Free Republic

Let's work through an example. Suppose 100 yards of fence could be built using one of two techniques. You could hire three low-skilled workers for $15 each, or you could hire one high-skilled worker for $40. Either way, you get the same 100 yards of fence built. If you sought maximum profits, which production technique would you employ? I'm guessing that you'd hire one high-skilled worker and pay him $40 rather than hire three low-skilled workers for $15 each. Your labor costs would be $40 rather than $45. Suppose the high-skilled worker came into your office and demanded $55 a...

I am almost afraid to ask students (or my in-laws) what they think of President Obama’s State of the Union plea for raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.00. I will ask my students this week, but not my in-laws (I already know their answer – YES!). The Wall Street Journal has an excellent article on the minimum wage and its impact on employment. While raising the minimum wage sounds “fair,” it is really grossly unfair. University of California at Irvine economist David Neumark has looked at more than 100 major academic studies on the minimum wage, and he...

Long Beach Best Western staff to be laid off as Measure N date nearsBy Kelsey Duckett Staff Writer Updated: 12/14/2012 06:50:37 PM PST Days before a ballot measure forcing pay and benefit requirements on Long Beach's largest hotels is set to go into effect, one hotel is cutting back on rooms and laying off workers. **SNIP** "This is devastating," Shelton said. "We really want to send a strong message to the hotel community that this is not OK. Hotels that don't abide by this pay increase are undermining democracy." Passing with 64.3 percent of the vote, according to the Los...

While watching the Huck Show I heard Nadar rant about this that and then he said something interesting. He wants minimum wage to be at 1960 levels.Nadar is a moonbat but I thought it was interesting. My calculation are that minimum wage would have to be $10.00/hour to match mid 1960's level.

Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.) has a post on the Hill’s Congress Blog highlighting a bizarre new regulation from the EPA requiring some gas stations to sell at least four gallons of gasoline at a time. It affects those that pump both E10 and E15 (gas with 10 percent or 15 percent ethanol) through the same hose. Since E15 is pretty terrible for small engines and old cars (Sensenbrenner says it’s “like metal in a microwave for a small engine”), the theory is that when customers whose engines cannot handle it are buying gas,

A new jobs training oversight report by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) found that a federally-funded Oklahoma Job Corps program spent around $76,000 per person to help youth secure minimum wage jobs. The report, released Tuesday, comes 18 months after a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found that billions of taxpayer dollars are being poured into job training programs that benefit those who run them, not the unemployed workers they are supposed to assist. "Taxpayers should be appalled Congress has done nothing to reform these programs for more than 18 months," said Sen. Coburn. Sen. Coburn said he wanted to...

Employees of a Pennsylvania city, who have all seen their salaries cut to minimum wage as the mayor grapples with budget problems, are hoping a judge restores their paychecks in full.

"The minimum wage is the  'Black Teenage Unemployment Act'...  The guaranteed way of holding the poor, the minorities  and the disenfranchised out of the mainstream is  if you price their original services too high..."  -Art Laffer As Rep Duncan Hunter (R-Ca) attempts to floor a bill that would force the US Labor Department to publish real unemployment numbers -ones that actually reflect the all-time-record number of Americans who have given up/left the labor force- some Democrats are now planning to unveil ill-advised legislation that would hike the federal minimum wage to as much as ten bucks an hour... a monstrous and unprecedented 35% leap from...

Newt says that with the way the Fed is printing money, Romney’s proposal for an automatic minimum wage increase based on inflation could be potentially catastrophic. Newt remembers the Carter years and how inflation was rampant by 1980, setting the nation toward collapse. He says with the Fed printing so much money, inflation could potentially soar if the economy begins to recover which could send minimum wage soaring with it:

Wage Floor Is Increasing in 8 States in New YearBy CATHERINE RAMPELL Published: December 23, 2011 Eight states will ring in the New Year with a higher minimum wage, under state laws that require wage floors to keep apace with inflation. San Francisco, one of the few cities that sets its own minimum wage above the federal level, is also raising wages for the lowest-paid workers in the new year. It will become the first big city in the country to require companies to pay their workers more than $10 an hour. The minimum wage increases in Arizona, Colorado, Florida,...

They come out from under their rocks every time we have a few tornados and never miss an opening when it comes to exploiting popular ignorance. An AP column last Friday titled Science panel: Get ready for extreme weather opened by asserting – “Think of the Texas drought, floods in Thailand and Russia's devastating heat waves as coming attractions in a warming world. That is the warning from top international climate scientists and disaster experts after meeting in Africa.” And of course their thesis is that this weather is the fault of mankind. They fail to mention that for the...

The climate may be less sensitive to carbon dioxide than we thought – and temperature rises this century could be smaller than expected. That's the surprise result of a new analysis of the last ice age. However, the finding comes from considering just one climate model, and unless it can be replicated using other models, researchers are dubious that it is genuine. As more greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere, more heat is trapped and temperatures go up – but by how much? The best estimates say that if the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doubles, temperatures will rise...

Nations most at risk from global warming Save this story to read later AAP October 26, 2011 10:17AM A THIRD of humanity, mostly in Africa and South Asia, face the biggest risks from climate change and rich nations in northern Europe will be least exposed, according to a new report. Bangladesh, India and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are among 30 countries with "extreme'' exposure to climate shift, according to a ranking of 193 nations by Maplecroft, a British firm specialising in risk analysis. Five Southeast Asian nations - Indonesia, Burma, Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia - are also...

Global warming is 'real' and temperatures have climbed steadily over the past decades, a long-awaited, independent study has found, refuting skeptics’ claims that there isn’t enough evidence to assert that the world climate is changing. According to a study published yesterday (20 October) by the Berkley Earth Project, which included U.S. physicists, climatologists and statisticians, the average world land temperatures climbed approximately 1 degree Celsius since the mid-1950s. The Berkley project, funded among others by the Koch Foundation, linked to the company which Greenpeace called a ‘kingpin of climate science denial,’ has analysed data from 15 different sources, in some...

SUMATRA, Indonesia –Several earthquakes have struck near south Sumatra of the 5.0 and 5.1 magnitude range today- making a tense situation on the volcanically-dotted archipelago potentially even more volatile. The Anak Krakatau volcano is showing signs of increased seismic activity. Authorities fear the volcano is building towards an eruption that could dwarf the one which occurred in 2007. Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Disasters Mitigation Center reported the numbers of seismic tremors now registering from the volcano have exceeded 5,000 a day. There are also reports of a gaseous mist which has seeped from the volcano and have enshrouded it in...

Minimum Wage To Rise In 8 StatesBumps Range From 28 Cents To 37 Cents Per Hour Tami Luhby UPDATED: 2:54 pm MDT October 3, 2011 NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Minimum-wage workers in eight states could see their paychecks grow by hundreds of dollars next year, thanks to automatic annual increases in the rates. Colorado, Montana, Ohio, Washington and Oregon recently announced their 2012 minimum wages, which contain bumps ranging from 28 cents to 37 cents per hour. This translates into annual raises of between $582 and $770 for full-time workers at that end of the pay scale depending on where...

Some unusual solar readings, including fading sunspots and weakening magnetic activity near the poles, could be indications that our sun is preparing to be less active in the coming years. The results of three separate studies seem to show that even as the current sunspot cycle swells toward the solar maximum, the sun could be heading into a more-dormant period, with activity during the next 11-year sunspot cycle greatly reduced or even eliminated. ...Currently, the sun is in the midst of the period designated as Cycle 24 and is ramping up toward the cycle's period of maximum activity. However, the...

Minimum wage would go to $10 under Senate billBy DAVE MCKINNEY Springfield Bureau Feb 11, 2011 02:11AM SPRINGFIELD — Senate Democrats proposed raising the state’s minimum wage Thursday in a bid that eventually would boost pay for the working poor to more than $10 an hour. Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) introduced legislation that would raise Illinois’ $8.25-an-hour minimum wage by 50 cents plus the rate of inflation annually until it reaches its “historic level.” **SNIP** If the proposal gains traction in the Legislature this spring, it would help offset the impact on low wage earners of the 67-percent increase in...

Link only - Minimum wage rises in seven states

Debt is a big issue in the United States. The level of debt undertaken in the last two years alone by the United States government is unprecedented. Debt should always be a high priority, but at its current state, it has become something that is going to be destructive unless action is taken quickly to remove it. The government is not the only entity that has strapped itself to debt. A great number of Americans have done so. A great number of people worldwide have done so. Do not be mislead into thinking debt is a modern problem. Debt is...

Republic National Committee chairman Michael Steele doesn't know what the minimum wage is, and he doesn't think it's "relevant." During an appearance on "The Last Word" Tuesday night, during a segment about tension the Tea Party has caused within the GOP, Steele was asked point-blank by host Lawrence O'Donnell to name the minimum wage. He responded by laughing. "It's ok to say you don't know," O'Donnell said, as Steele launched into a rambling response. "I know what the minimum - look, look, I know...stop the trap playing here...the reality is, that is not the most paramount issue that voters out...

After getting frustrated out of the lemons his problems gave him, David Miller made his own corporate lemonade. Due to the frustration of always having to call technical support to solve his own frequent hardware problems, he started taking the initiative to educate himself.

Hello American Samoa! We’re from the government and we’re here to help you. We’re going to ensure you earn a living wage by forcing employers to pay you a minimum wage equal to workers in the United States. Sounds great right?

Earlier this month, Six Flags Inc. announced that it would be closing the Kentucky Kingdom theme park in Louisville, Kentucky. The park had originally opened in 1987. During its tenure, Kentucky Kingdom had become the state’s leading tourist attraction as well as the state’s largest employer of teens, with over 1,000 seasonal employees hired each year.

NREGA scheme affected as govt lowers minimum wageNT NETWORK Serving Goa since 1962 Posted on 2007-01-08 PANAJI - The government has been forced to renege its decision to raise the minimum wage rate to Rs 150 and revert back to the rate of Rs 110 that is as per the Minimum Wages Act, inform government sources. A notification to this effect has already been issued. An assurance on increasing this minimum rate had been given by the government in the House recently. However, the implementation became a problem due to opposition from the industrial sector already reeling under the effects...

The national minimum wage is barely tolerable by small businesses during a robust economy, but raising it in a severely faltering economy is just plain ludicrous. Fewer people working means fewer taxes collected by the government. Businesses find it harder to expand and compete because they can't afford to hire more expensive entry-level workers. The facts clearly show that for each 10 percent increase in the minimum wage small business hiring declines by .8 to 1.2 percent. Here's another example. About 4 percent of teen-agers who were unsuccessful in finding a summer job in retail in 2008 have Congress to...

Democrats have never been shy about criticizing the Bush tax cuts, but they’ve been reluctant to push for broad tax hikes since retaking control of Congress. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel could soon break the ice. The New York Democrat has spent months formulating a plan to raise taxes on the rich to shield most taxpayers from the alternative minimum tax and offer some goodies to the working poor and married couples. Rangel hasn’t tipped his hand on his plan for coming up with at least $800 billion in revenue over the next decade, but reports earlier...

Starkist Samoa, Gov. Togiola T.A. Tulafono and some local businesses have voiced their disappointment with the passage of a federal bill, that includes provisions to increase minimum wages for American Samoa over a period of time. StarKist Samoa had planned to launched next month the expansion of its tuna pouch production, after it was transferred early this year from Ecuador. The company planned to hire between 200-300 workers, but some employees say they were informed Wednesday that this project is on hold. - ADVERTISEMENT - Bank of Hawaii Small Business Resource Provisions of the federal supplemental bill that provide millions...

As tax season nears, Democrats in Congress are discovering they have an urgent political bomb to defuse -- the alternative minimum tax. The AMT already hits four million Americans, and without new legislation this year it will explode in the pocketbooks of 23 million taxpayers What's amazing is that many Democrats and reporters are trying to blame this looming tax increase on the 2001-2003 tax cuts. See if you can follow their argument: Taxpayers are obliged to pay the higher of their tax bill under either the regular IRS code or the AMT. And because the tax cuts reduced the...

The Senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday to increase the federal minimum wage for the first time in nearly a decade, but added small-business tax breaks that are unacceptable to House leaders, preventing Democrats from claiming a quick victory on one of their top legislative priorities. The Senate voted 94 to 3 in favor of the measure, which would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour from $5.15 over two years. To attract Republican support, Senate leaders agreed to extend tax credits and expand deductions for businesses that would be hit hardest by the minimum-wage increase. Those tax breaks, worth $8.3...

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WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a Democratic bill to increase the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, demanding it first include small-business tax relief. Democrats fell short of the 60 needed to end debate and go to passage of the House-passed measure, which would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour from $5.15 per hour over two years. Republicans demanded tax breaks be added to the legislation to help small business cover the proposed pay hike for millions of America's lowest paid workers. Senate Democratic leaders have indicated they...

In the first hundred hours of the just-started session of Congress, the new leadership promises to raise the minimum wage. The Democrats won't be opposed by many Republicans. Raising the minimum wage is definitely popular. Voters in six states approved higher minimums last Election Day. State politicians in both parties are practically drooling with eagerness to "help" lower-income workers. We all want the poor to make more money. So if government can raise wages by decree, why are the popular proposals so stingy? Let's really do something for the poor. Let's raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour. Even...

To adopt Section 34a of Article II of the Constitution of the State of Ohio. Except as provided in this section, every employer shall pay their employees a wage rate of not less than six dollars and eighty-five cents per hour beginning January 1, 2007. On the thirtieth day of each September, beginning in 2007, this state minimum wage rate shall be increased effective the first day of the following January by the rate of inflation for the twelve month period prior to that September according to the consumer price index or its successor index for all urban wage earners...

WASHINGTON -- As Congress returns to work after Labor Day, Republicans face a burning question: whether to try again to pass a minimum-wage increase, or risk facing voters in November without having done so. Some Republican lawmakers, particularly those facing tough re-election fights, want another chance to back an increase from the current $5.15 an hour, a move that would deprive Democrats of a major campaign talking point. "After 10 years, good grief, it's not like we're increasing it in a way that would cause unemployment," says Rep. Chris Shays, a Connecticut Republican locked in a close race. "I think...

The French government plans to raise its legal minimum wage by slightly more than 3 percent... The 3.05 percent increase will boost the hourly minimum wage to $10.39...a raise that will apply to 2.5 million workers. One of the highest in Europe, minimum wage in France has increased by more than 17 percent in the last four years... Some business leaders, meanwhile, interpreted the increase as a ploy by an unpopular government to win votes ahead of the 2007 presidential elections.

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Wednesday killed an effort to raise the minimum wage, but Democrats who back the measure say they will try again both in Congress and through ballot measures in several states. The federal minimum wage has been $5.15 per hour since 1997. On a procedural measure Wednesday, senators voted 52-46 in favor of raising the wage to $7.25 in three steps, but that was short of the 60 votes needed to move the legislation forward. The vote came one day after House Republican leaders made clear they won't allow a vote on the issue, fearing it...

SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger filled a dormant state commission with four Democrats on Friday before asking them to approve a $1-an-hour minimum wage increase without the annual cost-of-living adjustments pushed by Democratic lawmakers. Two of the four were originally appointed to the Industrial Welfare Commission by former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and served until their terms expired last year. The two others were new appointments by the Republican governor, one of them representing the state manufacturer's association. A fifth commissioner's term expires in January. Schwarzenegger, who vetoed two previous minimum wage increases, is asking the commission to increase the minimum...

Some great stories about Private Citizens standing up for themselves against an out of control government...

As rising gasoline prices continue to shock drivers across the country, one small chain of Minnesota gas stations is challenging a state law that requires sellers to charge consumers a minimum price. Midwest Oil of Minnesota filed suit Monday in Ramsey County District Court, arguing the law is unconstitutional and hinders competition. In June, the state Commerce Department accused Midwest Oil of selling, offering or advertising gas below the state minimum on more than 160 occasions. Minnesota law prohibits retailers from engaging in unfair discrimination and competition by selling, offering or advertising gasoline below cost. State officials ordered Midwest Oil...

Is this tax trap waiting for you? By William Neikirk Tribune senior correspondent Sun Aug 21, 9:40 AM ET The AMT is coming after you. Congress passed the AMT, or alternative minimum tax, in 1969 to crack down on 155 super-rich people who had escaped paying taxes. But in the next few years, it will ensnare millions in the middle class and perhaps roil the nation's politics. This year nearly 4 million taxpayers are being hit by the AMT, but that number will soar to 20.5 million taxpayers next year and 51.3 million, or 45 percent of all taxpayers, by...

Once again, Mr. Ehrlich is kowtowing to the Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell wing of the Republican Party. He's fearful that both bills are going to be petitioned to ballot next year (by members of his own party) and hurt his support among religious conservatives. That seems unlikely. The politics of an election year should prevent a veto override. But we'll give him this -- at least the governor has his limits. He chose not to veto legislation adding sexual orientation to Maryland's hate crime law and another that will require schools to monitor bullying. It was disappointing that Mr. Ehrlich felt...

At first glance, the term "gun nut" would appear to be nothing more than an ad hominem against the more enthusiastic weapon owners of this country. However, as one reads the literature espoused by gun nut organizations, the reasoning behind this term becomes startlingly clear. Gun nuts are called as such because they are incontrovertibly insane. The gun lobby has adopted the same attitude toward politics as Rush Limbaugh: "Don't confuse me with facts, I've got my mind made up!" Gun nuts are so obsessed with opposing gun control laws that no amount of factual evidence against their position will...

Statewide Hunting Proposal Runs Into Unfriendly Fire Proposal Would Make 16 Minimum Age To Hunt POSTED: 5:22 pm EST December 10, 2004 In North Carolina, you must be 16 years of age to get a driver's license, but there is no age requirement to hunt deer, turkey and other game. There is now a push to change that. VANCE COUNTY, N.C. -- A hunting accident is prompting a call for a minimum hunting age, but the proposal has run into some unfriendly fire. State law allows a child of any age to shoot game as long as a parent or...

The Navy has set minimum bid prices and deposit requirements for the planned auction of the old El Toro Marine base, scheduled to begin Jan 5. The minimum averages range from about $125,000 to just under $300,000 per acre but are expected to ascend quickly although the federal government reckons it will fall short of the nearly $1 million per acre that Tustin air base land fetched. That’s because plans for the 3,700-acre base call for large sectors to be left as wilderness areas or developed as parks. Still, interest in the land is expected to be intense. It will...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A bill to raise California's minimum wage to $7.75 an hour across the next two years is headed to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, providing a major test of his pledge to reject bills that "harm the state's business climate." Schwarzenegger is expected to veto the bill, which the state Assembly passed Monday, days after the Senate also approved it. Business groups that are among the governor's biggest financial supporters say they widely believe the governor will block the organized labor-backed bill. Democrats led a 43-31 vote to send the bill to the Republican governor after a fierce partisan...

SACRAMENTO - The wages of more than 1 million Californians would increase by a dollar an hour under legislation approved Thursday by the Democratic-controlled Senate. The bill by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, would raise the state's minimum wage 50 cents to $7.25 an hour next summer, and then to $7.75 an hour in January 2006. The measure, approved on a 22-14 vote, now returns to the Assembly for final approval, which is considered a formality, before it lands on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk.

July 18, 2004 Hourly Pay in U.S. Not Keeping Pace With Price Rises By EDUARDO PORTER he amount of money workers receive in their paychecks is failing to keep up with inflation. Though wages should recover if businesses continue to hire, three years of job losses have left a large worker surplus. "There's too much slack in the labor market to generate any pressure on wage growth,'' said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research institution based in Washington. "We are going to need a much lower unemployment rate.'' He noted that at 5.6 percent,...

Ever thought that a minimum wage increase is good? I am sure most people at one time considered it, even a conservative or two, like me. But once logic and math sets in you realize that in reality minimum wage increases hurt. Lets do a little math game. Lets say the poverty level is a hypothetical $20000 for a single person living on a minimum wage at $6 an hour.This man barely gets by but he survives with little extra comfort.And Lets say 10% of the population lives at this level. Lets say another man who doesnt have a minimum...

How To Win Minimum Wage Argument March 3, 2004 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Fifteen years of service to humanity behind the Golden EIB Microphone, and yet these issues keep coming up. They keep needing to be explained, because there are people that keep tuning in, not just on this program, but getting interested in these issues, who instinctively, because they're very compassionate, think instinctively, raising the minimum wage, why, who's opposed to that? Why would anybody be opposed to raising the minimum wage? Why, you can't even live on it, why not raise it? And that's why it's an easy sell,...