FINALLY - FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE SIGNED INTO LAW

[Sapphire Blue]

FINALLY - FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE SIGNED INTO LAW

After being stuck at $5.15 an hour for nearly a decade, Congress finally passed the long overdue increase in the minimum wage. The President signed the bill into law on May 25th. The increase will occur in three increments, with the first raise to $5.85 in July followed a year later by another 70-cent increase to $6.55, and finally reaching $7.25 in 2009.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, an estimated 13 million workers (10 percent of the workforce) will be positively affected by the most recent increase in the minimum wage. Of these workers, 5.6 million people who currently earn less than $7.25 will directly benefit from the raise, and 7.4 million workers earning wages slightly above $7.25 are expected to reap indirect benefits by the increase due to plausible “spillover effects.”

Currently 30 states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than $5.15 an hour. Seven of the states have minimum wages that exceed $7.25 an hour – California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Ten of the states have minimum wages that are indexed to increase annually based on the cost of living.

The Senate version of the minimum wage increase attached $8.3 billion in business tax breaks, while the House included $1.3 billion. The final minimum wage agreement included $4.8 billion in business tax cuts. The wage increase and tax cut package were ultimately added to the must-pass emergency supplemental spending bill containing $120 billion in funding mostly to cover the costs of the war in Iraq.

In addition to defense-related spending, the supplemental contains funding for domestic programs including the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), agriculture disaster aid, firefighting, FEMA hurricane recovery and the Corps of Engineers. The $650 million for SCHIP will address shortfalls in FY ’07 in 14 states including Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Unfortunately, additional funding for the Low Income Heating and Energy Program (LIHEAP), included in the first failed attempt at passing the supplemental spending bill, was dropped from the final bill when $4 billion was trimmed from the overall cost.

http://www.chn.org/humanneeds/070601c.html

[mvd]

1. K&R

Finally something that the Repukes couldn't block.

[Kagemusha]

2. Couldn't block? This is what they sold us for funding for the war.

Hope the 30 pieces of silver are worth it.

[mvd]

3. I'm not saying it didn't come with consequences, but..

at least it's something and will help people.

[mattclearing]

14. A more accurate assessment is that it hurts less than doing nothing.

But between inflation and cost of living, when this takes full effect in another year and a half, it will still be as inadequate as the minimum wage is today. With any luck, we'll have Congress and the Presidency by then and be in a position to bring the minimum wage a bit closer to the poverty line.

[Selatius]

16. That's about as straight-forward an answer I've seen: hurts less than doing nothing. n/t

[ComerPerro]

9. Jesus Christ. Some people here will piss all over any progress, because its "not enough"

Grow up.

[mattclearing]

13. Yeah, and some people will take anything offered and feel lucky to get it.

Telling people to grow up is the height of immaturity.

[ComerPerro]

24. I know you are but what am I? That's what you use to rebut? wow.

So maybe you don't need to grow up. Maybe you are already a mature, responsible adult. Which then leads me to conclude that you must not know a God damned thing about the political process.

This kind of all or nothing bullshit is just pathetic.

[rasputin1952]

20. Kind of funny isn't it...The "I want everything NOW" crowd is

never quite on the same sheet of music...goes back to the "Great Democratic Conundrum"...arguing about the type of bagel to bring to the coffee clatch, instead of jsut bringing the bagels and enjoying watching everyone eat...:D

People will benefit from this, and that is a good thing. I see no reason to nay-say the results, I would have liked to see a better bill, but if it moves us forward, that beats the crap out of being stagnant...

[RedCappedBandit]

25. Yeah, god forbid they post their opinion

:eyes: :eyes:

[ComerPerro]

27. nice try, troll. But not what I said at all

[RedCappedBandit]

29. Maybe my response was uncalled for

what i'm trying to say is.. while any change is nice, you can always continue to improve. :hi:

[hfojvt]

4. too bad they couldn't have dumped the business tax cuts

since it was added to the Iraq bill, I am not sure why the tax-cut compromise was necessary.

[gravity]

8. It's suppose to offset the cost to small businesses

to pay the higher wages. An argument against minimum wage is that it could hurt small businesses, which is true in theory, but I don't know how much it really affects them in real life.

It could also discourage businesses from replacing minimum wage workers with illegal immigrants, but I don't know if this would have been much of a problem in real life either.

[hfojvt]

10. it's really supposed to be a give-away to Republican contributors

"Offset the costs to small businesses" is a smoke-screen. For example, this increase in the minimum wage is not going to cost Missouri businesses a dime, at least not for a couple of years. Because Missouri voters already voted to raise the state minimum wage. So the Federal bump does not cost them a dime, but they still get a tax cut.

Also, they typically define 'small' to include some large, IMO, operations. Is a KFC franchise or a Pepsi Hut really a 'small' business? Is a place that employs 150 people a 'small' business? Not compared to mine, which only employed one, myself, and paid far less than minimum wage.

[rasputin1952]

22. They will claim the tax breaks are necessary to offset cost...

but they will raise their prices anyway, and blame it on the MW increase...it is an old ploy, but it works, double-dipping is nothing new to business...:(

[rasputin1952]

21. It wasn't...but it kept the screech monkies subdued...

sometimes you have to throw them a bone...under RW control, bones did not exist, that is why nothing got done, or even discussed for that matter. Unless someone was talking about wrapping a gay in a flag, setting him on fire and praying for his soul in state sponsored schoolroom prayer...all of which went nowhere because it was inane and downright stupid.

[gravity]

5. They should make it so the minimum wage is adjusted each year with inflation

I think it would be easier on everyone, employers and employees.

[Selatius]

15. They've been telling that to Dems for decades, and the Dems don't listen for 1 reason:

Because it would take away a political weapon that they use every several years to beat on Repubs. Frankly, it's one of the most shameful things the Democrats could do: Playing politics with the wages of real people.

[mattclearing]

17. I suspect that isn't really fair.

The Democrats haven't been in a position to do anything about this since early in Clinton's first term, and he probably would have done it if he thought it was possible to get passed. That he didn't should tell us that it's simply not politically possible, even with a slight Dem majority and the White House. We need a total overhaul of government to make the kinds of reforms that are needed.

[Selatius]

30. What about during Carter? Or Johnson? Or even Nixon?

The Democratic lock on Congress lasted for four decades before finally being lost in 1994. You're telling me in that whole time that it has been politically not possible to index the minimum wage to inflation? You're giving too much benefit of the doubt, in my opinion.

[kedrys]

6. Great - now let's reset the bankruptcy laws

to where they were 2 years ago.

[focusfan]

19. Also insurance and fuel prices to 2000 levels

[WindRavenX]

7. sweet. Still way below the living wage.

Better than nothin', I suppose.

[SoCalDem]

11. How proud he must be.. IF a person making that wage could get hired full-time../ $11,700 yr

Whoopee bring on the band & crack open the confetti :puke:

and by 2009.. a whopping "raise" to $15,080..

those figures are for 40 hrs a week x 52 weeks (low wagers don;t get paid vacations much these days)

those are GROSS (and I DO mean gross) wages..nothing taken out.. and NO benefits probably..

[mattclearing]

12. That's outrageous that it will take until 2009 to fully take effect. nt

[fasttense]

18. What a total piece of crap.

"The increase will occur in three increments, with the first raise to $5.85 in July followed a year later by another 70-cent increase to $6.55, and finally reaching $7.25 in 2009."

We get a 35 cent increase. Then in 2008 we get a huge 70 cent increase but then you have to wait another year for the next giant step of 70 cents.

What the hell, corporations are making tons of money and they give us a miserly 35 cents. What a F***ing load of crap. After waiting for a decade when corporations are making more profit then in any time in the history of our nation and we get a 35 cent increase. Gee thanks for nothing.

I bet if they tried they could have cut it down to 1 cent every ten years. What they couldn't make the minimum wage any lower?

[L. Coyote]

23. HOORAY. "an estimated 13 million workers" and how many hungry chilldren?

A great percentage of minimum wage workers are young women with one or more children in single-parent households. These are the people, these women and children, that the Republicans have battled so fiercely to hang on to a few dollars, literally fighting like dogs over food scraps. HOOray for the children who just beat those dogs out of a few more morsels.

[ComerPerro]

26. please spare us your pretending you actually give a crap about people like this

you obviously don't, or you wouldn't be shitting all over the bill.

[lonestarnot]

28. 2009... shit.. at least it's signed law now.

[mitchum]

31. Yippee! More crumbs!

[Booster]

32. Thanks for posting this info, Sapphire Blue. I know how hard you

fought for this and got the rest of us to fight for it too. :toast: