There seems to be a shortage of part-time minumum wage jobs these days. All the minimum wage jobs that are still around are being filled by illegals.
How can you raise a family or even yourself on $7.25 an hour? Considering 2080 hours/year of work at $7.25 an hour comes to $15080.00 per year. How can you possibly get by on that salary? Minimum wage is NOT designed to support families, mortgages, vehicles, insurance, food, etc. Anyone making minimum wage after...lets say...about age 21 is an absolute loser and must be living at home with Mom and Dad.
Go to college, trade school, military, etc. - apply yourself - continue to learn - and then get a real job.
Am I way off base here?
I wish it were that simple. There is a whole strata of native Americans who think it "slave work" to do the jobs that illegals do. I will say that it is getting harder and harder for high school kids to get jobs in the fast food places. When I came to the DFW area seven years ago, most of the workers behind the counter were Anglo or Tejano kids. Now I see more and more adults who are obviously neither .
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