If you've been on Facebook this week, you've probably seen the Chris Rock quote making the rounds:
"I used to work at McDonald's making minimum wage. You know what that means when someone pays you minimum wage? You know what your boss is trying to say? It's like, 'Hey, [if] I could pay you less, I would, but it's against the law.'"
Now it seems that some minimum wage employers are trying to pay their workers less -- and to even make it legal to do so. It seems unfathomable that anyone would consider the minimum wage -- which, for a full-time worker, provides a yearly salary that is thousands of dollars below the poverty line for a family of three or four -- to be too high. But in Arizona, Republican legislators are pushing a bill that would allow employers to pay teenagers working part-time a full three dollars per hour less than the state minimum wage, which works out to a mere $4.65 per hour.
And the Florida legislature is considering lowering the state minimum wage for tipped employees by more than half, from the current $4.65 per hour to the federal minimum of $2.13. OSI Partners, the company that owns Outback Steakhouse, supports the legislation. Given the current political discourse on how best to create good jobs and help struggling families, OSI's involvement is especially noteworthy since the firm is owned by Bain Capital, the company that Mitt Romney co-founded and in which the Republican presidential nominee still has tens of millions invested.
The federal minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour, has been raised only three times over the last 30 years. If the minimum wage had kept up with inflation over the last few decades, it would now be $10.55 per hour -- arguably still not enough to support a family, but a marked improvement from where it is presently.
Luckily, despite the fact that some Republicans think the minimum wage is still too high for some workers, there are many, many folks who support a substantial wage increase. One of these folks is Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who in March introduced legislation to raise the minimum wage to $9.80 over two and a half years and peg it to inflation -- a move supported by over two-thirds of voters. Hundreds of economists, including several Nobel Prize winners, have spoken out in favor of raising the minimum wage, along with large employers like Costco and business organizations like the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce that recognize that higher wages are good for workers, employers, and the economy.
Unfortunately, this overwhelming support for raising the minimum wage does not extend to most of corporate America, which has a tendency to prize the short-term bottom line above all other considerations, including the ability of its workers to make ends meet. The anti-minimum wage gang will "twist itself into knots rationalizing a corporate-backed agenda," John Stoehr observes in The American Prospect. And there is no question that those opposed to raising the minimum wage will prey upon our fears of joblessness and the bad economy to try to convince us that the minimum wage needs to stay where it is.
Corporate lobbyists are busy spreading distortions and outright lies in their attempt to hold back minimum wage increases supported by the vast majority of working people. Here are some of the biggest falsehoods that are going around, along with facts you can use to discredit them (with many thanks to raisetheminimumwage.org for providing much of this information):
Myth No. 1: Raising the minimum wage will kill jobs
Facts: Rigorous research carried out over the last two decades has demonstrated that raising the minimum wage does not result in job loss -- in fact, it's been shown to result in increased employment. For example, an analysis of Illinois, which raised its minimum wage in 2004 and 2006, showed that the state experienced more job growth than surrounding states where wages remained at the federal minimum.
And contrary to the claims of corporate America, large companies can easily afford to pay workers an increased wage without suffering losses. According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), corporate profits now represent the largest share of GDP -- and wages and salaries represent the lowest share -- in over half a century.
Myth No. 2: Raising the minimum wage will hurt small businesses
Facts: According to NELP, two-thirds of all minimum wage employees work in companies with at least 100 workers, and half of all minimum wage workers work in companies with over 500 workers. For those small businesses that do employ minimum wage workers, there is good news: a 2006 study found that small businesses experienced higher rates of growth in states where the minimum wage was higher than the federal minimum.
Margot Dorfman, CEO of the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, explains it this way:
"The business owners with whom I talk every day believe that, far from hurting their businesses, raising the minimum wage in fact helps small businesses, women workers and the broader economy. Raising the minimum wage reinforces their business strategies, rather than undermining them."
Myth No. 3: We can't afford to raise the minimum wage during a recession
Facts: Raising the minimum wage would provide the stimulus we need to speed economic recovery. A 2011 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found that every dollar increase for a minimum wage worker results in $2,800 in new consumer spending by his or her household over the following year. Put simply, low wage workers have a desperate need for any increased income and spend it quickly, often on the local level, which provides a huge boost to the economy--as even conservative economists have documented.
There is no doubt that the current federal minimum wage is too low, and that raising it would provide a much needed boost not only to low-wage workers but also to the sluggish economy. Now that election season is in full swing, it's important to find out where candidates seeking our votes stand on the issue of raising the minimum wage -- and to let them know where we, along with the majority of Americans, stand on the issue as well.
He will insure workers have NO RIGHTS NO UNIONS less pay less benefits etc ....the 1% "DreamACT" They dream of keeping more money and acting like slumlords
They should be taxed accordingly, so that they pay for the riches they gain from their employees.
It's called Fiscal Responsibility.
That is appalling - and even more so after reading your last sentence.
Thanks for that.
But, those who live in the 1st world, will see their wages decrease as they compete with third world graduates, and those who are low-paid and low-skilled in the 1st world, like those here in the US, will also see their wages lowered--as the supply of global low-skilled workers increase. Eventually, American and European wages will reach price equilibrium with Chinese workers and this will take a short time within a historical perspective, but create havoc for us in the meanwhile.
We could have legislation that helps displaced workers and low skilled workers gain other vocations or training, but the help our government is providing is minimal and sadly not enough to help us compete. However, there is a light in the tunnel, and we as a society need to increase the number of entrepreneurs in America. Despite our reverence for the free-market the United States is not the number one country either in total numbers or by a percentage of population, for people who are entrepreneurs---I emphasize entrepreneurship because working for a corporations like McDonalds or other will result in cheaper and cheaper wages--while the profits go to international investor or even investors in the country who dont live in your community, or spend in your community.
They are using the Government to top up the wages of their employees to a survivable level, with tax refunds, food stamps and other forms of welfare.
They are receiving dishonest subsidies from the government to keep their businesses functioning, or their owners wealthy, while relentlessly demanding that the government cut welfare costs.
When employees cannot survive, they are not healthy, and they may be unable to afford to get to work, no matter how willing.
Therefore, true fiscal responsibility requires that people be paid a survivable wage, and businesses paying survivable wages have to stand on their own feet - not be discretely and indirectly sucking at the public teat.
News that a Bain subsidiary is trying to have minimum wages slashed in half is a perfect example of a successful and profitable company which wants the government to heavily subsidize their poverty-wage workers, so that the owner (Mitt Romney) can have a higher income from the profits.
It is obscene! It is hypocritical.
I will impose my own man boycott..hopefuly others join. Bain Capital also owns Burger King, Brookstone, Dunkin Donuts, Toys R US, Dominoes Pizza and the Sports Authority to name a few very famous companies....well..
You couldn't have said a more truthful statement if you tried.
I think you may have your parties confused, republicans are the party that emancipated the slaves and brought us Civil Rights legislation. The progressives of the early 20th century, now the modern day democrat party, through legislation have consistently proven their dissatisfaction what they like to call "the unemployable", the poor and "inferior races".
http://www.princeton.edu/~tleonard/papers/retrospectives.pdf
This is just one example there are plenty more if you look.
For all you repubs out there....just how much of a profit should a company make before they believe that they have enough? I am NOT against any company making a profit. I just want to know how much is too much? 1,000%.....2,000% 10,000%!!???
As of June 18, 2012, the number of rounds of golf played by the Golfer-In-Chief is... 100
To the contrary, the slave is cheaper than a worker, and can their education eliminated, and can be easily dominated and restrained--the cost of housing, food, and clothing are a minimal expense to the free labor at the point of a gun and whip. Also, your are minimizing the incredible work of the abolitionists like John Brown and the works of Harriet Tubman and revolutionary writers like Harriet Beacher Stowe who wrote the nominal anti-slavery novel and one of the reason for the Civil War, Uncle Toms Cabin; and lets not forget Frederick Douglas.
Everything that impacts negatively to that ability to
spend is what is killing this recovery.
And the GOP knows it.
Anything to get rid of the black man in the white house.
Obama 2012