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CA: It's the minimum lawmakers can do ... - Those who earn the least deserve a raise...
Los Angeles Times ^ | April 11, 2006 | Sen. Abel Maldonado (R)

Posted on 04/11/2006 12:31:02 AM PDT by calcowgirl

I KNOW FIRSTHAND how the minimum wage affects California's low-wage earners and small-business employers. As a young man, I worked long hours in the strawberry fields alongside my father, who also worked for minimum wage. My mother and father understood the daily struggle of providing the necessities for their children while earning only the lowest allowable wage.

Later on, through years of hard work, faith and perseverance, my parents turned a half-acre strawberry farm into a 6,000-acre family business that today employs more than 200 people and ships produce around the world. To this day they have not forgotten their roots or the times when our family went without, and you can be sure they have instilled this appreciation into my siblings and me.

(snip)

Now is the time to give a needed hand to California's minimum-wage earners, many of whom work long hours at the kind of backbreaking jobs the rest of us would like to avoid.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also believes the time is right. In January, he told the Legislature that he would immediately sign legislation to increase the minimum wage by $1 an hour, beginning with a 50-cent increase this year and another 50-cent increase next year. That legislation is contained in Senate Bill 1167, which I introduced at the governor's request.

(snip)

There are 380,000 minimum-wage earners in the Los Angles region alone today. They need real money in their pockets, not a flawed indexing scheme motivated by election-year politics that would not go into effect for another 2 1/2 years.

The Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations has until April 28 to move SB 1167 forward.

I hope committee members realize that doing the "strategic" thing is not necessarily the same as doing what is right.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: abelmaldonado; abeltheliberal; callegislation; maldonado; minimumwage; sb1167
ABEL MALDONADO is a Republican state senator from Santa Maria and 2006 election candidate for California State Controller.
1 posted on 04/11/2006 12:31:02 AM PDT by calcowgirl
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To: calcowgirl
Raising the minimum LEGAL wage, will increase the competitiveness of ILLEGAL workers, something of which I am certain Mr. Maldonado, as a former ag employer, knows very well.
2 posted on 04/11/2006 12:34:55 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (There are people in power who are truly evil.)
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To: calcowgirl

Wow! Abel Maldonado is a socialist scumbag! This animal is supposed to be a Republican?? I guess it's no wonder California is gurgling foul toilet water as it swirls away into third-world chaos.


3 posted on 04/11/2006 12:36:41 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: calcowgirl

...whom apparently has not even the most basic grasp of economics.

Go Tony Strickland !
http://www.tonystrickland.com/


4 posted on 04/11/2006 12:40:25 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Cheney X -- Destroying the Liberal Democrat Traitors By Any Means Necessary -- Ya Dig ? Sho 'Nuff.)
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To: Carry_Okie
Every one knows illegal aliens are paid less than the minimum wage. If you raise it, it will simply increase the "race to the bottom" effect for the poor. And guess who is put at a disadvantage? Law-abiding employers who pay their workers decent wages.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

5 posted on 04/11/2006 12:42:14 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Lancey Howard

Apparently Mr. Maldonado has a family owned farm employing 200 workers.

Well, Mr. Maldonado, it's none of my business what you pay your workers, and it's none of your business what I pay mine. And since our businesses are not each others concern, neither are they the State's.

My advice to you, sir, is to dry your eyes and take care of your own. And leave mine to me.


6 posted on 04/11/2006 12:44:27 AM PDT by John Valentine
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To: calcowgirl

Very disappointing... Especially considering I voted for him...


7 posted on 04/11/2006 12:47:08 AM PDT by DB (©)
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To: Carry_Okie
Raising the minimum LEGAL wage, will increase the competitiveness of ILLEGAL workers, something of which I am certain Mr. Maldonado, as a former ag employer, knows very well.

Bingo!

8 posted on 04/11/2006 12:51:44 AM PDT by Marine Inspector (Government is not the solution to our problem; Government is the problem)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
...whom apparently has not even the most basic grasp of economics.

Ain't that the truth!
Thank goodness we have a rational choice in the Controller race.

9 posted on 04/11/2006 1:27:16 AM PDT by calcowgirl
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To: John Valentine

Well said....


10 posted on 04/11/2006 1:35:08 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: calcowgirl

Hey, did you catch my ping to FO's comment the other day where he was bellyaching that McCain was "no Conservative" feigning all moral outrage ? I couldn't believe it was the same Ah-nold shill !


11 posted on 04/11/2006 1:57:33 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Cheney X -- Destroying the Liberal Democrat Traitors By Any Means Necessary -- Ya Dig ? Sho 'Nuff.)
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To: Lancey Howard

Rather than call names, I have one question for Sen. Maldonado. Where would he be, if the minimum wage had been set too high so that his parents weren't hired to pick strawberries? Would they have ended up owning 6000 acres? The minimum wage is always set to high for some people, who's first step on the ladder is cut off.


12 posted on 04/11/2006 3:36:32 AM PDT by Jabba the Nutt (Jabba the Hutt's bigger, meaner, uglier brother.)
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To: Jabba the Nutt

What's always so damn frustrating with these pandering pols is their failure to understand that the minimum wage is just that... the start... it's not the maximum wage.


13 posted on 04/11/2006 3:50:57 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Cheney X -- Destroying the Liberal Democrat Traitors By Any Means Necessary -- Ya Dig ? Sho 'Nuff.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

Oh my! LOL! I missed that one (it got buried in my inbox).
There are no bounds when it comes to a certain subject!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1612281/posts?page=50#50


14 posted on 04/11/2006 9:21:22 AM PDT by calcowgirl
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