Posted on 01/28/2014 7:29:50 AM PST by Olog-hai
President Barack Obama will sign an executive order setting the minimum wage for workers under new federal contracts at $10.10 an hour, the White House said Tuesday. The president will announce the increase during his State of the Union address.
The increase from a national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour will not affect existing federal contracts, only new ones. Moreover, contract renewals will not be affected unless other terms of the agreement change.
The order would be one of the biggest examples in the State of the Union of Obama’s vow to use presidential authority to push for policies by circumventing Congress. …
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If the law really has a set minimum wage then the contractors could take the Federal government to court, although they might not want to.
They could after the fact for damages.
Chavez and the Castros are real proud of the DICTATOR.
I have never seen a government contract that had any minimum wage workers on it as direct charge. But it means an instant raise for all union employees on the contracts as their contract says they are x% above minimum wage.
The government has increased costs in firm-fixed-price contracts. That should be illegal.
I have to ask, just curious. Does the president have the authority to do this on his own, without Congressional legislation?
I know the liberals and the media won’t ask this question. I don’t know if John Boehner and Mitch McConnell will ask. But that’s what I really want to know, does this fall in the area of legal executive action?????
I don’t get the well-off ranting about income inequality. The obvious course of action for them is to publicly vow that they will never take more money per annum than what the average Joe makes.The Obamas can easilt refuse any more than say $50,000 while President and then refuse all the speaking fees and book deals afterward. People need to call them on this.
More ideological delusion from Good King 0. More pandering for votes with no thought about the consequences of his action(s).
“”””RE :”Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, a six-term conservative and tea party favorite, said that Obama’s proposal is unconstitutional. “We have a minimum wage. Congress has set it. For the president to simply declare I’m going to change this law that has passed is unconstitutional,” King said Tuesday on CNN.”
If the law really has a set minimum wage then the contractors could take the Federal government to court, although they might not want to.
They could after the fact for damages. “””””””
I won’t stand out in the cold today waiting for him to do anything about it. Huff, puff, cry , cave. Repeat as necessary.
OK. Higher mandated wages= higher contract bids= higher government expenditures= even deeper government debt.
I suppose Yo-Mama will now win the Nobel Prize for economics.
Probably not, but Congress ignoring the action is de facto assent, and an attack on the Constitution by both executive and legislative branches. The GOP-e is blatantly complicit.
This doesn’t change anything for current Federal Contract workers. It is mostly a symbolic poitical move. The increase can only be applied to new Federal Contracts and the number of workers covered by Federal Contracts that make less than $10.10 per hour is next to zero.
This one would be good for a Supreme Court Challenge.
This policy obscures the fact that MANY active contracts in the federal government have labor rates in the $100 - $200 p/hour range. This is especially common for IT contracts, but the rates can easily be even higher.
Now assume there are 50 contractors working for one year at those kind of rates...
George Bush Forced him into this!..
Probably, yes. As much as it is being described otherwise, this is not, strictly speaking, a "minimum wage" law. All Obama's EO does (and all he has the Constitutional authority to do) is say that the Federal government will not enter into new contracts with contractors who pay less than $10.10/hr for work done in connection with the contract. The President has pretty broad authority to determine the terms of contracts entered into by the Federal government. That authority is, of course, subject to limits imposed by law, but in this case, he is not violating those limits (e.g., he's not requiring contractors to pay less than the statutory minimum wage), but exceeding them.
the number of workers covered by Federal Contracts that make less than $10.10 per hour is next to zero.
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Totally agree with that. The actual labor rate for someone being paid at that level would only be about $25 to $30 (which includes overhead, fringe, G&A & fee). And extremely low labor rates like that are often viewed as unrealistic (i.e., insufficient experience or skills) and can backfire on the offeror. The point is, nobody is paid that low.
At the same time that military retirements are being gouged.
Thank you. So much is discussed on EO and Obama pushing the envelope. But, if he does have this authority, then we can’t say it’s an illegal power grab. And, if we can elect a GOP president next time, that president can revoke this order.
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