[libertarianPA]

Edwards, who said he wants to eliminate poverty within a generation, favors raising the minimum wage to $9.50.

What a cheap skate. I propose $25/hour.

Fast-food waitress Fawn Townsend of Raleigh, N.C., knows exactly what she is going to do if her salary goes up with Tuesday's increase in the federal minimum wage: start saving for a car so she can find a second job to make ends meet.

So, the only thing standing between this woman and the ability to save for a car and get another job was 70 cents an hour?

At $7.25 an hour, the most likely response from restaurants will be "increases in menu prices, elimination of some positions and reduction of staff hours to try and offset some of the increased labor costs," said Brendan Flanagan, the association's vice president of federal relations.

Mr. Flanagan needs to take an economics course. Businesses tend to not hire low-skill workers rather than pay them more and raise prices. All that's going to happen is a lot of high school kids and uneducated adults will go the way of the under-25 French citizens and experience high unemployment.

If liberals want proof that government-mandated minimum wages price low-skill workers out of jobs, that's exactly what the South African government did to keep blacks out of the work force.

[Hydroshock]

I have long said that the minimum wage needs to indexed to inflation. With year small increases to reflect teh increase in inflation.

[bannie]

No surprised in the outcome.

[denydenydeny]

"My goal personally is to get a vehicle so I can independently go back and forth to work and maybe pick up extra work so I can have that extra income, because minimum wage is not cutting it,"

Cars in America mean freedom. Never forget that. The Left is eventually going to overreach on this issue.

[Western Civ 4ever]

A PNC Economic Outlook survey done in April showed three out of four small- and middle-market business owners said raising the minimum wage would have little or no impact on their businesses. "In a tighter labor market, they already raised wages to be competitive," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial Services Group.

So, 25% of these business, that's one in four, will feel the impact. This doesn't strike these folks as high a number?

The anti-minimum wage argument has always been that it would harm marginal businesses with an unsustainable increase in their operating costs. If they go under, of course, they are providing no one with a "fair wage."

[CharlesWayneCT]

"My goal personally is to get a vehicle so I can independently go back and forth to work and maybe pick up extra work so I can have that extra income, because minimum wage is not cutting it," said Townsend, who is 24 and single.

Like, what kind of car can she buy for the extra money? Assume 40 hours a week, at 70 cents an hour, take out social security and other taxes, that's about 20 bucks a week, 52 weeks would be $1000 total.

Then the question is, will the cost of owning the car, fixing the car, putting tags on the car, insuring the car, local property taxes and parking taxes for the car, and gasoline, be more than what she will make in her 2nd minimum wage job.

Typical problem poor people have is they buy an "expensive" car but to afford it they buy used -- and the car they get breaks down constantly, while they still have to pay their monthly payments.

She'd be better off finding a place that will let her work more hours.

I bet her current employer would do so, except that they'd have to pay her overtime, another federal law. So instead of her adding 20 hours a week at a place she is already working at, knows, and can walk to, she has to go find a 2nd employer and a car to put in those 20 hours, because her current employer would have to pay overtime while the 2nd one won't.

Another example of the bad consequences of federal laws.

[4yearlurker]

I see some full time employees becoming part time employees.

[operation clinton cleanup]

So, the only thing standing between this woman and the ability to save for a car and get another job was 70 cents an hour?

The current NC minimum wage is $6.15, so she is already earning 30 cents more an hour than the new Federal minimum wage.

[Smokin' Joe]

THis is just to widen the gap between legal labor and illegals. Increases the demand and mutes the complaints...

[kingu]

Mr. Flanagan needs to take an economics course. Businesses tend to not hire low-skill workers rather than pay them more and raise prices. All that's going to happen is a lot of high school kids and uneducated adults will go the way of the under-25 French citizens and experience high unemployment.

Sorry, Illegals have already done this, increasing the minimum wage isn't going to force out the bottom tier, they're already mostly out by virtue of illegal immigration.

And yup, that market that might have hired someone at minimum wage to wash the shelves will now decide that someone can take on this additional task, rather than hiring someone.

[1rudeboy]

So, the only thing standing between this woman and the ability to save for a car and get another job was 70 cents an hour?

Even if you call it 35 cents per hour after taxes, FICA, and whatnot . . . yeah, I can see it. Enough to pay for a couple tankfuls of gas a month or in the absence of a car, enough to "get her on the road" to owning one.

[Inquisitive1]

...70 cents an hour?

Preposterous, isn't it?

[Elle Bee]

minimum wage ... living wage ... just cuts jobs ... feel good economics from the socialist elite

.

[billybudd]

One thing this article, and articles like it, never mention is: how many people actually make minimum wage? I think the answer is somewhere around 1% of all workers.

[Alberta's Child]

$7.25 an hour? What a joke.

To give you a sense of just how meaningless some of these numbers are, consider this . . . hiring an illegal immigrant in my neck of the woods would cost you at least $12/hour in cash.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Fawn fails to realize a couple of things. When the minimum wage hike goes into effect, not only will she probably not be able to find a second job, her primary employer may cut her hours to save money.

Does she realize how horribly expensive it is to own a car? By that, I am talking about DMV fees, smog checks, and bare bones insurance. The kind of car she can afford will probably be held together with chicken wire and duct tape. I hope she knows how to do her own tune-ups.

Being on the low end of the pay scale, I know what happens when minimum wage hikes are announced. All I have to do is look at my local help wanted ads in the newspaper. I’m not blaming businesses for trying to keep their heads above water.

[ran20]

I’m not sure about the minimum wage.. but I believe trade schools and nursing school type schools should be free and pay the people enough they can eat and rent and get to the school.

The government would very quickly get back the costs of those skills by taxes on those people in the future. In my city I’ve seen people get stuck in poverty. Especially single mothers. They have to stay at the dead end job to meet the next few months payments.

[festus]

Woo Hoo !!!

I’m still working out how I will spend all the extra money I’ll get from this.

[kcvl]

ACORN member Fawn Townsend. North Carolina ACORN is a founding member of North Carolinians for a Fair Wage.

[Garvin]

“Fast-food waitress Fawn Townsend of Raleigh, N.C., knows exactly what she is going to do if her salary goes up with Tuesday’s increase in the federal minimum wage: start saving for a car so she can find a second job to make ends meet.”

Why would her hourly pay go if the federal minimum wage increase is from $5.15 an hour to $5.85. She lives in North Carolina where the minimum wage is $6.15 an hour. North Carolina raised its minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.15 in January 2007. We here have already seen the down side of higher prices because of this.

[kcvl]

JESSE J. HOLLAND — AP Labor Writer.

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