*UPDATE* The SC&A Idiot’s Guide To ‘The First One Hundred Hours’ Of The 110th Congress
January 5, 2007
This is the first installment of The SC&A Idiot’s Guide To ‘The First One Hundred Hours’ Of The 110th Congress. Pay attention for just a few minutes and we guarantee you’ll be the center of attention on the cocktail party circuit and held in high esteem by people who spend a lot more money on clothes and jewelery than you. You’ll better informed than just about anyone else, including those pompous asses referred to as ‘professors.’
Democrats, now in the majority in the 110th Congress and ed by Nancy Pelosi are bound and determined to legislate a federally mandated increase in the minimum wage. In fact, the proposed legislation is nothing more than a display of phony ‘we care’ politics of the worst kind- and the kind of politics that will do far more damage to our economy than good.
It is important to understand that no state is bound by federal minimum wage laws. Each state has the right to determine their own minimum wage laws, taking into account local economic conditions.
To better understand the impact of a raise in the minimum wage, see this map.
There are 15 states that where current federal minimum wage laws serve as state guidelines.
There is one state where the minimum wage is below federal guidelines.
There are 5 states with no minimum wage guidelines.
There are 29 states with minimum wage laws above federal guidelines.
There is no federal legislation that forces employers to pay minimum wage- in fact, almost 90% of all hourly workers are paid above either state or federal minimum wage.
Why then, is federal minimum wage legislation such a priority for the democrats?
The answer is simple: Union support and union votes.
Many union collective bargaining wage agreements are based on the federal minimum wage. In many industries, union wages are calculated as multiples of the federal minimum wage.
Suppose the minimum wage is $7.00 an hour. If the collective bargaining agreement calls for a 3 times minimum wage base, that means the union employee would be paid $21.00 an hour.
If the minimum wage is raised to $8.00 an hour, thae same union employee would see his or her wage raised to $24.00 per hour. The additional cost to the employer union would be $6,000 per year for each employee. There are many union employee contracts that call for wages at 5 and even 6 times federal minimum wage levels.
Lets do the math. At 5 times the minimum wage set at $7.00, the union negotiated hourly wage is $35.00 per hour. At 6 time the minimum wage, that negotiated wage is $42.00 per hour.
If the minimum wage is raised by $1.00, those hourly rates rise to $40.00 and $48.00, respectively.
(Some pertinent facts about Congressional pay can be found here. The current wage package paid to Congresspersonsis about 12 times that of the minimum wage.)
Even though almost 90% of all Americans earn in excess of the minimum wage, the cost of new minimum wage legislation is astronomical. Who do you think pays for all that ‘feel good’ legislation in the form of higher costs for goods?
It is the almost 90% of Americans that earn above the minimum wage that benefit most from new wage legislation- and union members with collective bargaining agreements stand to gain the most- and that is why unions support the Dems.
The Dem commitment to minimum wage legislation has never been about ‘helping’ or ‘compassion’ or even the poor. It has always been about money and votes.
*UPDATE*
Dr Sanity has an outstanding post, For The Children, So They Will Never Have To Grow Up, in which she highlights the mindset of current Democrat ideology:
It occurs to me that what those parents did to Ashley is precisely what the political left, via the Democrats, want to do to the American public.
You see, they don’t want us to grow up either. Mature adults think and act independently, and that is a severe risk to the ideology that propels the left. The last thing in the world they want is for their social programs to be successful because that would mean their ideology and beliefs have become superfluous…
What is more important than any objective success in reality, however, is the carefully crafted rhetoric of concern and compassion. So we repeatedly hear how much they care about our welfare and our needs. How they champion the “little guy” and fight against oppression and injustice. They don’t want us to get hurt in any way imaginable, physically or emotionally–even our fragile little feelings are to be taken care of, protected by the whole leftist notion of “political correctness.”
And with every program they develop, they become more and more powerful and we become more and more dependent on them…
The Dem’s desire to ‘help,’ is really no more than an obsession with power. Even as they mouth high minded noble words and rhetoric of love an compassion, they are in fact fiddling as America devolves from a nation of independence and innovation to one dependence and intellectual stagnation.
January 5, 2007 at 9:20 AM
Very good post.
Wages should be determined by local market forces.
In the Princeton area, the much-maligned Wal-Mart (which is actually in Lawrenceville and whose employees come from much poorer Trenton – all in Mercer County), hires unskilled labor for non-unionized jobs with starting salaries at at least twice the minimum wage.
For comparable jobs, Wal-Mart is competitive with much more prestigious employers, among them the many colleges and universities in the area (including Princeton U).
January 5, 2007 at 9:22 AM
I forgot to mention that the real force depressing salaries for unskilled labor in this area are illegal aliens working at cash-only jobs.
January 5, 2007 at 12:53 PM
The only object of Power is POWER.
– Comrade O’Brian, Inner Party, Airstrip One, Oceania, 1984
January 5, 2007 at 3:37 PM
One thing I object to is seeing headlines and newscasts talking about the “raise” the govenment is “giving” to workers.
This is basically a tax or fee on employers. The state is giving nothing, just taking it from employers to give to others.
In my area, few people work for minimum wage. The exception is in the food service industry but if you want to make that your career, you should look into management, not waiting tables, as your goal.
In 1980, I worked at a factory similar to the meat-packing industry. When I left two years later, I was making $9.50/hr. There is no way I would work there today at that wage.
When the local meat-packing plant was raided a few weeks ago, that was the same wage they were paying. In order to fill the positions, they immediately raised wages to $11.50/hr and more. People applied at these higher wage levels that they wouldn’t at the lower ones. Higher wages will bring in the people to do the jobs.
January 5, 2007 at 4:13 PM
I find it so interesting that what the Unions and the democrats do together; are never publicized; I mean you hear about “big business”; “special interest group” etc. from the democrats; BUT YOU NEVER HEAR about Union contributions from the Republicans – Unions are a joke, just like the democrats!
January 5, 2007 at 6:12 PM
[...] The 100-hour goalposts are receding. Soon 100 hours will be, several weeks? Gateway Pundit has warm fuzzy video of Speaker Pelosi that should make you feel better. Dr. Sanity says we’re all children, now. Sigmund is looking at it through shrink perspective. [...]
January 6, 2007 at 3:35 AM
Sigh. Just look at us here in Oregon. We have either the highest or second highest minimum wage in the nation and it is indexed to inflation (or cpi, I don’t remember). Our unemployment runs one or two points higher that the surrounding states. (Though Washington will probably match us since they raised their minimum wage above ours). We still have poor people.
Not only that but as a reward for their support in the last election, the Governor appointed a Union lobbyist to be his chief of staff and another union official as Deputy CoS making Oregon the only State I know that is totally run by unions.
January 6, 2007 at 5:05 PM
Get government out of my life now. Democrats or Republicans they frighten me equally. I’ve been alive half a century and government still hasn’t gotten anything right except for itself.
January 9, 2007 at 9:24 AM
[...] January 9th, 2007 The time has come for the next installment of the SC&A Idiot’s Guide To The 110th Congress. The first intallment can be found here. [...]
January 15, 2008 at 10:46 AM
[...] We noted Many union collective bargaining wage agreements are based on the federal minimum wage. In many industries, union wages are calculated as multiples of the federal minimum wage. [...]