Dean calls for raising minimum wage

[Rokenn]

But this is not about that [img]smile.gif[/img] It's about this great entry I came across on a blog today:

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MINIMUM WAGE....Nathan Newman is praising Howard Dean for proposing an increase in the minimum wage to $7 per hour. Me too. This is one of the most important things we could do to help the working poor, who have seen the minimum wage fall by a third over the past three decades.

And for those who insist that raising the minimum wage would cause massive economic dislocation, I'd like to point out that Congress doubled the minimum wage in 1950 with no ill effects, and raised it to about $8/hour in present-day terms in 1968, again with no ill effects. What's more, with a few exceptions, most minimum wage jobs are in service industries, not manufacturing jobs that are susceptible to being sent overseas. Raising the minimum wage would help a lot of people at a pretty small cost. We should do it.

And should we index the minimum wage to inflation? Of course. But I'll renew an even better idea I proposed a year ago: index it to congressional salaries. Assuming a normal 2000-hour work year, congressmen make about $75/hour right now. How about simply making the minimum wage equal to 10% of that? Congress can then increase their own salaries anytime they want, but only if they're willing to help out the working poor at the same time. Seems fair to me.
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I think indexing the minimum wage to congressional salaries is a great idea personally [img]smile.gif[/img]

Sounds intrigueing...except the average congressman doesnt work anywhere near 2000 hours a year and so the base index will have to be raised by close to an order of magnitude I think.

[Rokenn]

Maybe those lazy bums should work more then, so atleast we will be getting our monies worth [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

[Timber Loftis]

No offense guys, but I bet the average Congressman works well over 2000 hours a year. I personally log 1900-2000, actually work around 2500, and have lots more free time than those guys.

[khazadman]

Hmmm, yes, let's raise the minimum wage (MW) so that prices can go up. And rising prices will eat away at the raise in the MW. I, just once anyway, would love to hear one of these Dems hawking an increase in the MW to tell us why they REALLY want the increase: as a sop to the unions. After all, their contracts are linked to the MW. When the MW goes up, their pay does too. So it's really an attempt to buy Union votes because they know that the poor don't vote as much.

TL, I think you may have a different definition of work than I do when it comes to congress. I don't count all their social engagments as work since they would be highly put off to not be invited....and if you do count all that then you ALSO have to coun't all of that as additional income wich would also raise their wage quite a bit.

Khaz, the raise in Minimum wage is just a way to grab a voting block of low income types. It doesn't do them any good, and it really doesnt hurt the Middle and higher classes too much since salaries for skilled workers will have to be raised as well....since skilled labor just demands higher salaries....it only hurts lower middle and lower class wage types.

I agree that raising theminimum wage will also just raise the basic cost of living thus negating the raise they think they will get. The bottom line is...MINIMUM wage jobs is not what ANYONE should be trying to raise a family on....if that is what you do...you should not try to raise a family till you you can afford it.

[ 12-30-2003, 10:45 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[Timber Loftis]

A minimum wage increase has never resulted in a proportionate rise in prices or in mass amounts of layoffs. Period. The minimum wage needs to catch up, simple as that. What is it now? $5.50 per hour? Do we really want to demand that people work at that level, ESPECIALLY when we in the US are moving to a largely bifrocated society with the "high income" earners on one end and the "low income" earners on the other? You may not have noticed, but our middle wage jobs are leaving -- seamster industry has left, no real steel work anymore, companies by the dozen outsourcing tech support to India. All we really have left are high income and low income jobs. The service industry, which accounts for more than half of the jobs in cities like Chicago, gets truly brutalized.

Sorry, you'll never convince me that burger flippers deserve more than $5 an hour...nor grocery baggers or any of a bazillion unskilled positions. There is no moral or social need to make these types of jobs into artificial "Carreers". If you want to earn more money....work to improve your skills....and provide something someone is willing to pay you more for. Don't go making the government into a bigger wealth redistribution center than it has already become......

Just my opinion and we disagree....I can live with that.


Edit: Just to be contradictory with myself, I do see a set minimum wage as being fair....I just have a problem with it being reassigned by politicians up for reelection

[ 01-01-2004, 11:36 AM: Message edited by: MagiK ]