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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums$10 Minimum Wage Proposal Has Growing Support from White House
$10 Minimum Wage Proposal Has Growing Support from White HouseBy CATHERINE RAMPELL and STEVEN GREENHOUSE at the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/business/10-minimum-wage-proposal-has-obamas-backing.html?smid=re-share&_r=0
"SNIP................................
The White House has thrown its weight behind a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to at least $10 an hour.
The president has long supported raising the minimum wage so hard-working Americans can have a decent wage for a days work to support their families and make ends meet, a White House official said.
President Obama, the official continued, supports the Harkin-Miller bill, also known as the Fair Minimum Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, from its current $7.25.
The legislation is sponsored in the Senate by Tom Harkin of Iowa and in the House by George Miller of California, both Democrats. It would raise the minimum wage in three steps of 95 cents each, taking place over two years to $10.10, and then index it to inflation. The legislation will probably be coupled with some tax sweeteners for small businesses, traditionally the loudest opponents of increases to the minimum wage.
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Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)Needs to be pushed hard so as to expose the Republicans - ALL of them - as enemies of the working class.
Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)Republicans have long been teh puppets of teh corporates, they should be exposed as such.
Lobo27
(753 posts)They should meet half way from 15, 18.50 or something like that.
Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)This is a GOP that thinks "compromise" means "do exactly as we say or else".
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Now all we need is to raise the caps and the payouts on Social Security, a full single-payer health care system, a dedication to the building of a publicly owned green infrastructure, and a hard line on the environment.
Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)The USA currently has three distinct problems.
1) You need economic stimulus.
2) You need jobs.
3) You have a crumbling infrastructure.
I propose that we solve all three by the state directly employing the unemployed to repair the infrastructure, the Rebuild America Corps (name up for debate as I don't much like it). You have a shitload of people out of work who could be building railways, laying fibre optic cables, repairing roads and bridges, installing solar panels, building low-income housing. There are people out of work who know how to train and lead teams to do all this shit. That employs people which puts money in their pockets. They spend that money, stimulating the economy and driving demand.
The way I see it, the RAC winds down a lot as the worst of teh infrastructure is repaired and the economy picks up but goes on to become a beloved part of the fabric of the USA. It provides teenagers with their first real jobs, gives ex-cons a chance to turn their lives around by learning an honest trade, provides the unemployed a job they can take pride in and prevents their skills from atrophying. It works with local charities to help communities. Staffed almost entirely by people who are currently unemployed, administered by unemployed clerical workers. It provides on-the-job training and certification. Real jobs, doing important work, in a Corps that expands and contracts as needed. When unemployment is high, the RAC expands. When unemployment is low, the RAC contracts. Reliable jobs that will take virtually anyone.
Then you bring in full single-payer healthcare. And the RAC builds hospitals, roads to connect them, wires them up, puts in the plumbing, lays the carpets and paints the walls. Then you need ambulances and medical equipment, stimulating those industries. Then you need to staff them. Not just with doctors and nurses but also with janitors, groundskeepers, orderlies, receptionists, IT support, canteen staff and someone to run the newsagent. More real, recession-proof jobs in the most moral profession of all, healing people.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)We've fallen so far behind regarding the minimum wage that we're going to need a giant step in order to just keep up with a lot of modern societies.
CK_John
(10,005 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Job and Wage Killing Agreement, advocating more austerity including cuts in Social Security and Medicare, and gutting regulations on the big banks...
That's like giving someone a dollar and then beating him up and breaking both legs so he can't work anymore.
So sick of crumbs being waved at us while we are bludgeoned in MAJOR WAYS, over and over again, for the profit of the corporate elite. Where is the comprehensive plan and sustained, public effort to REVERSE the looting of the past three decades?!
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It's bad enough that the banks strangled the Dodd-Frank law. Even worse is the way they did it - with a big assist from Congress and the White House.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-wall-street-killed-financial-reform-20120510
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aptal
(304 posts)I think it should be more along the lines of $28.75 per an hour to make sure all minimum wage workers are on a more even playing field.
Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)$10 is not enough but I'm trying to to let teh perfect be the enemy of teh good here.
I worked out a while back that, based on a 40-hour work week, it would take $13 an hour to lift a family of three above the federal poverty level. Therefore, the federal minimum wage level should be lifted to at least $13 an hour and linked to either inflation or the consumer price index (whichever is higher). Obviously, states would and should raise their minimums above that, based on the local economy.
indepat
(20,899 posts)woulda' ever thunk the U.S. might go so far in such a short period of time?