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applegrove

(118,021 posts)
Thu Nov 7, 2013, 10:34 PM Nov 2013

$10 Minimum Wage Proposal Has Growing Support from White House

$10 Minimum Wage Proposal Has Growing Support from White House

By 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 day’s 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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$10 Minimum Wage Proposal Has Growing Support from White House (Original Post) applegrove Nov 2013 OP
Perfect issue for 2014. Benton D Struckcheon Nov 2013 #1
Seconded Prophet 451 Nov 2013 #10
if the GoP wont give on the 22 per. Lobo27 Nov 2013 #2
You're kidding, right? Prophet 451 Nov 2013 #11
Good news indeed. Jackpine Radical Nov 2013 #3
I've been proposing this idea for a while.... Prophet 451 Nov 2013 #12
10 bucks is still chicken feed. By the time it reached 10.10, it would be worth about 9.60. BlueJazz Nov 2013 #4
We need to push for $15/hr. CK_John Nov 2013 #5
Why isn't the White House pushing for $15? Scuba Nov 2013 #6
Raising to 10 measly bucks while simultaneously pushing the Trans-Pacific woo me with science Nov 2013 #7
IMO, 15 isn't even enough... aptal Nov 2013 #8
$10 isn't enough but it's a small step in the right direction Prophet 451 Nov 2013 #9
Raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour would get it up to almost 2/3rds of Australia's: who indepat Nov 2013 #13

Benton D Struckcheon

(2,347 posts)
1. Perfect issue for 2014.
Thu Nov 7, 2013, 10:35 PM
Nov 2013

Needs to be pushed hard so as to expose the Republicans - ALL of them - as enemies of the working class.

Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
3. Good news indeed.
Thu Nov 7, 2013, 10:42 PM
Nov 2013

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)
12. I've been proposing this idea for a while....
Fri Nov 8, 2013, 12:27 AM
Nov 2013

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)
4. 10 bucks is still chicken feed. By the time it reached 10.10, it would be worth about 9.60.
Thu Nov 7, 2013, 10:48 PM
Nov 2013

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.

woo me with science

(32,139 posts)
7. Raising to 10 measly bucks while simultaneously pushing the Trans-Pacific
Thu Nov 7, 2013, 11:15 PM
Nov 2013

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?!

Obama seeks to fast-track secret Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/23-5

How Wall Street Killed Financial Reform
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

Obama's Top Economic Adviser Tells Democrats They'll Have to Swallow Entitlement Cuts
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023930278

aptal

(304 posts)
8. IMO, 15 isn't even enough...
Thu Nov 7, 2013, 11:55 PM
Nov 2013

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)
9. $10 isn't enough but it's a small step in the right direction
Fri Nov 8, 2013, 12:03 AM
Nov 2013

$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)
13. Raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour would get it up to almost 2/3rds of Australia's: who
Fri Nov 8, 2013, 09:33 PM
Nov 2013

woulda' ever thunk the U.S. might go so far in such a short period of time?

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