Posted on 01/06/2014 5:49:04 AM PST by Sir Napsalot
With the midterm elections just over 300 days away, nervous Democrats reeling from the Obamacare debacle are hoping a big push to raise the minimum wage will be the silver bullet that will spare them from the historic losses they suffered in 2010.
Democrats and unions are busy working to get minimum wage initiatives on state ballots in the hopes of creating an electoral “minimum wage magnet” to attract low-income, minority, and union voters to the polls.
Seven minimum wage facts, however, may diminish Democrats' high hopes.
1. Just 2.8% of American workers earn at or below the minimum wage.
2. Half of all minimum wage workers are 16 to 24 years old.
3. Labor workers already make well above the minimum wage.
4. Even those who support minimum wage hikes concede it could kill jobs.
5. Minorities and the poor are hit hardest by the minimum wage.
6. Even progressives concede the minimum wage is no panacea for America's economic woes.
7. 21 states already have minimum wages that are higher than the federal $7.25/hr rate.
[Note: Lots of links and statistics at source link, be sure to read the rest of the article.]
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
patriot2013jrd • 11 hours ago
"It's all about the unions and basing their pay upon a multiple of the minimum wage.
And it sure plays well to the uninformed and naive. That is the base of the democrat party, so it is a regular play in their divide and conquer politics. Rich against the poor." 164 △ 1 ▽
Very naïve for author of the article to think the listed seven facts had Dems worried. "This" has been the Dems playbook and it has been winning for them.
I'll just add this to that number 7 - These same 21 states are OF COURSE going to up their ante once the Federal minimum wage hike, to show they are much more 'enlightened' than the rest of the nation.
Number 1 omits the number of workers whose pay is tied to minimum wage somehow, the unions, for one group.
We raised minimum wage in 2007, right after the new dim-0 congress took over.Conservatives warned dim-0s that to do so was to raise unemployment, but they did it anyway. At the time, unemployment was, and had been at mid 4%. Soon after it started going up, and put us where we are today.
IF we raise it again, people who have jobs now will lose them.
It plays to the sheeperals prime motivation - thinking of themselves as “good people” for supporting “giving the poor more”, without personal sacrifice, of course.
If we are doomed to get a raise in the minimum wage no matter what then make it a BIG rise and make it very soon, soon enough to throw a bunch of Democrat voters out of work before the election.
The progressives at MSNBC have beating this drum and they DON”T concede this.
They been claiming the exact opposite, that raising the minimum wage is the same as giving out raises and it stimulates the economy because those people spend that extra $$$. And *we* all know that spending $$$ is what makes the economy work. The consumers are the most important.
Same claims/theory with extending unemployment comp.
Notice Dems hate states making their own economic policies.
Meaning the “stupid voters”.
California min wage goes to $9 in July, $10 next year or the year after. We’re already bleeding people and jobs, this will just make it worse.
I say the drive for increased minimum wage is due to the recognition that inflation is far more onerous than government figures show. With wages falling already in real terms because of market forces, a boost now should boost the unemployment rate pretty quickly. How will the government alter how they count Unemployeds to keep the new numbers down?
Worse, it’s causing many Californians to flee, turning former red states into blue ones. Colorado, for example. The fleeing Californians can’t connect the dots between why they felt the need to leave California and how they voted there; they vote the same way here.
>>> How will the government alter how they count Unemployeds to keep the new numbers down?
Rhetorical question, right?
Two options that I see as necessary.
One leave it up to the states. Federal law is not necessary.
Two raise minimum wage to equal what people get from Social Security and Military raises each year.
Yes. I believe a lot of union contracts are tied to FEDERAL minimum wage. All 57 states can raise their minimum wages to twice that of the federal standard, and the democrats won’t be happy... Because it won’t help out their union thugs.
That was my response.
People think presenting these facts will deter voters from continuing to vote Dems are too naïve.
Republican run House should hold the line, if they pass this and the Amnesty, there is really no difference between them and the Dem party.
(But we conservatives already knew that.)
4,5, and 6 have never burned the Democrats before.
I think it also will increase the off the books labor force. I suspect the black market economy (read that “non-taxable) is steadily increasing as a percentage of the US economy.
It will be a tough sell to harp about income inequality when the rich got richer and the poor got poorer under this administration.
That won’t stop them from doing it.
Again, that points out my assertion that “capitalism”, ie, the free market where people buy and sell based on their own interests,
is like gravity. It’s the “default condition”.
When the left tries to “get around it”, it’s like trying to “get around” gravity.
But, as the saying goes, “what goes up must come down”.
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