Sort of a waste of money to calculate the COLA if it’s never used to determine a reality-based, living wage as the minimum as Congress after Congress picks short-lived fixed numbers for a minimum wage that will soon be insufficient and counterproductive.
Are “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” NOW only for the ultra-wealthy?
Employers don’t want to hire those better than their jobs, even at real minimum wages ($13/hr). They’d rather go out of business than help their employees grow. My MBA is a 37-year old virgin, and my other degrees also. My hometown deliberately kept down the wages, and the population has shrunk while the anthracite sat in the ground for a half century. Naturally the area voted Drumpf last year.
Aren’t you getting tired of subsidizing the low wages employers pay their employees? Our taxes pay for housing, food, and healthcare of these employees because their employers won’t pay them a livable wage. I laugh when people say prices will go up if wages go up. You’re already paying, Folks.
For once I would like to see businesses forced to offer competitive living wages, health care with out all the typical loopholes which disqualify much of their workforce such as scheduling employees to just under what qualifies as "full time " hours. Many businesses had found that they can cobble together a mediocre workforce via part time minimum wage jobs in places where unemployment benefits are below the poverty line like here in FL which ranks like 46th in the nation with benefits capped at $275/week.
Then something changed. The fed introduced the extra $600/week and then the “Manchinized” $300/week additional benefit which made these businesses very nervous as a good percentage of the population found out how life is like with a living wage. Bills were paid, no pay day advance rip offs to avoid eviction, car repossession or getting your power and water shutoff. Many will not return to that lifestyle of piecing together 2 or 3 part time jobs just to merely survive if they can possibly avoid it.
In my part of the world some businesses are now offering entry salaries that are $12-$15/hour which is above the current minimum wage of $8.56/hour which is scheduled to go up to $10/hour this September and then by a $1/hour until 2026 when it will be $15/hour (still below a living wage). Its a start but we have a long way to go.
Unfortunately these businesses are in the minority and many business owners are whining like Ted’s guy in the cartoon so our governor has cut the $300/week federal benefit to “force” people to go back to what are essentially bad jobs with meager wages of $10/hour or less.
Its morally wrong, like something businesses would dream up in Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”. Some things have not changed for the working class since Sinclair wrote about the 1900 meat packing industry.
Why are unions and teachers (most of whom are in a strong union) constantly demonized and eviscerated by the right? Because they want a powerless, dumbed down and docile workforce. It’s long past time to take the power back!
I’m hoping that Lina Khan, just confirmed as chairman of the FTC, will be able to have an impact on mega-corporations like Amazon, about which she has written extensively. Amazon has an extremely high turnover rate. Bezos has this idea that high turnover promotes more energized workers, whereas (by his twisted thought processes) long term workers with increased salaries from step-wise promotions get too comfortable and start goofing off and being less productive. Given that he runs a sweat shop on lines that Henry Ford would have disdained, it is maybe no surprise that he thinks this way.
The last time we had a growing economy that benefitted the working class was under Clinton during his 2nd term. Minimum wage payers, like McDonald’s had trouble finding workers because people could find employment at higher wages and with better benefits. Pension plans were the norm, and paid health care plans were offered to get and keep workers.
Employers didn’t like it much, but had little choice until Bush2 and Republican/conservatives came into power. Using the repeal of Glass–Steagall, and de-regulation and his first recession allowed businesses to re-load and make it an employers market. We should use the current climate to win back those benefits and make it an employee market again. The Nation grows when we do.
hermit48 almost 3 years ago
Republican governors have come to his rescue by refusing the temporary $300 unemployment boost.
superposition almost 3 years ago
Sort of a waste of money to calculate the COLA if it’s never used to determine a reality-based, living wage as the minimum as Congress after Congress picks short-lived fixed numbers for a minimum wage that will soon be insufficient and counterproductive.
Are “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” NOW only for the ultra-wealthy?
VegaAlopex almost 3 years ago
Employers don’t want to hire those better than their jobs, even at real minimum wages ($13/hr). They’d rather go out of business than help their employees grow. My MBA is a 37-year old virgin, and my other degrees also. My hometown deliberately kept down the wages, and the population has shrunk while the anthracite sat in the ground for a half century. Naturally the area voted Drumpf last year.
piper_gilbert almost 3 years ago
Aren’t you getting tired of subsidizing the low wages employers pay their employees? Our taxes pay for housing, food, and healthcare of these employees because their employers won’t pay them a livable wage. I laugh when people say prices will go up if wages go up. You’re already paying, Folks.
TampaFanatic1 almost 3 years ago
For once I would like to see businesses forced to offer competitive living wages, health care with out all the typical loopholes which disqualify much of their workforce such as scheduling employees to just under what qualifies as "full time " hours. Many businesses had found that they can cobble together a mediocre workforce via part time minimum wage jobs in places where unemployment benefits are below the poverty line like here in FL which ranks like 46th in the nation with benefits capped at $275/week.
Then something changed. The fed introduced the extra $600/week and then the “Manchinized” $300/week additional benefit which made these businesses very nervous as a good percentage of the population found out how life is like with a living wage. Bills were paid, no pay day advance rip offs to avoid eviction, car repossession or getting your power and water shutoff. Many will not return to that lifestyle of piecing together 2 or 3 part time jobs just to merely survive if they can possibly avoid it.In my part of the world some businesses are now offering entry salaries that are $12-$15/hour which is above the current minimum wage of $8.56/hour which is scheduled to go up to $10/hour this September and then by a $1/hour until 2026 when it will be $15/hour (still below a living wage). Its a start but we have a long way to go.
Unfortunately these businesses are in the minority and many business owners are whining like Ted’s guy in the cartoon so our governor has cut the $300/week federal benefit to “force” people to go back to what are essentially bad jobs with meager wages of $10/hour or less.
Its morally wrong, like something businesses would dream up in Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”. Some things have not changed for the working class since Sinclair wrote about the 1900 meat packing industry.mattro65 almost 3 years ago
Why are unions and teachers (most of whom are in a strong union) constantly demonized and eviscerated by the right? Because they want a powerless, dumbed down and docile workforce. It’s long past time to take the power back!
Radish the wordsmith almost 3 years ago
We have people crowded at the border dying for work and we have a labor shortage.
If there was only some way we could mutually solve each others problems…
countoftowergrove almost 3 years ago
Not too bad today, Theodore.
ChristopherBurns almost 3 years ago
I don’t see the media showing a lot of sympathy for employers offering low wage jobs.
martens almost 3 years ago
I’m hoping that Lina Khan, just confirmed as chairman of the FTC, will be able to have an impact on mega-corporations like Amazon, about which she has written extensively. Amazon has an extremely high turnover rate. Bezos has this idea that high turnover promotes more energized workers, whereas (by his twisted thought processes) long term workers with increased salaries from step-wise promotions get too comfortable and start goofing off and being less productive. Given that he runs a sweat shop on lines that Henry Ford would have disdained, it is maybe no surprise that he thinks this way.
Teto85 Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Ted got a good one today.
Sir Toby almost 3 years ago
Credit when credit is due. Rall is right on this one.
ferddo almost 3 years ago
So unfair that he cannot rake in profits while attempting to treat employees like slaves!
ncorgbl almost 3 years ago
The last time we had a growing economy that benefitted the working class was under Clinton during his 2nd term. Minimum wage payers, like McDonald’s had trouble finding workers because people could find employment at higher wages and with better benefits. Pension plans were the norm, and paid health care plans were offered to get and keep workers.
Employers didn’t like it much, but had little choice until Bush2 and Republican/conservatives came into power. Using the repeal of Glass–Steagall, and de-regulation and his first recession allowed businesses to re-load and make it an employers market. We should use the current climate to win back those benefits and make it an employee market again. The Nation grows when we do.
Radish the wordsmith almost 3 years ago
Is the Asbestos Hut hiring?
359mxn almost 3 years ago
Ted gets one right.