Obama’s $10.10 Minimum Wage Would Fundamentally Change America
It’s official, people: the President supports increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour from its current $7.25. Such a move would drastically alter the lives of the country’s working poor.
On Thursday, President Barack Obama announced his support for legislation introduced by two Democratic senators that, if passed, would mark the first significant increase to the federal minimum wage in more than four years. Obama’s statements showed that he’s ready to go farther than his February proposal to push the minimum wage to $9, which many criticized as not a significant enough boost.
A leap to $10.10, however, could be enough to push a large number of the working poor — a group defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as those who fall below the poverty line despite working (or searching for work) at least 27 weeks per year — out of poverty.
A $10.10 minimum wage would have pushed more than half — 58 percent — of the nation’s 10 million-plus working poor out of poverty in 2011, according to a June study by the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, an advocacy group focusing on the restaurant industry. (Prices have risen since 2011, so a $10.10 minimum wage would not have quite as much purchasing power today as it would have back then)
“Here’s the bottom line,” U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez said Friday. “No one who works a full time job should have to live in poverty.” (Strachan/Huffington Post)
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/08/minimum-wage-obama-study_n_4240478.html
$10.10 ?
why not $11
or $13
or $20 or $25
I can put together a strong case for any of those rates.
A leap to $10.10, however, could be enough to push a large number of the working poor — a group defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as those who fall below the poverty line despite working (or searching for work) at least 27 weeks per year — out of work
I’m sure all the burger king workers will now qualify for borrowing money to move to Ridgewood based on that extra 80 bucks a week.
What it will do is ‘push’ this group into the unemployment line as the marginal small businesses make do with fewer workers.
Another stupid move by the socialist Kenyan and his buddies.
Raising the minimum wage has never increased unemployment rates.
Raising the minimum wage by 30 percent by the Socialist in Chief will hurt the people he claims to be helping.
This country is run by small businesses, many of whom are still feeling the pinch of the poor economy. They have a certain amount of money to spend on employees so some will get laid off with more mandatory government expenditures (while we continue to import cheap crap from China)
PS. A friend used to employ 150 unskilled laborers here in Bergen county to make, package, and ship ‘widgets’. These are 150 immigrants that got 40 hours of work. Well thanks to ‘free trade’, his business was unsustainable in that mode (manufacturing here). So he laid off 146 workers. He has the product built in China now and shipped here. The remaining 4 workers unpack and ship the products. Net loss of 144 low wage US jobs. I can assure you, there are many of these places that will just close the doors. Stay tuned.