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Deflation Could Cause First Minimum Wage Cut Ever Vincent FernandoOct. 15, 2009, 1:34 PM Deflationary forces might take their toll in a very tangible way for Colorado's minimum wage earners. The state could be the first ever to adjust down minimum wage due to a falling consumer price index. While the minimum wage will only fall four cents per hour, if passed it will clearly be an extraordinary example of discipline. USA Today: Other states with adjustable minimum wages have seen their consumer price indexes fall, such as Ohio. But Colorado is one of the few states where the law...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Welders, bricklayers and other construction workers under the U.S. government's $787 billion stimulus law would earn significantly higher wages in some areas than crews on private, non-stimulus projects. Wage rules in the law are a potential bonus to workers' wallets but they're upsetting contractors who say it will increase their costs and reduce the numbers of projects that can be funded. Tucked within the 407-page law is a requirement that laborers and mechanics employed on government stimulus projects be paid "prevailing wages," which is defined as the salary and fringe benefits for corresponding work on similar...

The Obama administration is abandoning the demand for the UAW to accept wage parity with transplant auto manufacturers. According to Bloomberg.com, Steven Rattner, the Treasury’s chief auto adviser said, GM and Chrysler must be “on a path” to bring wage rates in line with foreign automakers based in the U.S. rather than have those pay rates take effect immediately, he said. The phrase "on a path" is so vague there is now a mile wide loophole for the UAW to jump through. The Bush Administration demanded the UAW accept a wage and benefit package at the level of the transplant...

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...

Pagliacci Pizza will begin paying its delivery drivers and food servers nearly 50 cents an hour more today as part of a mandatory adjustment for minimum-wage workers in Washington state. While that might not sound like much, it adds up when you consider that Pagliacci employs 600 people at 21 locations throughout the Seattle area. Co-owner Matt Galvin estimates the minimum-wage increase will add at least $100,000 to Pagliacci's 2009 payroll costs. "Our business model is predicated on the fact that the minimum wage will continue to rise and be the highest in the nation," Galvin said, explaining that he...

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...

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Americans criticized a White House plan to help troubled homeowners as both too little and too much on Thursday, split over whether borrowers and lenders should be rescued in a bid to avert a U.S. recession. "It's not the government's problem. People got into this with the help of the banks and they overbought, most likely, and now we're seeing the bailout," said Gene Kaberline, 57, a Republican who has just moved to Iowa from California. But Democrat Sue Repplinger, 66, who worked years ago in the real estate industry but is now retired, said...

The arrival of immigrants from Eastern Europe has forced down the wages of British workers, a Bank of England expert says. Professor David Blanchflower said the average pay rise given to a UK worker had reduced significantly as a direct result of EU expansion. Workers have an increased 'fear' of unemployment - which allows bosses to drive a harder bargain. Professor Blanchflower is a member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee. His findings provide the first proof that the arrival of 700,000 Eastern Europeans has left the average worker worse-off. In 2004, prior to the influx of workers from Poland...

LAKE WALES, Fla. -- A farmer paid more than $200,000 in fines and back wages after federal authorities found he paid U.S. workers less than foreign laborers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Kenneth Hyatt, of Hyatt Farms in Lake Wales, paid $163,788 in back pay to more than 300 American workers and an additional penalty of $36,620, the agency said on Monday. An administrative judge found in March that Hyatt failed to comply with a law that sets minimum wage rates for foreigners hired as seasonal, temporary workers and requires that American laborers get an equal wage. "This...

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...

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...

SACRAMENTO — Democratic leaders want to impose union-driven prevailing wage rules on new school construction projects despite a critical state report that says enforcing the rules previously has cost tens of millions in taxpayer funds. State regulators spent about $70 million in taxpayer funds during the past three years to recover just $3 million to $4 million in underpaid private workers' wages, according to state documents released last week. Legislative Analyst Liz Hill said in her recent study on the use of voter-approved bond funds that the Industrial Relations Department's Labor Compliance Program spent $18 to $23 for each $1...

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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...

A state wage board deadlocked Friday on a recommendation to raise California's minimum wage to $9.78 per hour. The Wage Board, a 13-member body charged with determining an adequate wage to meet the high cost of living in California, also deadlocked on whether to bind wage increases to inflation. "As a member, I feel we have failed in our charge," said Angie Wei, legislative director for the California Labor Federation who proposed the $9.78 hourly rate -- a $3.03 increase from the current state minimum wage of $6.75 an hour. The Wage Board was set up by the state's Industrial...

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of thousands of California waiters, hairstylists, bellhops and other workers who rely on tips to boost their incomes could see their wages slashed under federal legislation the U.S. Senate could take up by Friday. The House already passed HR 5790, a far-reaching bill that would raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in nine years, reinstate tax cuts for teachers and those who pay college tuition and reduce estate taxes for the richest of Americans. But Democrats are blasting a provision in the GOP-written bill that would require that tips be counted as part of...

July 9, 2006Minimum Wage Hike Another Blow At Poor Here we go again on the minimum wage carousel.  Around and around it goes.  Where it stops, nobody knows.Perhaps the most stupid law ever invented by the U.S. Congress – one-upped by a few states including Florida – is headed for a soul-searching séance. At this count, 26 states have legislated the federal minimum of $5.15 per hour. Seventeen, and the District of Columbia, have raised the bar - to be topped by Washington state’s $7.63. Kansas set a rate of $2.65. Six have no minimum. Seven of the states...

Sunnis wage online war over killings By Jim Muir, in Baghdad (Filed: 08/07/2006) A heated internet debate has developed among militant Sunnis over the tactic of murdering large numbers of Shia civilians. The outcome of the website exchanges could be crucial in deciding whether Iraq can pull back from the brink of civil war. The discussions were prompted by a bomb attack last Saturday that killed at least 66 people in the Baghdad slum district of Sadr City. A statement claiming responsibility gave a sense of the bitterness felt by many Sunnis, now an angry minority in a country they...

WASHINGTON -- With Democrats plotting to make the minimum wage a major issue in this fall's congressional races, House Republican leaders are conceding that they may have to yield to pressure for an increase to the federal standard, which has been frozen for nearly a decade. Faced with elections that could cost them control of Congress, John A. Boehner, the House majority leader, acknowledged Thursday that Republican leaders are likely to reverse course and hold a vote on a proposed minimum wage increase. Though Boehner said it was a ``cynical ploy" for Democrats to make it a campaign centerpiece, polls...

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' " - Matthew 25:40. Churches and faith-based groups in Toledo are joining state and national efforts to raise the minimum wage, asserting that they have a moral obligation to combat poverty. "You can't continuously give handouts to folks, you have to deal with the systemic problems that create the need," said the Rev. Larry Clark, executive director of Toledo Area Ministries. (Snip) The proposal to boost the Ohio minimum wage to $6.85 an hour...

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...

(CBS) At least 400 opponents of illegal immigration staged a protest outside the presidential retreat in Crawford, Texas. The rally was part of a coast-to-coast campaign that set off earlier this week from a place many may find surprising — an all-black Los Angeles neighborhood, reports CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes. The anti-immigration group the Minutemen reached out to the African American community to join them. Sean Jourdan is one of the people at the kick-off who believe that illegal immigration is having a devastating impact on the black community. He says he doesn't buy the argument that illegal immigrants...

Seventeen University of Virginia students staging a sit-in at the school’s administrative headquarters were arrested Saturday evening on day four of a standoff between students and administrators squabbling over giving all UVa employees a “living wage” of $10.72 an hour. Many of the handcuffed students were carried out of Madison Hall into waiting paddy wagons at 7 p.m. At least one of the students was screaming, and many were crying, according to witnesses. The student protesters had been squatting in the building to force the university into increasing its lowest pay rate, which currently stands at $9.37 per hour. President...

Last year I wrote an article about how Swedish society is disintegrating and is in danger of collapsing, at least in certain areas and regions. The country that gave us Bergman, ABBA and Volvo could become known as the Bosnia of northern Europe. The “Swedish model” would no longer refer to a stable and peaceful state with an advanced economy, but to a Eurabian horror story of utopian multiculturalism, socialist mismanagement and runaway immigration. Some thought I was exaggerating, and that talk of the possibility of a future civil war in Sweden was pure paranoia. Was it? In a new...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan House voted Tuesday to raise the state's minimum wage by $1.80 an hour in October, the first increase in nine years.The legislation now heads to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who is expected to sign it.Full-time workers making the minimum wage could earn an extra $288 per month, or about $3,700 a year, under the bill. The bill would boost the state's minimum wage to $6.95 in October. The minimum would gradually rise to $7.40 an hour by July 2008. About 90,000 of Michigan's 2.9 million workers — around 3 percent — were paid at or...

Less than 48 hours after Chris Coleman was swept into office, Progressive Minnesota Executive Director Ryan Greenwood was on the phone, trying to revive efforts to pass a living-wage law in St. Paul. One of Greenwood's main obstacles to the proposal was removed this week with Mayor Randy Kelly's crushing electoral defeat, and Greenwood saw an opportunity. He is not alone. Coleman's victory Tuesday has emboldened a City Council majority and progressive interests that are getting ready to push an aggressive agenda early in the new mayor's term. Proposals that Kelly sidetracked are being given new life, and changes for...

Congress shall make no law respecting wages, prices, rents, interest rates, exchange rates or any other exchange rate.

Wayne Forler counts himself as one of the lucky ones. Forler, 57, who started at Webcrafters out of Monona Grove High School in 1966, now works as a head pressman and soon will mark 40 years with the company. "The best thing about Webcrafters is they never laid me off during slow times," he said. These days, he doesn't like standing on his feet too long during 12-hour shifts and said he sometimes regrets not getting into management because "it's air-conditioned and you sit." But, he said, pressmen earn $18 to $30 an hour at Webcrafters, a far higher rate...

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...

It's open-season persecution on secular university students who embrace Christianity – at least that's the picture portrayed in a recent Christian Science Monitor article. The report followed the story of a Christian graduate student who enrolled in a secular West Coast school and faced the scorn of anti-Christian professors. Regularly, we hear these types of stories: traditional ideas facing the condescension and mockery of atheistic and agnostic elitism that possesses many secular schools. Of course, the stereotype laid against conservative Christians is that of intolerance and ignorance, which seems to be borne out of the social factors of politics and...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Background: In 1931 the Davis-Bacon Act was adopted to create a "prevailing wage," usually the union rate, for any construction contract over $2,000 funded in whole or in part by the federal government. The benefits of the "prevailing wage," however, go to a very few at the expense of taxpayers and the Act is a prime example of unfunded mandates and government waste. Davis-Bacon inflates the cost of federally funded construction projects by as much as 15%, discourages economic growth, and raises federal spending. In fact, Davis-Bacon Act wages cost taxpayers over $1 billion annually, in addition to the $100...

I hate to post a vanity here, but it would be a valid analysis I believe. Last night Kerry reiterated his intent to increase the income taxes on folks who earn over $200,000. He also stated that he favored raising the minimum wage from the $5.15 to $7.00. President Bush pointed out that approximately 900,000 folks who earn over $200,000 are "small business owners." So here is my hypothetical analysis: If a person owns a small business, employing 10 people at minimum wage, and from this enterprise earns a taxable $200,000, these could be the consequences of Kerry's proposals. The...

Background In 1931 the Davis-Bacon Act was adopted to create a "prevailing wage," usually the union rate, for any construction contract over $2,000 funded in whole or in part by the federal government. The benefits of the "prevailing wage," however, go to a very few at the expense of taxpayers and the Act is a prime example of unfunded mandates and government waste. Davis-Bacon inflates the cost of federally funded construction projects by as much as 15%, discourages economic growth, and raises federal spending. In fact, Davis-Bacon Act wages cost taxpayers over $1 billion annually, in addition to the $100...

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,...

For Immediate Release: March 1, 2004 Assembly Passes Labor Legislation Raising State Minimum Wage Bill Would Increase Hourly Rate From $5.15 To $7.10 Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today announced the Assembly passed legislation aimed at lifting the minimum wage during the coming years to $7.10 an hour by 2006. In announcing the legislation at a Capitol news conference earlier today, Silver also released a report, "Rewarding Work: A Fair Minimum Wage." Joined by Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Herman "Denny" Farrell, Jr. and Labor Committee Chair Susan John, Silver pointed to the report's analysis of the state's current minimum wage...

Bush tells UN Allies were right to wage war on Iraq By David Usborne in New York 23 September 2003 George Bush will stand before the United Nations in New York today and insist that the United States and Britain did the right thing in invading Iraq. He will call upon its members to help in the stabilisation of the country with contributions of cash and soldiers. Mr Bush will make his address before the annual meeting of the UN's general assembly one year after he challenged the body to take decisive action to force Saddam Hussein to come clean...

Prison guards, state, in dark over wage logisticsDavis signed 'generous' contract, legislature approved it, but size of pending raises not clearBy Josh Richman, STAFF WRITEREven as activists call for a freeze in prison guards' salaries, the state and the guards still don't know what those salaries will be. Gov. Gray Davis in May 2002 signed a five-year contract with the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), a political powerhouse that contributed about $1.1 million to Davis' 2002 re-election campaign. Maviglio noted the Legislature approved the contract, too. It was generally seen as a generous deal, with liberalized sick time and...

<p>ITHACA -- A proposed living wage policy that would affect those who receive financial assistance from or do business with the City of Ithaca is headed to Ithaca's Common Council.</p> <p>After a two-hour discussion Wednesday night, council's Neighborhood and Community Issues Committee voted 4-0 to move a living wage policy resolution onto the full council at its June 4 meeting.</p>

On the eve of the first Gulf War, Physicians for Human Rights predicted the conflict would result in between 1.5 million and three million civilian deaths. Well, close: The consensus estimate now puts the figure at a maximum of 3,000. Just before the war in Afghanistan, Noam Chomsky accused the United States of preparing the slaughter of three million to four million innocent people, whether directly or from starvation. The actual figure: between 500 and 1200 civilian deaths from combat. A massive influx of Western aid after the war averted the famine that was threatening the country before. And now...

The Walter Williams InterviewBy John HawkinsJohn Hawkins: You do a fantastic job filling in for Rush Limbaugh. Are we going to see a Walter Williams radio show coming up anytime soon? Walter Williams: No, I've been teaching for about thirty-five years and that would require a career change; I'm not quite ready for it. I've been offered jobs a couple of times... John Hawkins: Oh really? Would it have been a national show or starting in a big market? Walter Williams: It would have probably been syndicated. I was offered that some years ago and I turned it down. Every...

A national emergency has been identified, and the president has ordered that several hundred million dollars in the federal budget be diverted to personnel to meet this enormous challenge. A national emergency has been identified, and the president has ordered that several hundred million dollars in the federal budget be diverted to personnel to meet this enormous challenge. The crisis is in national security, specifically airline safety, and the citizens largely approve of this prudent move. Few would argue that this is a worthy use of their tax dollars. Just imagine, however, if we took the same bold action to...