Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), who earlier this week called for Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10, appeared on this Sunday's edition of Melissa Harris-Perry to discuss the proposal.
"The $7.25 an hour is below the federal poverty line, so you have millions of Americans who working below the poverty line," said Jackson. "This is not welfare; these are people who are working hard and at the end of a hard day's work can't keep up with the Consumer Price Index."
Leave a Comment:
I have mixed emotions on this. First, if there was less greed on Wall Street, the need for costs to go up so quickly would be reduced and the pressure on inflation would not be so great - nor the urgency to adjust minimum wage. Second, wages under our current system, will never keep up with inflation - thus, relitive poverty will always be with us. I know people with up to 6 part-time, minimum wage (or less) jobs. We seem to have an economic system designed to break the financial backs of millions of families - is this what we really want? Seems to me, and not wanting to bash anyone over it, that our problem began with NAFTA and, now, not sure that there is any serious way to correct it.
That small business owner must have just made some big personal investments..Like a huge $M dollar home..
He dodged the question about providing benefits to his employers.
And he was dodging about how he makes money on his printing shop....
He has set contracts for printing services......
He is a Republican Bain Capitalist ...." Get all the profit you ... anyway you can..Invest over-seas not in your workers.....
His first action to a raise in wages would be to spend millions on new high tech equipment..."To lower his number of workers permanently...While keeping his profit margin....A Bain type Capitalist has to have their increased profit margins yearly.Like a drug addict..the more they get the more they will need to cover their personal needs.
Joe the Printer never specified how newly enacted regulations and/or mandates forced him to layoff employees only five months into the Obama Administration. Perhaps it was lower demand created by the recession.
Wonder if this guy is one of those corner-cutting cheap bosses that is horrible to work for. They always feign empathy for their employees yet blame it on regulation when cornered about their wages being low. Likely the type who buys cheap, inefficient equipment that requires more repairs and maintenance and end up costing more than the quality equipment.
Instead of running a smaller business with a smaller client base and less production requirements in order to give a decent wage to that smaller employee base, the first thing he thinks of is machines to replace people [again likely cheap machines that end up costing more to maintain].
He does not consider a model with less employees, paying them a wage that they can live on.
I like the model where each employee shares in a responsible segment of co op type ownership in the company/business instead of all the wages and benefits going to a fatcat CEO at the top. This model encourages efficient, willingly harder-working employees with a sense of investment in their job, an investment that drives participation and problem-solving. It is far easier to get quality, efficient work from employees that share a direct personal investment and a real sense of ownership in the company that they work for.