Results of a poll released on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 showed that more then two thirds of Americans support what was called “a robust” increase in the federal minimum wage. About 67% support gradually raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to at least $10 an hour, and automatically adjusting or “indexing” it each year so that it keeps pace with the cost of living, according to the poll by the Public Religion Research Institute.
“Americans overwhelmingly support a minimum wage rate that will help working families make ends meet and provide the boost the economy needs for full recovery,” said Christine Owens, executive director, National Employment Law Project, (NELP) in an October 6 press release.
The federal minimum wage has not kept pace with the rise the consumer price index for the last 10 years. People working at minimum wage are working at federal poverty wage levels, especially if they have a family to support. Real recovery will occur when more spending occurs. Reducing or eliminating the minimum wage will serve only to increase poverty in America and delay real recovery even further down the road many economists believe.
In the same survey fully 80% of respondents said the economy is either in worse shape or the same as this time a year ago, and only 19% reported they felt there was improvement in the economy. Only 9% reported the federal budget deficit was the most important issue they will consider when voting in the midterm elections with 45% reporting that the poor economy was the most important issue to them as they cast their vote in the mid-terms in less then four weeks.
Fourteen states and Washington, D.C. have a minimum wage higher then the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and ten states automatically adjust their minimum wage each year to keep pace with increased in the cost of living.
Last year, the federal minimum wage rose by 70 cents, an increase that the Economic Policy Institute generated an additional $5.45 billion in consumer spending. NELP’s Executive Director Christine Owens said “We need to be focusing on ways to boost consumer spending to bolster economic growth, and a strong minimum wage is a key part of that strategy.”
The federal minimum wage is emerging as an issue in some races in the midterms as Democrats are focusing on comments by some Republican candidates who want to lower or abolish altogether the federal minimum wage.
The Republican Senate candidates who have questioned the minimum wage include John Raese in West Virginia, Rand Paul in Kentucky, Linda McMahon in Connecticut, and Joe Miller in Alaska. Each has made statements questioning the federal minimum wage, and in some cases calling for its elimination altogether.
The lure of the minimum wage issue for Democrats is especially strong now, when the economy is so weak and so many voters are struggling to pay their bills with low-paying jobs. In the last several days, national Democratic officials have begun hammering the theme that Republicans want to repeal the minimum wage.
Although few Republicans already in Congress are pushing a cut in the minimum wage and it extremely unlikely that any bill will be proposed let alone passed, some Democratic strategists are using the opposition of some Republican senatorial candidates to the minimum wage as a “wedge issue” to highlight the differences between Democrats and Republicans as the races become increasingly competitive as the midterms approach.
© 2010 Micmn.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Why not make it $50 per hour or a $100? The reason is employers can’t afford it and will just outsource more jobs to other countries where they can pay $1.50 per hour. If you want to see the unemployment rate go higher raise the minimum wage, if you want to see the unemployment rate go down lower it or repeal the minimum wage law altogether.
And yet Australia manages… “THE dollar is within spitting distance of being worth one US dollar for the first time in decades after an extraordinary surge in hiring pushed an extra 56,000 Australians into full-time jobs in September, on top of 57,000 in August – a two-month recruitment spree bettered only once in Australian history.”
http://www.smh.com.au/business/jobs-surge-pushes-dollar-close-to-parity-20101007-169q9.html
while all the time “burdened” with national high minimum wage, full universal health cover and no time limits on unemployment benefits.
Your argument is hollow, unless of course you’re saying Australians are much harder workers then Americans and less likely to be slackers. A view I don’t support.
So, Why not raise it to $100 per hour wouldn’t that make everyone’s life better. Is there any limit to how high it should go and if you do see a limit, why?
John, I suggest you research as to why a minimum wage exists and what its purpose is. Then you won’t make silly comments like the above.
Actually I have, here you go:
Adam Smith in his book the Wealth of Nations, 1776, which is widely considered to be the foundation for modern economics, spends a significant portion of the book discussing how to manage the working class. Pay them too little and there is trouble due to discontent, pay them too much and they grow lazy and indolent.
He also deals with international trade. As it stands now with technology and the speed of shipping goods large corporations have in the last 30 years looked around and said hey, if we can eliminate our competition stateside we could produce our goods in another country much cheaper because the labor costs less. So they pushed for free trade to eliminate tariffs so goods could move as freely as possible around the globe. The American working class in the late 1800s became interested in worker’s rights, unions and higher wages. So the wise leaders in business said ok, lets swim with the current rather than against it. They want a minimum wage law and more regulation on employers, fine that will keep the small stateside businesses from being able to compete with us if we use foreign labor, technology and free trade.
Keeping the masses’ discontent at a minimum is a key to smooth running business so a social safety net from the government is the smart thing to do, ie food stamps, unemployment benefits, welfare, etc. The kink has come with a global financial crisis. The system that had been working well for 30+ years is now being shown to have some severe problems, mostly for the first world countries that have the most advanced social safety nets and who have outsourced jobs overseas. The government spending has gotten out of control, largely due to social program spending, to the point where the government could collapse if cut are not imposed.
My prediction; cuts will be imposed just like in Europe and the UK. The powers that be, who really have say over what a government does will take action. Historical precedent says that tariffs will be imposed. The minimum wage law will be repealed and jobs will return although it could be a long and painful process.
I’m afraid Adam Smith fails to cut it in refuting the proof as posted originally.
Theory vs. the hard facts. I’ll go with the facts every time.
No wonder America has a poverty level of 17%…
Hairy,
It doesn’t appear that you have any idea who Adam Smith is. The reality is that Marxism and socialism, which you advocate, have been tried many times and always failed. There are many variables in each nation’s economies, a few years ago you would have made the same argument about Europe and look at what they are doing now–turning back to capitalism.
Pardon me, Harry.
Don’t worry about it Harry, John hasn’t read anything by Adam Smith or he would have recognized the quote I used and it’s context and this would have generated a different comment.
He probably heard about Adam Smith on some conservative show and parroted it here.
“Wherever the law allows it, and the nature of the work can afford it, therefore, he will generally prefer the service of slaves to that of freemen.” Adam Smith
Would you consider people who trade their vote for food stamps and welfare to be slaves or freemen?
justlogic says:
October 6, 2010 at 11:23 am
I’m with you on that one.
Lets get rid of the Government schools, so I don’t have to pay for them.
Let’s close the Government libraries so I don’t have to pay for them.
Lets legalize drugs,were holding up a huge number of free market entrepreneurs.
And lets get rid of labor unions, people don’t need them.
What people need to do is form the largest employment agency ever to exist, called labor inc.
It could employ the masses of the nation as 1099 employees and charge for the services of these employees and all benefits the company cared to give their employees would be paid for by businesses that would contract with the only labor source in American.
And since it would be a free enterprise business not a union,conservatives would love doing business with them because conservatives love free market stuff.
I have an excellent understanding of both logic and free.
What frustrates you is conservatism has no logical argument contesting my postualtion, leaving you with only, a less than witty remark.
I need more people to vote conservative so I can implement the whole free America plan.
I am happy to be a conservative just like you, as you know government is far to involved and unconstitutionally controlling of the personal lives and adult decisions of American citizens
Together we can legalize drugs, legalize prostitution, legalize gay marriage, build a mosque any where, buy, sell and carry weapons without the nuisances of government.
I appreciate your full support of conservatism and thank you for doing your part to help.
I am Americas leading Conservative and I approve this message.
—————————————————-
The above statements knocked you of your phony conservative horse in the other thread.
The truth is you love government interference when it protects the wealthy but you hate to see J.Q Public get a dime.
The truth is J.Q Public out numbers you John and is tired of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Republicans repealing the minimum wage is a joke, it wont happen.
The Republicans have never repealed the social programs they have been saying they will at any time they have had solid majority.
Tax cuts are all they ever really offer and that’s the kind of welfare you like.
The founding fathers knew to many dollars in to few hands was a threat to the nation.
The founding fathers also knew capitalist have no country and hold no allegiance to anything but gold.
If you are a small business owner, you would be one of the first to be crushed by a large corporation if conservatism and capitalism were truly unleashed on the nation.
You may like the tough talk of a Nietzsche, nothing weak survives world but the reality is you wouldn’t survive it yourself.
Groups like MS-13 and AL-Qaeda would do just fine.
The masses don’t need capitalism to survive, capitalism
needs the masses.
The masses put up with capitalism only as long as they see a benefit in it.
Capitalist do nothing to support this country, they run to socialist third world nations with every opportunity they get, that’s what capitalism supports.
The problem isn’t that taxes and the minimum wage are to high, the problem is Capitalist and Congress have betrayed the nation, and the masses are a little bit tired of that.
Like I have said in the past, your version of logic and freemen is not the same as mine.
You have the mindset of a Marxist and cannot see things from a free market capitalist’s point of view but if you keep working on it and looking to the govt for your sustenance there is a good chance that as you get hungrier you mind will clear and you will see things differently.
I don’t depend on Government for my substance John, I have a business, I pay wages and taxes and I’m not crying about either one, you are, I must be a better manager.
Bam,slam and dunk.
You don’t dispute being called a Marxist so I will assume that I am accurate. How do reconcile that with owning a business and making a profit–if that is what you do.
lol.. I well know who Adam Smith was…but theory is always surpassed with fact…anyway, I can see this will just be a discussion that goes nowhere…the America you want, where the $$ is the measure of everything is summed up here.
Thank god I live in a country where such a thing would not be countenanced.