Posted on 09/04/2002 11:06:39 AM PDT by mikenola
SUPREME COURT THROWS OUT MINIMUM WAGE ORDINANCE
(New Orleans-AP) The Louisiana Supreme Court has effectively killed a minimum wage in the city of New Orleans that was a dollar-an-hour higher than the federal minimum.
In a 6-to-1 ruling, the high court upheld the constitutionality of a state law banning local governments from imposing minimum wages higher than those set by Congress. The city minimum wage would have set the current hourly minimum in New Orleans at six-dollars-and-15 cents, instead of the federal five-dollars-and-15 cents.
Proponents say the higher wage is desperately needed by a work force that often is trapped in low-paying service jobs. Opponents said the higher minimum would have put the city at a disadvantage in attracting new employers.
Of course, they are low paying because of the size of the pool of potential employees and because of the "no skill, no intelligence required" nature of the jobs. But, in a socialists mixed-up mind, those without skill or intelligence deserve compensation above and beyond what the market dictates.
I have often wondered if, in the debate, the issue of cost-of-living should be raised. That is, the minimum wage would be higer in CT than AL and higher in the cities than in rural areas.
Uh, yeah - that's my point.
....of a state law banning local governments....
You can't legislate prosperity.
1) Over the 12 Mayoral candidates, Ray Nagin was the only major candidate not to endorse this non-sense. Every other candidate was for it. Of course, Nagin won the election.
2) The campaign regarding the proposal was soooooo intellectually dishonest. The people who voted for it, thought that on Feb 4, they were automatically going to get a $1.00 an hour raise. They were shocked when they showed up for work and their salary was the same.
3) The campaign for this proposal also suggested that if the prosperous folks in the garden district didn't vote for it, there would be a crime wave.
4) 6-1, huh? I'll bet my gal Bernice Johnson was the dissenting voice of socialism on the vote.
The minimum wage does not occur in a vacuum. If you raise the wages for those at the bottom, you have to raise the wages of a lot of other workers as well.
Here's an example of what I'm saying. Take your average McDonald's restaurant, for instance. You have many of the new employees making the $5.15 minimum wage but you also have others who have been there a little longer making maybe $5.65 an hour or $6.15 an hour. If you suddenly raise those at the bottom to $6.15 an hour then you would need to raise the wages of those making more than minimum wage as well or else you would have a mutiny on your hands. So now you have to pay those making $5.65 an hour $6.65 an hour and those making $6.15 an hour $7.15 an hour. See where I'm going here? You would need to do this all the way up the ladder. You pretty much have to raise everybody in the restaurant by $1 an hour to keep everybody happy and in the same pecking order. If you don't think that will affect the price of a cheeseburger and fries, you're dreaming.
In 1978, I worked at a supermarket where the minimum wage was $2.65 an hour. I got my first raise to $2.75 an hour three months later. Around that time, the minimum wage went to $2.90 and my salary was automatically bumped to $3.00 an hour. So I know for a fact that this is done. Raising the minimum wage will increase wages for just about everybody else too.
People should take the initiative to educate themselves and discover their talents and then work hard in that profession. Then they'll make money instead of whining for Mother Gov't to force employers to pay them for what they're not worth.
Well, eliminating minimum wage could provide an extra $10,000 or more per year to someone who is currently unemployed.
More importantly, that person would get experience, and start to build the contacts that will allow them to get access to better-paying jobs.
When you consider that youth unemployment is a jarring 17.7%, (seasonally adjusted numbers for total population age 16-19, figures available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics ), it becomes clear that eliminating minimum wages really means creating new jobs, especially for the young.
Very few employers want to pay employees the minimum wage. Most would be happy to pay more to good employees. Minimum wage does just what it implies. It keeps wages of good employees at the minimum.
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