Sorry to sound like a broken record, but damn. No public plan until 2013? Yeah, that'll be a huge help to people like this. And in the meantime, lazy reporters write stories that are spoon fed to them by special interests:
WASHINGTON — The final installment of a three-part increase in the federal minimum wage is proving to be the most controversial.
Two previous wage hikes, one in 2007, the other in 2008, pushed the federal wage to $5.85 and then to the current $6.55 an hour. The third, which goes into effect Friday, will push it to $7.25 an hour.
That's not a life-changing raise — an extra $28 a week for a fulltime worker earning the federal minimum — though low-wage earners like Kendell Patterson in Oklahoma City, Okla., say it'll help.
Only someone who lives a relatively privileged life thinks $112 a month isn't real help. But then, our ladies and gentlemen of the media do seem to live in a world of their own!
But some economists worry that the wage hike is coming at the worst possible time and will only make the recession-battered job market tougher for the very workers it's intended to help.
"Some" economists? The story only mentions one, and guess what? She works for a front group, the Employment Policies Institute - run by lobbyists and funded by the usual suspects. From SourceWatch:
EPI has has been widely quoted in news stories regarding minimum wage issues, and although a few of those stories have correctly described it as a "think tank financed by business," most stories fail to provide any identification that would enable readers to identify the vested interests behind its pronouncements. Instead, it is usually described exactly the way it describes itself, as a "non-profit research organization dedicated to studying public policy issues surrounding employment growth" that "focuses on issues that affect entry-level employment." In reality, EPI's mission is to keep the minimum wage low so Berman's clients can continue to pay their workers as little as possible.
I'm guessing this entire story was grounded in a press release from EPI, making it sound like an impending economic crisis. You'd like to think that a decent news organization like McClatchy would catch things like this, but I guess that's where parasitic blogs come in handy.
The increase will have minimal impact in most states. Eighteen states and the District of Colombia already have minimum wages that are higher or equal to $7.25 an hour. In nine more, the minimum wage is higher than $6.55 an hour and so workers in those states will see their wages rise by only a fraction of the 70-cents-an-hour increase, from four cents an hour in Florida to 40 cents an hour in Nevada.
That leaves 23 states where minimum wage workers covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act will enjoy the full 70-cents-an-hour increase.
Patterson, a 38-year-old child care worker with two children, can certainly use the extra cash. Most of her $262 weekly paycheck goes for food, utilities, her car payment and $650 per month rent.
Her oldest son,19, is taking a fast-food job to help with the bills, but Patterson is still looking for a second job on weekends to help make ends meet.
She tried to get food stamps, but her income was too high.
"How can a person who makes minimum wage make too much money?" she said.
Patterson also needs help with her medical bills. She has no health insurance and recently found four lumps in her breast. She also suffers from asthma and takes several anti-seizure medications.
One medication costs $500 for 30-day supply while the other costs $350, she said. Sometimes her parents help with the costs. Other times she simply goes without.
Patterson said the minimum wage increase won't help her very much, but even a little help is appreciated because times are so hard.
Working her ass off to stay afloat, and she's supposed to hang on until 2013 if she wants help with her healthcare bills. Yes, this is indeed an economic Katrina - and the boats will be here in 2013.
The minimum wage should be ten dollars an hour.
The owners have brainwashed the Americans into thinking there is a great middle class.
There are two classes, the owners and the rest of us. If you have a boss, you are a worker. You might be paid relatively well, or you might be paid minimum wage. You are still a worker.
You might not have a job, in which case, you may be out of luck…
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
The minimum wage should be the minimum living wage for the area (at 40 hours a week). In some areas, that may be more. In a rare few areas, it might be less - but not with the cost of living rising as it is. The point is, anyone who works a full week deserves and needs a living wage. Without it, people cannot be strong customers and fuel the economy.
Fred Goldstein:
here
Excerpt
I would also note that the UAW has acquiesced to a two tier wage scheme. Previous hires at $28 an hour, new hires at $14 an hour. That could even get worse post bankruptcy.
Toyota in the South 'Right to Work Cheaply' States traditionally tended to lag only slightly the one time Big Three. This to keep the workers from unionizing because they were almost at parity. They soon will again be at slightly less than parity. Toyota has let it be known there are cuts coming.
It is the race to the bottom.
Previous comment on the essay by Chris Hedges here & here
And the insightful work of Stuart Ewen, Captains of Consciousness et al
---
Ultimately the program will be to lower US wages to be competitive with Chinese wages.
A collapse of the dollar and a revaluation of the Renminbi will accomplish this in fairly short order.
We will not be buying so much from China.
You will have your $14 hour pay check but it will not buy anything from the rest of the world.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
even if you have a job http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lax-c...
Of course, Fox spun it into a feel-good human interest story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIA8SlVjdt8
Also I wanted to add that I lurk here every day and I especially enjoy your posts Alice. You find such great info, thanks.
Honey, the poor people wrecked the economy!
Oh nooo....raise the minimum wage!! It's the end of business as we know it! It will drive the small business owner...the ENGINE of our economy (by the way...anyone ever see anymore of those mom & video stores, or hardware stores)out of business...it will destroy jobs...taxes will rise...profits will fall...CEOs ohh..the CEOs...they will be thrown out of work...and...and...what about the children!!!!
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Small businesses are supposed to be the engine of the economy, but the big boys buy or drive them out then send those jobs overseas, systematically. The super-rich are trying to put as many people over a barrel as they can, so they can finally break the back of the American dream and make their dominant position permanent.
Unaceptable If Obama thinks that's going to fly with the American people he's about to have a rude awakening. This is just a transparent attempt to give the insurance companies a chance to ether make it up to the American people or scam us out of as much as they can before they lose the customers. Any one at all thinks they will try and make it up to us........ I didn't think so ether.
Actions like this will make Obama go down in history as a failure and a disgrace. I will not be voting for him again if this is how he's going to fuck around.
"...But some economists worry that the wage hike is coming at the worst possible time and will only make the recession-battered job market tougher for the very workers it's intended to help."
The economy could be booming, and these greedy scumbags will still bitch and moan about having to pay a higher minimum wage. Same old fucking argument from the same rightwing, pro-corporate hacks. Start providing REAL health coverage to your workers, and maybe, just maybe, we'll leave the minimum wage at 7 bucks an hour for awhile. Until that time, I want to see the minimum wage go up even higher - 10 bucks an hour (hey if you live in NY or California, 10 bucks an hour isn't squat - but it'll help. Also - lets get rid of the wage allowance restaurant owners are permitted to take advantage of. I never understood why a waitress or waiter has to be paid WAY less than minimum wage, and then pray they can make the difference up in tips (which must be reported as income, by the way).
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
similar fight happened in honduras, before the oligarchy overthrew the democratically elected president, due to the president's attempt to govern on behalf of the people (and america broke its own law and continued to financially support the illegal admin currently in power) [U.S. law requires the United States government to suspend foreign aid to countries that have experienced military coups] http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6225
i digress....
we have a consumer-driven economy. the fact that 'big business' interests are fighting any attempt to give the consumers more money to go and spend should help highlight just how conflicted (see, corrupt) and short-sighted (see, fucking corrupt) the business "leaders" really are.
You see, "Business leaders" want the best of both worlds. They want to continue to sell goods to American consumers, but they don't want to pay decent wages(to cut labor costs, they ship jobs overseas). How any market, especially ours, can continue when everyone is unemployed and has no money is never quite explained by business "leaders" and their toadies in the media. I guess it's more of an article of faith - like the immaculate conception. On the other hand, maybe we can ask an "expert" like Tommy Friedman.
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
How Conveeeeeenient!
Weekends only? What about all that dead time between 11:00 pm and 6:00 am?
Plus she is wasting all that food money. She could use it to buy her medicine. And what's wrong with using a steak knife to cut those lumps out. You have to think outside the box in these situations. Pfffffffft.
Are they trying to insinuate that small business will fire somebody to make up the 4 cents they will have to give their employees? For real???
Sadly, this story reminds me of Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickled and Dimed."
I read that. It was an eye opener. Not that I didn't know already, but reading about her experience first-hand.
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
a little discussion about the white underclass in this country. Mainly because so many middle class folks are terrified of falling into it.
From Alternet
Joe Bageant, JoeBageant.com.
here
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They said you were middle class, that was just a lie…
There a two classes, the owners and everyone else.
---
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
They need golf cart drivers at the Congressional Country Club.
. . . . . now get that around
I don't know what you mean but you used his words verbatim without attribution.
Tsk Tsk…
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Survival is what matters get the ego out of it.
As George W. Bush put it, "We want t'help people get from the lower class to the middle class ... and the middle class to stay there."
Interpretation #1, which just about everybody takes as the intended meaning is, '... help people stay in the middle class and not slide back into the lower class.'
Interpretation #2, which I caught right away and usually gets people to go, "Oh. Huh." for a nanosecond before their eyes glaze over from prolonged exposure to the Karl Rove Stupid Ray ... is the peons are not allowed - EVER - to reach the upper class. Anything that might give you a leg up, anything that even hints at bringing you to their level is frowned upon.
The conservatives wail about socialism, but the truth is, we're already there. The 'government' DOES own everything, and they dole it out to keep society passive and unquestioning. Food riots, not so much - trampling people underfoot to be first-in-the-door when Wal-Mart opens its doors on the day after Thanksgiving? Youbetcha.
…
Read on, this guy is heavy…
here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
end of the ‘comfortable high tech/high consumption’ lifestyle and an involuntary return to lifestyle of previous generations.
living a subsistance life and dying prematurely of diseases that we have cure for.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Sounds wonderful to me: sitting out on the lanai on summer evenings, greeting passers-by, I don't like the disease part Amitoal mentions, but the rest is good. Gin-rummy anyone? (Reminds me of my grandparents' front verandah.)
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
appears that some of you need to become a 'business leader' and show how it should be done.
Real dangerous
Not so much that I'd do a horrible job, but it would be quite messy. I'm thinking along the lines of Jesus tossing the merchants out of the marketplace, directed by Paul Verhoeven.
to have happy prosperous employees that are also customers, eh?
What, you want a decent wage AND healthcare?!?!?! HOW DARE YOU!
Let's have a little more sacrifice down there!
/snark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gerNVgJW5M
The days of something for nothing are finished. If people want the "lifestyle" they are going to have to earn it. No comedy is going to change that.
A sense of humor will help though.
"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."
-- James Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith
his son is the economist James K Galbraith
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
with these business crooks, the truth is, yes a higher minimum wage DOES hurt the economy. Ontario, Canada's minimum wage has made drastic jumps (LMAO) in the last few years, and the result? Those low wage McDriveThrough jobs that at one time were almost full time, have now been reduced to barely any hours at all. It's sad, it's f*cking wrong and it should be illegal, but that is what these places are all doing. Tim Horton's in my town took EVERY full time worker and cut their hours to 25 per week once the last minimum wage increase occured. And McDonalds and Walmart are following their lead. So once again, the little guy takes it up the rear.
They'd probably do that anyway. That's the "modern way." They can cut vacation and sick time (etc.) from part-timers.
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
I was laid off in 2004. At that time, I had insurance coverage for 90 days. Then nothing, as I couldn't afford Cobra. Different Pharmaceutical companies, will assist you with your medications. I know, I was helped for years, until I started Medicare. People check into the help, you can get, if you qualifity. It really does work. Of course you must have a real doctor to verify your health. Mine was shipped at no cost to me. Patterson, this is for you. Please read. Any further questions, please write your comments here. I will try to help you.
agape'
CB aka janeyre
it's a FACT wages have been stagnate but cost of living continues to rise. yet "they" want people to pay for healthCare that's rising approximately 3-4 times more than wages. and "they" don't want to pay.
$112 a month
In the winter, it pays my (apartment/gas) heating.
In the summer it pays my gas, electric and telephone!!
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
Susie, I want to know the source of the stories you quote, because then I can try to get in touch with them. Please give a link to the original material, or at least an indication of the origin sufficient to track it down.
Why? Because of this: if you do, we can at least ask the journalists whether they know what "minimum wage" means, and point them at your story here. For example.
March 31, 2008 $8.75
March 31, 2009 $9.50
March 31, 2010 $10.25
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
This job is so gay.. is that what he said? So this spokesman for victimized workers salves their wounds by dissing others? Somebody's f'd up..
The current American Prospect has a thoughtful series on the economic restructuring..
A worker at Dollar General was worried that her staff would be making 25 cents less than her after the hike in wages. She was upset that she had a management position and was paid so poorly that the minimum wagers were rising and she was not. And I bet with the job market so horrible that the corporation knows her dilemma and does not care. It is hell to be poor. I am not poor but I am not secure either.
Are you sure she will qualify for the so called public option and her income won't be too high then too?
Wouldn't surprise me if they restricted signups in that way.
Can't reporters find anyone to interview sans the drama of seizure disorders, breast lumps, chains of bad choices or teenagers that should be contributing to the family income. This woman is the poster child for why nationalized health care scares the sh** out of many middle class Americans.
...because not everyone is fortunate enough to be healthy, or have a family that can support them while they attend college, or have a husband who sticks around. Many poor women are poor because they trusted a loser who decided he wanted to be single again.
Whenever I hear people speak of 'choices', I know that the person speaking probably never really had to make any, they just had it easy.
We need living wage
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