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House Dem: Fast-Food Wage Doubling Would Create ‘Millions of Jobs’
PJ Tatler ^ | August 30, 2013 | Bridget Johnson

Posted on 09/01/2013 9:13:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

A House Democrat who joined striking fast-food workers in Illinois yesterday said the American economy needs doubled wages for the restaurant workers.

“This gets to the heart of our economic problem in this country which is income inequality. And yes, those arches are made of gold for people like CEO Donald Thompson who makes over $13.7 million in his pay package last year. But I met fast food workers today at McDonald’s who have been working there for a decade and still making $8.50 an hour,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said on MSNBC.

“You cannot live on that kind of wage, and they end up turning to the government for support. So we end up subsidizing Donald Thompson and the profits that McDonald’s,” she added.

Schakowsky said the pay of private entities to workers who choose to take a job there is Congress’ business because “this is an entire industry that is paying poverty wages in this country.”

“Thousands and tens of thousands, maybe millions of people who simply can’t make it on those kinds of wages, and I think that forming a union, getting $15 an hour, which makes a modest income of about $31,000 a year, if you get to work full time, is something that is a proper demand,” she continued.

“And actually these workers are acting — are going to the employers, are going to these companies. I’m standing with them because I think we need it for our economy. If they got paid more, we’re going to see millions of jobs created because there are going to be consumers in the marketplace.”

As far as what Congress can do to compel a higher wage, Schakowsky suggested starting at the executive branch.

“The president could with an executive order do something about the low-wage workers, 2 million of them, that are contract workers for the federal government. That would be a good start,” she said.

“That would be, I think, a very good signal that we don’t think those poverty wages that are paid to millions and millions of workers across the country are good for our economy and certainly not good for those families.”


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: congress; democrats; donaldthompson; fastfood; illinois; janschakowsky; minimumwage; msnbc
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
...I met fast food workers today at McDonald’s who have been working there for a decade and still making $8.50 an hour,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said on MSNBC.

I'd bet dollars to donuts this Dem twerp has unpaid interns on her staff.

121 posted on 09/02/2013 5:44:12 AM PDT by Flick Lives (We're going to be just like the old Soviet Union, but with free cell phones!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
She makes $174,000 per year.

And that doesn't count fringe benefits, like the Obamacare insurance subsidy, or more importantly, the selling of influence.

122 posted on 09/02/2013 6:40:42 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I met fast food workers today at McDonald’s who have been working there for a decade and still making $8.50 an hour" -- Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)

Such stupendous staggering stupidity on display. If those workers are stupid enough to stay in a $8/hour job for ten years, it isn't our problem. Why isn't it the responsibility of the worker to show some initiative, hustle, get educated, apply for promotions, leave for greener pastures, ask for training, etc?

Forbes says the average worker today stays at each of his or her jobs for 4.4 years; 91% percent of Millennials (born between 1977-1997) expect to stay in a job for less than three years. Time Mag reported that the Class of 2012 survey of 7,944 college students across the country shows that the average length of time millennials want to stay with a company is 4.7 years. But this number is more than double the time they are actually staying.

So if our smart young graduates figure out they can get ahead more quickly by staying at a company for 2 - 3 years, why are we to care about the burger flipper who stays in a dead-end job for ten long, drudge-filled years? ZERO sympathy.

123 posted on 09/02/2013 6:58:47 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Smackowsky must be confusing private sector "living wage" with our hugely generous government welfare benefits which do pay a "living wage".

You also get a "free" Obamaphone - or even dozens of them if you want them - to do your drug deals, keep in touch with your homies, rob mob the nearest 7-11, or gather to play "knockout" on an unsuspecting cracka! All one has to do is be a good plantation slave and vote the "correct" way to keep your masters in power.

See? Making a good living in America is fun and that simple!

Is this a great country, or what!

124 posted on 09/02/2013 7:25:05 AM PDT by Gritty (I enjoy living in the 3rd World. Soon Americans will be able to do so from the comfort of home-Fred)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

You use low paying jobs to pad your resume. I would always be on the lookout for a better job. A better job was not always a higher paying job, but a job that had more future potential. When I got out of the service, I started off pumping gas and I moved between 5 jobs in the first year before finally landing one I have worked for 43.


125 posted on 09/02/2013 7:29:16 AM PDT by Starstruck (If my reply offends, you probably don't understand sarcasm or criticism...or do.)
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To: D Rider

I thought we we’re going retro there.

I participated on a lot of threads yesterday. I believe your response here was triggered by my statement that I would reorganize some major government programs.

It may not have been clear, but my plan is to privatize all those programs. I think we can do much better, and give our citizens a better chance at success to boot.


126 posted on 09/02/2013 9:19:13 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (This post coming to you today, from behind the Camelskin Curtain. Not the Iron or Bamboo Curtain...)
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To: Kozak

That would create a HUGE labor shortage. Then we’d have to try and get some people from Mexico to come here.

Nope. Wouldn’t work.


127 posted on 09/02/2013 9:21:23 AM PDT by smokingfrog ( ==> sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: DoughtyOne
"If the clowns in D. C. were physicians, they’d be paying massive amounts of money for malpractice."

I agree. You're 22.8% is pretty close to what shadowstats.com is reporting. They started tracking unemployment back when Clinton defined the long-term unemployed out of existence.

128 posted on 09/02/2013 9:24:24 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I met fast food workers today at McDonald’s who have been working there for a decade and still making $8.50 an hour,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said

This is really an indictment of the education system in America. The people who are in these jobs for a decade are there because they don't have the skills to do anything else.

One societal problem we will eventually have to face is the lost generation of uneducated adults who don't have the basic capabilities to compete in society, nor the motivation to try.

-PJ

129 posted on 09/02/2013 9:37:36 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“EBT Recipient” apparently is a job title in their book.


130 posted on 09/02/2013 10:25:27 AM PDT by Anton.Rutter
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To: DannyTN
Thanks DannyTN. Here's what I worked up a while back. LINK

There you'll find a spread-sheet that includes about 50 years of data. If you'll stick with it, I think the data I worked up reveals an unemployment rate of 22.987%.

As of January 2013, we should have had very close to 175.086 million workers in the U. S. Instead we only had 134.839. That's a spread of over 40 million. Dividing 134 by 175 gives you about 77% and change of our work force employed. That leaves just short of 23% unemployed.

As I mentioned in the earlier post, this doesn't address the issue of multiple jobs, and people working for much less than they used to. 23% is therefore only the tip of the iceberg.

RAMIREZ

LATEST LARGE 09/02/13
ARCHIVE

In his latest Ramirez covers:
Syria Denies Using Chemical Weapons

131 posted on 09/02/2013 10:37:03 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (This post coming to you today from behind the Camelskin Curtain. Not the Iron or Bamboo Curtain...)
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To: 21twelve

Same thing here when Santa Fe, NM put their minimum wage up to the 2nd highest in the country just behind San Francisco.

Yes Santa Fe, NM has a minimum wage as of 3/1/2013 of $10.51 per hour! It has been terrible for small business owners because even though employers with less than 20 people are exempted, how do they find employees that will work for less than that?

Santa Fe’s city council felt that minimum wage should provide a “living wage” for a family of 4.


132 posted on 09/02/2013 2:48:06 PM PDT by leapfrog0202 ("the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery" Sarah Palin)
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To: DoughtyOne
I believe your response here was triggered by my statement that I would reorganize some major government programs.

I agree ith the privatize concept. I went the other way. Probably should have put a /s or /insanity after my post.

I hope you did notice that Benito's plan is the one that progressives have been pushing on us for almost a century. Fascism and the progressives crony capitalizim are one and the same. The trick will be getting free of the fed's regulatory stranglehold. That stranglehold is at the heart of Fascism. So here we are, and old becomes new.

133 posted on 09/02/2013 7:46:31 PM PDT by D Rider
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To: D Rider

It amazes me how people can glom on to the ideas of such flawed people. Liberals have gone lock stock and barrel diametrically opposed to our capitalist free enterprise system.

If they hate this system, go somewhere Fascism reigns.


134 posted on 09/02/2013 7:51:40 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (This post coming to you today from behind the Camelskin Curtain. Not the Iron or Bamboo Curtain...)
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To: DoughtyOne
If they hate this system, go somewhere Fascism reigns.

Unfortunately that won't work. From the outside looking in you can see all the warts. Anyway they would not be the ones in control of an already established system. On the other hand, if they fix our system, they can be the ones in control and make this place a paradise to their liking. All they have to do is get us to submit to their wishes. And of course, they would be doing it for the children. And as Adolf said, " we owe it to the future!"

135 posted on 09/02/2013 9:46:49 PM PDT by D Rider
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To: D Rider

Yep, sounds about right.


136 posted on 09/02/2013 9:54:27 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (This post coming to you today from behind the Camelskin Curtain. Not the Iron or Bamboo Curtain...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The 1860’s?

The Druggie 60's ...

137 posted on 09/02/2013 10:30:45 PM PDT by Lmo56 (If ya wanna run with the big dawgs - ya gotta learn to piss in the tall grass ...)
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