Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Thursday morning said he supports an increase in the minimum wage. “I, for instance, as you know, part company with many of the conservatives in my party on the issue of the minimum wage. I think we ought to raise it. Because frankly, our party is all about more jobs and better pay.”
Romney’s comments come after Senate Republicans rejected a vote on a Senate bill that would have increased the minimum wage to $10.10. So much for being "The Party Of More Jobs And Better Pay"!
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Goverment shouldn't dictate what an employer pays the people that work for him/her. The market will decide, and at the very worst, it should be a state decision, not a federal decision.
Minimum cost of living in NYC or Los Angeles is a helluva lot different than in rural areas of the country.
We are advised NOT to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works.
Five Things You Didn’t Know About the Minimum Wage
FDR called it the second-most-important part of the New Deal, and now it’s back at the center of public debate. From what it takes to live on a minimum wage to who’s standing in the way of raising it, here are five key facts.
In Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, President Obama revived one of the most contentious battles in economic policy: the minimum wage. “Tonight, let’s declare that, in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour,” Obama said to rousing applause from Democrats and stern frowns from Republicans.
“Minimum-wage laws have never worked in terms of helping the middle class attain more prosperity,” Sen. Marco Rubio shot back Wedensday, speaking for half of the political class that views a higher minimum wage as a threat to business growth.
There’s a reason the minimum wage is a contentious topic: it’s both highly symbolic, and research about its benefits is notoriously inconclusive. Since the beginning, liberals have seen it as a crown jewel in the fight to protect workers, while conservatives frequently cite studies that say a higher minimum wage doesn’t do much to the country’s poverty levels. So as the policy once again comes to the center of the political debate, here are five key facts about the history of and conflict over the minimum wage.
When did the U.S. first get a minimum wage?
The federal government established a minimum wage in a 1938 law called the Fair Labor Standards Act, which also marked the first time that employers were legally required to pay workers overtime for certain jobs. At the time the law passed, the country’s first minimum wage was $0.25 per hour (about $4 in 2012 dollars). President Franklin D. Roosevelt saw the act as the second-most-important piece of the New Deal after the creation of Social Security and called it “the most far-reaching, farsighted program for the benefit of workers ever adopted in this or any other country.”
The Fair Labor Standards Act has been amended twice, and the minimum wage is typically increased every few years, though, as President Obama highlighted in his State of the Union address, it has fallen far behind inflation. The minimum wage would have to be increased from $7.25 to $10.55 per hour to make up the value lost to inflation.
Is the minimum wage the same everywhere in the country?
No. The federal minimum wage applies to every state under Washington’s constitutional authority to regulate “interstate commerce,” but several states have passed their own laws to raise the minimum wage above the federal level of $7.25. Nineteen states have minimum-wage requirements higher than the federal level, and eight states’ minimum wages are higher than $8 per hour. Washington’s is highest at $9.19, followed by Oregon ($8.95) and Vermont ($8.60). Five states—all in the South—have no minimum wage laws of their own, and two (Arkansas and Wyoming) still have minimum wage levels on the books that are lower than the federal level.
Can you live on a minimum-wage job?
Maybe if you’re young, single, and live in the middle of nowhere. An annual salary for a person making $7.25 hour is $15,080, well above the U.S. government’s poverty threshold for a single person, which was $11,945 in 2012. But if you have two kids, the poverty threshold jumps to $23,283, which means that you’d need two adults working full time—which would likely require expensive daily child care—to stay out of poverty. If your job involves tipping, your situation is even more precarious: federal minimum wage for tipped jobs is only $2.13 per hour, based on the assumption that tips will make up the difference. If they don’t, you’re screwed: most of the time, restaurants and other service employers don’t make up the difference.
Who works for minimum wage in America?
In 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.4 million American workers were paid at the federal minimum wage or lower (some jobs are exempt). More than half of those workers are younger than 25, which means they’re likely teenagers and college students with part-time and summer jobs during school. Minimum-wage earners are a relative small slice of the American economy: of all workers who are paid by the hour, only 4 percent make minimum wage or less. Most of those who do work at restaurants and in other service jobs; “leisure and hospitality”—which includes hotels, resorts, etc.—has the highest percentage of minimum-wage workers (23 percent). Among U.S. states, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and West Virginia have the highest percentages of hourly workers making minimum wage.
So who’s against raising the minimum wage?
Conservative politicians and business lobbying groups. The business lobby blasted President Obama’s State of the Union proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9.00 per hour. “We should be focused on our country’s ‘no wage’ problem,” Business Roundtable president John Engler said. Marco Rubio denounced it after the State of the Union, and Republicans also pushed back, arguing that an increase would cause employers to cut jobs and reduce workers’ hours. Whether that’s true is difficult to say: some economists have argued that a higher minimum wage causes “disemployment,” but it remains a matter of debate. Some pundits think it’s too risky in an already weak job market, while others think a few lost jobs would be worth the benefit for the impact on low-income Americans. http://www.thedailybeast.com/a.....he-minimum-wage.html
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
I'm assuming that if there's a raise in the federal minimum wage, that a corresponding increase will be granted to Social Security recipients:
Quoted Text
What is a COLA? Legislation enacted in 1973 provides for cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs. With COLAs, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits keep pace with inflation.
Latest COLA The latest COLA is 1.5 percent for Social Security benefits and SSI payments. Social Security benefits will increase by 1.5 percent beginning with the December 2013 benefits, which are payable in January 2014. Federal SSI payment levels will also increase by 1.5 percent effective for payments made for January 2014. Because the normal SSI payment date is the first of the month and January 1 is a holiday, the SSI payments for January are always made at the end of the previous December.
How is a COLA calculated? The Social Security Act specifies a formula for determining each COLA. According to the formula, COLAs are based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). CPI-Ws are calculated on a monthly basis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A COLA effective for December of the current year is equal to the percentage increase (if any) in the average CPI-W for the third quarter of the current year over the average for the third quarter of the last year in which a COLA became effective. If there is an increase, it must be rounded to the nearest tenth of one percent. If there is no increase, or if the rounded increase is zero, there is no COLA.
We are advised NOT to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works.
Social Security already has a COLA yearly. Minimum wage has none.
If the cost of living increases, SS increases it's payments. If raising the minimum wage increases the cost of living then the COLA will increase for SS recipients.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
$7.25: The current federal minimum wage, established in 2007.
725%: The increase in CEO compensation from 1978 to 2011.
$10.86: How much the federal minimum wage would be if it had kept up with inflation over the past 40 years.
$21.72: How much the federal minimum wage would be if it had kept up with productivity since 1968.
$16.62: The hourly wage needed to meet the basic needs of an average person.
$32.19: The hourly wage needed to meet the basic needs of one adult with two children in Philadelphia.
$2.13: The federal minimum wage for tipped employees, established in 1991.
$5,915,186: Average net worth of U.S. Senators who blocked a vote on the minimum wage.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Social Security already has a COLA yearly. Minimum wage has none.
If the cost of living increases, SS increases it's payments. If raising the minimum wage increases the cost of living then the COLA will increase for SS recipients.
SS has had more 0% COLAs in the past 5 years than anytime since it was enacted - and HARDLY keeps up with TRUE inflation
For example - what I spent $20 on in 2004, versus 2014 .. now costs 25.1% more. Funny that seniors and those on disability aren't seeing corresponding adjustments, and now they want a 35% increase for those working.
We are advised NOT to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works.
$7.25: The current federal minimum wage, established in 2007.
725%: The increase in CEO compensation from 1978 to 2011.
$10.86: How much the federal minimum wage would be if it had kept up with inflation over the past 40 years.
$21.72: How much the federal minimum wage would be if it had kept up with productivity since 1968.
$16.62: The hourly wage needed to meet the basic needs of an average person.
$32.19: The hourly wage needed to meet the basic needs of one adult with two children in Philadelphia.
$2.13: The federal minimum wage for tipped employees, established in 1991.
$5,915,186: Average net worth of U.S. Senators who blocked a vote on the minimum wage.
Only a small handful of states use the Federal minimum wage - they have no specified one themselves in that state. Most states are above the minimum wage already, based on current market conditions and the state economy.
We are advised NOT to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works.
COLA's help keep inflation from eroding SS income. Many Americans think that the SS COLA should keep up with inflation 100%. That is possible, we just need to raise the SS Tax to cover it's cost.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
COLA's help keep inflation from eroding SS income. Many Americans think that the SS COLA should keep up with inflation 100%. That is possible, we just need to raise the SS Tax to cover it's cost.
And re-establish the SS trust fund, keep it out of the "general fund" - and let it go back to making money, rather than being raped by politicians at will!
We are advised NOT to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works.
And re-establish the SS trust fund, keep it out of the "general fund" - and let it go back to making money, rather than being raped by politicians at will!
YUP! But that is a entirely different topic than the US Minimum Wage.
If you see your SS benefit being eroded by inflation, and you DO HAVE A COLA, just imagine how bad it is to make a living if you are a single mom or dad with kids working for minimum wage.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
YUP! But that is a entirely different topic than the US Minimum Wage.
If you see your SS benefit being eroded by inflation, and you DO HAVE A COLA, just imagine how bad it is to make a living if you are a single mom or dad with kids working for minimum wage.
If SS COLA goes up to match inflation, don't all wages have to go up to match inflation to make sure SS is funded? Then if all wages go up because of inflation, doesn't the increased cost of labor raise the price of goods and services, wiping out whatever gains were made with the COLA? At what point does the presumption of inflation stop? $100 per hour?
If SS COLA goes up to match inflation, don't all wages have to go up to match inflation to make sure SS is funded? Then if all wages go up because of inflation, doesn't the increased cost of labor raise the price of goods and services, wiping out whatever gains were made with the COLA? At what point does the presumption of inflation stop? $100 per hour?
COLA's always follow inflation... everyone with a COLA is playing catch up.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
COLA's always follow inflation... everyone with a COLA is playing catch up.
Last years 1.5% hardly matched inflation numbers ... and rumors are, they're evaluating an even LESS COLA this year, maybe back to zero!
The system sucks. period.
We are advised NOT to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works.
No formula will be perfect, but it looks pretty fair to me.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
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