Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Obama: Pay gap ‘morally wrong’
The Hill ^ | - 07/30/13 05:00 AM EDT | By Peter Schroeder

Posted on 07/30/2013 3:42:05 AM PDT by onyx

President Obama is changing gears on the economy, highlighting income inequality as a growing problem in advance of pitched fall battles with congressional Republicans over funding the government and raising the debt ceiling. [WATCH VIDEO]

The focus is intended to make it easier for Obama to argue that new taxes on the rich — and not cuts to social spending — should be imposed to lower the deficit.

It also dovetails with Obama’s call for Congress to raise the federal $7.25 minimum wage and to end the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.

“This growing inequality is not just morally wrong, it’s bad economics,” Obama said in remarks last week in Galesburg, Ill., where he began a new push on the economy.

“The income of the top 1 percent nearly quadrupled from 1979-2007, but the typical family’s incomes barely budged,” he said.

The president reiterated that message in an interview with The New York Times last week.

“If we stand pat, if we don’t do anything … income inequality will continue to rise,” he told the newspaper. “Wages, incomes, savings rates for middle-class families will continue to be relatively flat. And that’s not a future that we should accept.”

Obama is also discussing the matter in private.

During a meeting earlier this month with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said he pressed Obama to issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to provide higher wages.

“He said it’s something that he would take a close look at,” said Ellison, the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “He should seriously look at doing that because he might be able to help a whole bunch of workers.”

Opponents of raising the minimum wage, including many Republicans and business groups, argue an increase would hurt small businesses already injured by the recession and slow recovery.

And if those small businesses cannot afford to pay the mandated boost, they will end up laying off workers, opponents contend.

There is evidence that income inequality has grown since the economic recession of 2008-2009.

Economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty found that between 2009 and 2011, 121 percent of income gains went to the richest 1 percent of the population, according to a report in CBS News.

The other 99 percent, the two said, saw their incomes fall by about half a percent over the same period.

When adjusted for inflation, low-wage workers are actually making less now than they did 50 years ago.

According to a June study from the Congressional Research Service, inflation-adjusted wages have declined from a peak in 1968 and now stand roughly 26 percent below that level when adjusted for price growth. Workers would have to make $10.70 now to make an amount equal to the purchasing power of 1968’s $5.65 minimum wage.

Labor statistics indicate that a relatively small portion of the working population brings home the minimum wage. According to the Labor Department, just 4.7 percent of the 75.3 million workers in the U.S. in 2012 received the minimum wage or lower. (Some wait staff earn less than the middle wage because a portion of their income is paid in tips.)

Of that population, roughly half are under the age of 25 — employees aged 16-19 make up one-fifth of all minimum wage workers.

If Obama can’t convince Congress to raise the minimum wage, he’d be the first president since Ronald Reagan to not sign a wage hike into law.

The minimum wage hasn’t been increased since 2009, when the final stage of a three-step increase approved by Congress in 2007 was implemented.

Before last week, Obama had talked little about the minimum wage since calling for it to be increased in his State of the Union address.

Growing income inequality “undermines the very essence of America,” he told the crowd in Galesburg.

The White House is also making a last stand of sorts on the sequester.

It pressed Congress to undo the cuts earlier this year to no avail, and now faces another year of significant budget cuts unless a deal can be reached to replace them.

Republicans have shown little sign that they would accept the elimination of tax breaks, particularly after the fiscal cliff deal at the beginning of the year raised tax rates on households with annual income above $450,000.

House Democrats are pushing to end the sequester and have offered legislation that would boost the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and index it to inflation.

Proponents hope protests from fast-food workers, along with Obama’s calls, will galvanize public support.

Ellison and other liberal Democrats are backing strikes held by workers at McDonald’s and other restaurants demanding a $15 minimum wage, as well as the right to unionize.

“There is a groundswell movement going on,” Ellison said. “They’re pressed so hard to the wall that they don’t have any other choice.”

Ellison, who worked at a McDonald’s between high school and college, said workers in the industry earn every penny they make.

“I know it’s hard work. You come home bathed in grease,” he said.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: minimumwage; obamalies
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-114 next last
To: freedomfiter2
I don't disagree and wasn't making a statement about the validity of the Pope's statement. I was pointing to Obama’s ‘theft’ of the Holy Father's remarks and applying it to his own agenda.
61 posted on 07/30/2013 5:58:27 AM PDT by liberalh8ter (The only difference between flash mob 'urban yutes' and U.S. politicians is the hoodies.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: onyx

How bout we have income TAX equality? How bout that you MARXIST pile of dog sh!t!


62 posted on 07/30/2013 6:00:13 AM PDT by unixfox
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ThunderSleeps

Just read this AM some company in Michigan bought Elan Corp in Ireland...now they can move their operations to Ireland where the Corp tax is 12.5%. Good bye USA, Hello Emerald Isle...(we need St Patrick here to chase out the snakes in government).

As far as family income staying flat since 79, well Oboingo, my income from 79 to now has gone up more than 500% not counting for inflation which means it probably has gone up about 200% in constant dollars. Why is that? Well, I changed jobs a few times and each time found one with more responsibility in another state, I gained experience in each position, did well, and completed some additional education to my bachelors degree. I was never arrested, don’t do drugs, am married to a woman, my hair is closely cropped, I have no tatoos, paid off all my debts, did not go bankrupt and received no government assistance. BTW, Oboingo, I started out at minimum wage which was $1 an hour while I attended school.


63 posted on 07/30/2013 6:06:31 AM PDT by Mouton (108th MI Group.....68-71)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: onyx
Growing income inequality “undermines the very essence of America,” he told the crowd in Galesburg

Of course, because as everybody knows, when the country was founded, we all made the same amount of money.

64 posted on 07/30/2013 6:17:45 AM PDT by Cincinatus (Omnia relinquit servare Rempublicam)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: onyx

Raise it to $521/hour and we can all make 1 million a year. Better yet, just print the money and give it to me, why work for it? That’s just another inconvenient step...


65 posted on 07/30/2013 6:23:41 AM PDT by Brett66 (Where government advances, and it advances relentlessly , freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: onyx

How much money is on the sidelines, enriching the ultra-wealthy, because people are holding off investment because of our current regulatory environment?


66 posted on 07/30/2013 6:30:16 AM PDT by Haiku Guy (Gun Control Haiku: Say "Registration" / And they call you paranoid / So say "Privacy")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: onyx

Democrats are immoral.


67 posted on 07/30/2013 6:47:11 AM PDT by popdonnelly (The right to self-defense is older than the Constitution.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: onyx
A few points:

(1) When half the working age population is on the government dole it tends to drag down the average family income.

(2) Class envy sells well to those who would prefer not to exert the effort needed to be responsible and productive citizens.

(3) People making the minimum wage in 1968 paid meaningful income taxes. Today they get an earned income tax credit, food stamps and a housing voucher.

(4) McDonalds has built a system that allows them to get by with otherwise unemployable workers. If the employees were good at what they are doing they would be waiting tables at a good resturant and making decent money.

68 posted on 07/30/2013 6:52:22 AM PDT by Senator_Blutarski
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: onyx

So Obama, are you saying your trickle up poverty schemes are not working?


69 posted on 07/30/2013 6:58:47 AM PDT by taxcontrol
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: onyx
So speaks the Marxist hypocrite. Obama vacays among the wealthy elite and takes every tax break available.
70 posted on 07/30/2013 7:11:48 AM PDT by RginTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: onyx

This growing inequality is not just morally wrong, it’s bad economics,” Obama said in remarks last week in Galesburg, Ill., where he began a new push on the economy.”

What the heck does he know about economics, bad or good? Did he see the stimulus as good? Cash for clunkers as good? Billions in loans and subsidies to green companies that go bankrupt as good?

“The income of the top 1 percent nearly quadrupled from 1979-2007, but the typical family’s incomes barely budged,”

Interesting that he stops at 2007. I wonder what the figured are from 2007 to today.


71 posted on 07/30/2013 7:22:24 AM PDT by lowbridge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MinuteGal
***He's intent on ruling by fiat, he's surrounded by a marxist palace guard.....he's travelling the country setting the stage for rioting and street warfare......and he's actually out of our control because he's unchecked by any determined opposition or Justice Department reins***

Ditto! Clearly an act of a person dedicated to dividing and destroying America - with the help of many stupid as well as traitorous citizens [and probably illegal aliens].

Don't be too confident that he is a lame duck... I am not convinced he will leave power in Jan of 2017... he has all the earmarks of all the tyrants we saw in the 20th century. With his computer files on all 'opposition' he can demand an extension of his term without much opposition.

State secession may be the only answer.

72 posted on 07/30/2013 9:03:09 AM PDT by Bob Ireland (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: onyx
ObamaCare's requirements are a defacto increase in the minimum wage for anyone working over 30 hours a week at one job, because it forces additional compensation in the form of subsidized health insurance benefits.

Today, as a minimum wage worker, to get more compensation, you need to work more hours at the same job. Raising the minimum wage would hurt ObamaCare, first because it would increase the employers' push to part-time jobs, and it would make it more lucrative for those with multiple sub-30 hour jobs.

In fact, I bet someone could make more take-home pay working two 20-hour part time minimum wage jobs and paying the ObamaCare penalty than working one 40-hour minimum wage job and buying the required subsidized health insurance from their employer.

73 posted on 07/30/2013 9:11:24 AM PDT by magellan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MinuteGal; gonzo; seekthetruth
...Oh, and let us not forget that the Administration proposes to recalculate the definition of the Gross National Product. By including bird droppings and cough phlegm in the GNP we can reduce the debt-to-GNP ratio to a point where we can borrow [or counterfeit] another $17 trillion worth of digital paper in debt...

How does all this end well? Even the $ trillions that Wall Street is compiling may be needed to buy just one Big Mac.

74 posted on 07/30/2013 9:11:29 AM PDT by Bob Ireland (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Bob Ireland

Does that mean that the Obama’s are going to share some of their wealth with poor and hungry?


75 posted on 07/30/2013 9:13:33 AM PDT by Eva (B Obama is to Trayvon Martin as Al Sharpton is to Tawana Brawley)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: Eva
***...the Obama’s are going to share some of their wealth....***

:-D Are you referring to King Louis 'bama XVI and his lovely Harpie Marie 'bama Antoinette?

All they can offer to share is their hatred.

76 posted on 07/30/2013 9:26:16 AM PDT by Bob Ireland (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

Comment #77 Removed by Moderator

To: onyx

This mentally-diseased, morally-corrupt jackass of a communist is lecturing the country on what’s “morally right & wrong”? BONG! Next comedian, please!!!


78 posted on 07/30/2013 9:51:46 AM PDT by lgjhn23 (It's easy to be liberal when you're dumber than a box of rocks.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TruthShallSetYouFree

Excellent example:

“Suppose I own a coal mine. I hire two guys to dig coal for me. One guy is weak and lazy and only digs up a ton a day. The second guy is strong and hard-working and digs up 2 tons a day. What would be fair—paying them the same amount (thus eliminating “income inequality”) or paying them according to their output?

Suppose I hire a third guy who is of a scientific bent and who invents a digging machine that can extract 100 tons of coal a day. He had worked for years developing the machine, which cost him a great deal of money to manufacture. By employing his machine in my coal mine, I can generate profits equal to that of 100 times that of my slow worker, or 50 times that of my fast worker. Is it “fair” if I pay the inventor the same amount that I pay digger one or digger two? Or is the “pay gap” that would occur if I pay the inventor an amount proportionate to his production unfair?”

Now, add another parameter to the above.

The desire to succeed + the necessary skills to succeed are obtained and maintained by the individual worker.

Take two individuals, who will use the new coal digging machine:

Group 1. The first is an entitle EO union thug, who feels he/she/it is entitled to the same pay as anyone. He/she/it will perform at the bottom of a performance scale and never do anything to increase their skills and productivity.

Group 2. The second individual doesn’t believe in entitlement, he/she studies hard and works with improved knowledge and consistently out performs the entitled ones, in group 1. He/she consistently out produces the group 1’s.

In Obama’s world, he/she is not entitled to any more pay in spite significantly of their individual higher produtivity.


79 posted on 07/30/2013 10:08:30 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Having a discussion with liberals is like shearing pigs. Lots of squealing & little fleece!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Bob Ireland

“Don’t be too confident that he is a lame duck... I am not convinced he will leave power in Jan of 2017... he has all the earmarks of all the tyrants we saw in the 20th century. With his computer files on all ‘opposition’ he can demand an extension of his term without much opposition.”

When he was first running for el Presidento, many of us were warning that he could become another FDR and never leave office.


80 posted on 07/30/2013 10:10:26 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Having a discussion with liberals is like shearing pigs. Lots of squealing & little fleece!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-114 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson