Congressional Budget Office: Wage hike would lift pay but cost jobs

www.FoxNews.com ^ | February 18, 2014

[Yosemitest]

A plan by President Obama and fellow Democrats to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would cost roughly 500,000 jobs
but increase wages for roughly 16.5 million Americans, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.

The report was immediately met with sharp Republican criticism for the wake hike plan.

“While helping some, mandating higher wages has real costs, including fewer people working,” said a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
“With unemployment Americans' top concern, our focus should be creating -- not destroying -- jobs for those who need them most.”

...Republicans argued the report puts authoritative weight behind their argument
that such an increase would cut jobs
because companies would have to spend more on wages.

"This report confirms what we've long known,” Boehner’s office said.

The report was released as the Democrat-controlled Senate prepares to debate an Obama-backed proposal
to gradually increase the $7.25 hourly minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016.

However, the proposal faces long odds of passing in the GOP-controlled House.

... After 2016, Harkin's bill would require the minimum wage to be increased annually to reflect rising inflation.

...

[Yosemitest]

It's time to tell the ILLEGAL ALIEN IN CHIEF to " GO TO HELL ! "

Minimum-wage increase proposals are NOT about minimum wages.
It's about UNION wages (read government employees mostly) and UNION DUES.
Like "Artie" on another thread wrote.

"but my theory is that
this is one of the foundations of single payer.
Down the road, as single payer replaces ObamaCare,
all healthcare workers will become in essence government employees.
Think about how many thousands of new, dues paying union members will magically become part of the SEIU.

Barry had sealed this deal with Andy Stern years ago.
Barry promised Andy and the SEIU thousands of new members,
Andy says
great,
this is the wage structure we need
so we can pay the slush fund.
Gotta pay a living wage to all of the new union members
so dues can be extracted
and kickbacks to the dems can be made.
It’s convoluted
but what dem scheme isn’t,
especially when large sums of cash are involved?"

So read the following:

Union Support Of Minimum Wage Hike Is Self-Interested

Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, ... was quick to emphasize that her organization's support of a more-than-twofold increase in the minimum wage was "not about growing unions."

This may be true — but it's also undeniable that such a move would have a profound impact on growing union paychecks, even if those unions don't count a single minimum-wage employee in their ranks.

The fine print can be found in union contracts. Each year, the Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) releases a number of union collective bargaining agreements (CBAs).

Unsurprisingly, many CBAs available in the OLMS database LINK union salaries and wage rates to the federal minimum wage. There are a number of methods that unions use to accomplish this end. The two most popular appear to be setting baseline union wages as a percentage above the minimum wage, and mandating a flat wage at a set level above the minimum wage.

One example is a series of CBAs signed with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE). Their contracts mandated that
"(w)henever the federal legal minimum wage is increased, minimum wage (in the agreement) shall be increased so that each will be at least fifteen (15%) percent higher than such legal minimum wage."

There's also an SEIU local's contract, which ordered that
"(t)he minimum hourly wage rates shall exceed any statutory applicable minimum wage rate by 50 cents."

Some unions have also arranged contracts where the employer MUST renegotiate their contracts in case of a minimum-wage hike, NO MATTER HOW LONG is left on the pact's life span.

The possibility for abuse here is staggering:
Unions with average wages WELL ABOVE the minimum wage CAN INSERT such clauses into their contracts, FORCING negotiations in industries not otherwise affected by a wage hike.

Given the limited number of CBAs available in the OLMS database, it's impossible to determine just how widespread this practice is.

But at least one union has trumpeted this arrangement as "one of the many advantages of being a union member."

Earlier this year on its blog, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union proudly boasted that "oftentimes, union contracts ARE TRIGGERED TO IMPLEMENT WAGE HIKES IN CASE OF MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES."

This is a stunning admission of SELF-INTERESTt for an organization that's actively PUSHING minimum-wage hikes at both the state and federal levels of government.

It also raises questions about unions' growing use of nonunion "worker centers" like the Restaurant Opportunities Center, OUR Walmart, Fast Food Forward and other organizations that have made headlines in recent months.

These groups advocate many policies that would affect those businesses that pay a minimum wage — restaurants, retailers, etc. — and a minimum-wage hike is often the FIRST demand that these union front groups make. This only casts further suspicion on the motives of the labor unions funding these groups.

No matter how you look at it, the benefits that these unions stand to reap from a minimum-wage hike should raise questions about their real motives — and whether they're only manipulating the debate over fast-food wages for their own benefit.

Berman is the executive director at the Center for Union Facts.

[stockpirate]

I’ve been posting on here since this story broke that it is about payoff to the unions, thanks for the post.

[Yosemitest]

My pleasure.
Since the weak "Establishment Republicans" don't have the guts to IMPEACH the Kenyan Turd,
then the least they can do is to tell him to " GO TO HELL ! "

[ObozoMustGo2012]

Why isn’t anyone pointing out the massive inflation that will happen as a result. That hits EVERYONE, as opposed to just blue collar job losses.

In NJ they just raised min wage just slightly and already there’s already a spike in prices of everyday products and services

[DAC21]

“Why isn’t anyone pointing out the massive inflation that will happen as a result”

THIS

Said the same thing from the get go.

[Yosemitest]

Most of the LAME Stream Media are either EVIL COMMUNISTS, or they're mind-numb robots, lapping up every thing the ILLEGAL ALIEN IN CHIEF pukes out.

He's a BIBLICAL CURSE !

Remember:
Don't let anyone deceive you in any way,
for [that day will not come] until the rebellion occurs
and the man of LAWLESSNESS is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped,
so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?
And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
For the secret power of LAWLESSNESS is already at work;
but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
And then the LAWLESS ONE will be revealed,
whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth
and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
The coming of the LAWLESS ONE will be in accordance with the work of Satan
displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,
and IN EVERY SORT OF EVIL THAT DECEIVES those who are perishing.
They perish because THEY REFUSED to love the truth and so be saved.
For this reason God sends them a POWERFUL DELUSION
so that THEY WILL BELIEVE THE LIE
and so that ALL will be condemned who have NOT BELIEVED the truth
but have DELIGHTED in wickedness.

[PGalt]

Fair trade-off and it frees sheeple from “job lock”

/sarcasm

Unaccountable bureaucrats (socialists/fascists/totalitarians) need to hide their plunder of the currency, the devaluation of the fiat paper, from the masses. Enter their accomplices/co-conspirators, the corrupt politicians, as champions of the downtrodden raising their minimum wage.

Root cause? Never addressed.

The root cause of the devaluation of currency by the socialist created FED is never discussed.

“Socialism Is Legal Plunder”. The minimum wage has to keep up with the plunder, otherwise the low-information voters may get restless.

[Politicalkiddo]

“Why isn’t anyone pointing out the massive inflation that will happen as a result.”

Most of the idiot workers who advocate for this stuff cannot put two and two together and get four. That’s why they work at McDonald’s for more than 2 years.

[Yosemitest]

Minimum wage ain't about minimum wage.
NEVER FORGET THAT!
It's about Union Wage, and government CONTROL.
IF they don't keep the peasants appeased, the peasants will revolt and the corrupt politicians will become their targets.

Oh sure, a lot of peasants and cops will die, but so will the corrupt politicians.
Don't forget, the Marxists are about The Progressive End Game: Top Down, Bottom Up, Inside Out.
But it may not go as well as they think it might.

[Sacajaweau]

500,000 jobs probably means it will effect at least double that.

[Yosemitest]

You bet/
You can't ENSLAVE the public, if they have the means to resist you.
And if they have no jobs, and government controls their income, then the EVIL ONE believes he is safe.
He believes WRONG !

[Lumper20]

The left works much life the devil. Confuse, deny, and corrupt the truth with fallacy.

[mindburglar]

At this point it’s just theory. The reality is the minimum wage is going to be 0$.

[Yosemitest]

Every time the Kenyan Turd prints money out of thin air, he drives the value of the dollar into the sewer.
If you're not buying silver bullion or the smallest of gold bullion, you better think about it.
What will you do when no one accepts the dollar bill, and demands real value for their goods?

[Yosemitest]

Take a good study of the words "LIBERAL" and "VILE" from the Bible.
You'll be surprised at just how accurate it is in describing todays people that call themselves "Liberal" .

[americanbychoice3]

Is the Administration trying to shift subsidies onto the private sector?

The constant push for higher minimum wages, as high as $15, would shift the burden of subsidizing low income and low information people to the private sector.

Government will be praised as heroes while (un) intended consequences would make life worse for those poor subjects who will follow like lemmings down the proverbial cliff.

What they will encounter is to lose eligibility for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid and other State and federal programs, leaving them worse off than before. Because of their newly found “wealth”, they would be classified as the “new middle class” courtesies of their compassionate Administration. All the while the federal coffers would increase because of cost savings.

The evil Corporations would be blamed for causing this problem for not paying for extra subsistence.

I don’t believe that that calculation has not already been made by the Agencies?

This is only my personal opinion and I could be wrong.

[Grampa Dave]

[billyboy15]

Congressional Budget Office: Wage hike would lift pay...

Only a Gov't agency would make a claim such as this.

[Yosemitest]

I like them all, but I especially like the puppet.

[Yosemitest]

There’s so much government hype it the article, that it makes one sick, weeding out the garbage.