Minimum wage: $6.55/hr eff. July 24

Submitted by bizgrrl on Sat, 2008/07/12 - 7:08am

In two weeks the federal minimum wage will go from $5.85/hr to $6.55/hr. Unless, of course, you are a worker with disabilities, full-time student, under the age of 20, a worker that receives tips, or a student learner.

According to 2007 data, approx. 1.7 million workers earn at or below minimum wage. That is approx. 1.3% of all wage and salary workers. Almost half of minimum wage workers are under the age of 25.

"About three-fifths of all workers paid at or below the Federal minimum wage were employed in this industry [leisure and hospitality], primarily in the food services and drinking places component. For many of these workers, tips and commissions supplement the hourly wages received."

As of January 1, 2008, Eight states have either no minimum wage laws (5) or minimum wage rates lower than the federal rates (3). All five states with no minimum wage laws are in the South.

It appears California ($8.00/hr), Massachusetts ($8.00/hr), and Washington ($8.07/hr)have the highest minimum wage. Liberals!

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MINIMUM wage...

Submitted by reform4 on Sat, 2008/07/12 - 9:46am.

Tells your employees: "if I could pay you less without going to jail for it, I would"

There is a great quote about it in "gang leader for a day"
-----------------------------------------
Fighting for Reform and Representation, Fourth District
Steve Drevik, Commission Seat 4-B
http://www.reform4.com

raising the minimum wage

Submitted by calloway on Sat, 2008/07/12 - 11:05am.

for high school kids might make some people, I guess those running for commission in 4-B, feel better but it is just about worthless to fight poverty.

Folks making $10 an hour are going to get pinched while the kids they're working with are going to get more money for the clubs.

actually

Submitted by reform4 on Sat, 2008/07/12 - 12:51pm.

There are plenty of people trying to earn a living on MW, it's not just high school kids. You have to leave west knoville to see it.... :)

Also, most companies that have $10/hr jobs don't have many min wage workers and vice versa. It's not like a hotel can do without front desk clerks...
-----------------------------------------
Fighting for Reform and Representation, Fourth District
Steve Drevik, Commission Seat 4-B
http://www.reform4.com

Mowing lawns & babysitting pays more than minimum wage

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Sun, 2008/07/13 - 12:09am.

Actually, Calloway, I don't know why kids would work for $5.85 an hour, or even $6.55 an hour, either. Boys mowing lawns and girls babysitting the neighbors' kids (or vice versa :-) can easily earn twice that hourly rate.

I've counseled my teenage daughter to avoid taking any part-time job like that and just stick with babysitting. She earns more than minimum wage for keeping just a single child, and earns $10 and $15 per hour from neighboring couples pooling their young children with a single babysitter (or from a family we know with triplets). Also, she pays no taxes on the income and retains the right to pick and choose the jobs that best fit her schedule.

One enterprising teenage boy I know is making the rounds in new subdivisions, offering to seal folks' driveways for $30, with sealer at their cost. He tells me he can do three or four driveways on a Saturday afternoon, so why should he wear a polyester beanie and a namepin on his shirt?

When minimum wage employers can pay enough to lure smart, entrepreneurial young people, maybe you'll get home with the fries you wanted with your burger?

I mowed enough yards in the

Submitted by metulj on Sun, 2008/07/13 - 8:02am.

I mowed enough yards in the Summer of 1985 (16 yo) to buy a new VW Golf, cash money. The previous summer I worked at a chicken place and I vowed to never do that again. The minimum wage was $3.33. I took home about $2.10 hour after withholding. There was nothing more miserable than getting a paycheck for $83 bucks. I made $100 a day mowing grass after paying for gas.

I recommend "No Shame in my Game" by Katherine S. Newman for a fascinating study of the sociology of the minimum wage. The research was done during Clinton's War on the Poor.

True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler

Another Book

Submitted by reform4 on Sun, 2008/07/13 - 11:42am.

"Nickeled and Dimed" is another great book about the minimum wage economy.

Link...

-----------------------------------------
Fighting for Reform and Representation, Fourth District
Steve Drevik, Commission Seat 4-B
http://www.reform4.com

Learning Business Mgmt Skills

Submitted by Pamela Treacy on Sun, 2008/07/13 - 8:03pm.

In response to Tamara's comments:

And they are learning some great business skills.

Cue tin cup.....

Submitted by Rachel on Sat, 2008/07/12 - 1:16pm.

Cue tin cup.....

If the minimum wage were

Submitted by michael kaplan on Sun, 2008/07/13 - 12:01pm.

If the minimum wage were updated according to the Cost of Living index since its origin in 1938 (when it was $0.25/hour) it would be $15.43/hour. I believe a 'living wage' in Tennessee is calculated at $9.75/hour. So what exactly does $6.55/hour represent?

Poverty, plain and simple is

Submitted by Pam Strickland on Sun, 2008/07/13 - 1:46pm.

Poverty, plain and simple is what it represents.

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut

Hey, I just thought of

Submitted by bizgrrl on Sun, 2008/07/13 - 2:13pm.

Hey, I just thought of something. If they don't have to pay minimum wage to those under 20 (based on assorted rules), maybe we should a rule/law that requires all employers to pay double minimum wage to anyone over 30. What do you say?

Hey, kids: DON'T become students!

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 1:51am.

bizgrrl: "Hey, I just thought of something. If they don't have to pay minimum wage to those under 20 (based on assorted rules)..."

Yeah, I saw that mention in your first post and followed your link to learn what it was all about (I'd never heard of it).

So, what kind of message is the Department of Labor sending, anyway, enticing kids NOT to become full-time students, so that they can immediately earn a higher hourly rate? You know that has to work on many young people, who want it and want it now!

Here's the stupidest

Submitted by R. Neal on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 10:53am.

Here's the stupidest editorial, er, article, I've seen yet about the minimum wage. It's from the AP*:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080712/all_business.html

It says a 50-year-old restaurant in Prattville Alabama has had their tomato prices double and their potato prices almost double, and that they're already paying their people more than minimum wage, and they haven't raised their prices, but they're worried that this new minimum wage thing will force them to raise prices and this will cause business to drop off.

Huh?

Yes, let's blame the weak economy on the minimum wage. It must be all those guys at ExxonMobile making higher minimum wage that makes gas so expensive. And it must be the higher minimum wage all those farmers pay those undocumented immigrant workers that's making the price of tomatoes double.

*The Maryville Daily Times ran this tripe a couple of days ago. I'm sure it has the Blount GOP Chamber Boys worried about creeping socialism and the redistribution of wealth.

Thank you thank you

Submitted by reform4 on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 6:28pm.

For pointing out the total stupidity of it all.

$4/gallon gas
food prices going up 30% to 90%
higher electricity prices
medical care/insurance continues to soar
fuel surcharges on EVERYTHING

but... we're worried about the minimum wage? Absurd.

Why not make the minimum

Submitted by tin cup on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 12:16pm.

Why not make the minimum wage $20 per hour? While we're at it, we can limit CEO pay. In fact, it takes such a village why don't we just let the Federal Gov't set everyone's pay?!!

If Gov't is going to meddle in the free market, why not really meddle?!

Please give an example of

Submitted by metulj on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 3:44pm.

Please give an example of the free market.

True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler

Bring back child labor, too!

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 3:54pm.

And what about those dadburn child labor laws, eh, Tin Cup? I think that by age 5 or 6, a kid can assemble some widgets a few or ten hours a day, don't you?

Teaches 'em discipline! Gives 'em a head start on a career!

Letting the market decide

Submitted by tin cup on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 3:49pm.

Letting the market decide what a hamburger flipper is worth, what a CEO of a $100 million company is worth, what a gallon of gasoline or milk is worth.

So you ascribe to the labor

Submitted by metulj on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 3:58pm.

So you ascribe to the labor theory of value? Communist.

True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler

Tamara, who said anything

Submitted by tin cup on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 5:07pm.

Tamara, who said anything about child labor laws? We were discussing artificially set wages by the government. When you throw unrelated issues into an argument, it makes you sound kind of stupid. I'm sure you're not as much of a dip shirt as that post would have people believe. (Lot's of people, I'm sure.)

I don't know what to do with you, metulj. You been spending way too much time around academic types.

Parallel

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 7:17pm.

Tin Cup: "Tamara, who said anything about child labor laws?...When you throw unrelated issues into an argument, it makes you sound kind of stupid."

I'm fairly confident others understood my point that child labor law, like minimum wage law, arose when your beloved "free market" produced some pretty oppressive conditions for some.

You are correct, Tamara

Submitted by reform4 on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 9:52pm.

Both were part of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The single act included the Minimum Wage, guaranteed overtime for certain jobs, and prohibited "opressive child labor."

Before the FLSA, children worked in mines, mills, factories (with dangerous industrial equipment) and typically dropped out of school well before 8th grade.

What you just described is

Submitted by metulj on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 9:30pm.

What you just described is the labor theory of value, you Pinko. Anyhow, what is the marginal physical product of the CEO of Exxon? A question I have long wanted answered.

True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler

Trolling

Submitted by Nelle on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 9:47pm.

When you throw unrelated issues into an argument, it makes you sound kind of stupid.

The voice of experience ...

I know, I know, don't feed the trolls, but I can't help it!

but... we're worried about the minimum wage? Absurd.

Submitted by knoxvegas99 on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 10:39pm.

(Insert shameless self-promotion here)

Yes, Steve, and for even more absurdity check out my revolutionary idea for resolving the minimum wage controversy.

http://tabloidboy.squarespace.com/blog/2008/7/15/an-idea-for-the-minimum...

Larry Van Guilder

"Make the pie higher"

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Mon, 2008/07/14 - 10:58pm.

Larry, is your proposal what Dubya meant when he proposed that we "make the pie higher?!"

Whoda thunk...

But we have to ask ourselves...

Submitted by reform4 on Tue, 2008/07/15 - 7:53am.

"is our children learning?"

"Higher pie" for all

Submitted by knoxvegas99 on Tue, 2008/07/15 - 12:13am.

You got it, Tamara. (I should have known GWB had already thought of it!)

Larry Van Guilder

Living Wage

Submitted by gonzone on Tue, 2008/07/15 - 8:09am.

To hell with minimum wage, we need a Living Wage.

And may I make another suggestion? Tin Cup keeps wrecking threads with his ignorant trolling. How about we just quit responding to his posts until he starts behaving?

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson