House passes bill to raise Federal minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour.

[The Romulan Republic]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/18/politics ... index.html

Washington (CNN)The House passed a bill Thursday that would raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade -- but there's little chance the measure will be taken up in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The House vote was 231-199. Three Republicans -- Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Francis Rooney of Florida and Chris Smith of New Jersey -- joined most Democrats in supporting the measure. Six Democrats -- including Anthony Brindisi of New York, Joe Cunningham of South Carolina, Kendra Horn of Oklahoma, Ben McAdams of Utah, Kurt Schrader of Oregon and Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico -- opposed it.

The bill was a priority for progressives and gives a victory to a movement that's taken nearly seven years to get this far. But in its current form, the bill has no major support from the Republican side.

The Raise the Wage Act would bring the federal minimum wage up gradually from $7.25 to $15 by 2025. After that year, the rate will be indexed to the median hourly wage of all workers.

House Democrats started the process of passing a bill in March, but struggled to get support from more moderate members. In recent weeks, party leaders made some key concessions to get enough lawmakers on board. They increased the phase-in time from five to six years, and added a requirement for the government to study the economic impact of the bill after it's in effect, giving Congress the ability to make adjustments in the future.

When fast food workers began widely protesting in 2012 for higher pay, a $15 minimum wage appeared overly ambitious. But since then, some cities and states have raised their local minimum wages to $15 an hour on their own -- including Seattle, San Francisco, New York City and then all of California and New York State. McDonald's announced this year that it would stop lobbying against raising the federal minimum wage and Walmart's CEO recently said that the federal minimum wage is "too low." Amazon adopted a $15 minimum rate last year.

About 1.7 million people, or about 2.1% of all hourly paid workers, earned at or below the federal minimum wage last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Republicans have by a wide majority not voiced support for the bill, concerned that raising the wage to $15 would result in too many jobs lost. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in November he doesn't think minimum wages are a good idea at all, raising doubts that President Donald Trump would sign it.

A Congressional Budget Office study published last week projected that the legislation would raise the wages of 27 million people and lead to 1.3 million fewer jobs, or 0.8% of total employment.

The US Chamber of Commerce has said it's willing to meet in the middle on some higher minimum wage, but that $15 is out of the question.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect Walmart's position on minimum wages.

CNN's Lydia DePillis contributed to this story.

This would be the first raise in over a decade, more than doubling the Federal minimum wage. Of course it will die an ignominious death in the Dark Lord McConnell's Senate, but if this is a sign of things to come when we retake the Senate, count me the fuck in.

[The Romulan Republic]

This is a nice counter argument to the "Both parties are the same" narrative the third partiers like to put out, though, so it has that use.

[Jub]

Too little too late. $15 isn't nearly enough in major US cities, especially when the full increase isn't until 2025. It feels like a token gesture that won't actually do much if it does become law.

[The Romulan Republic]

Too little too late. $15 isn't nearly enough in major US cities, especially when the full increase isn't until 2025. It feels like a token gesture that won't actually do much if it does become law.

Aaaand there it is.

I'm not saying its enough, but its still far and away better than anyone could have hoped for a few years ago, and will literally double the income of many minimum wage workers if it goes into law. Rejecting it (or the Democrats) because its not good enough is an ideal example of the saying "The worst enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan" (I'm probably paraphrasing here).

[Jub]

Too little too late. $15 isn't nearly enough in major US cities, especially when the full increase isn't until 2025. It feels like a token gesture that won't actually do much if it does become law.

Aaaand there it is.

I'm not saying its enough, but its still far and away better than anyone could have hoped for a few years ago, and will literally double the income of many minimum wage workers if it goes into law. Rejecting it (or the Democrats) because its not good enough is an ideal example of the saying "The worst enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan" (I'm probably paraphrasing here).

I never said they shouldn't do it, just that doing it 7 years late when it won't make the difference it could have and having it take place over six years ultimately makes it a fairly worthless gesture. Ultimately though, it's still a good thing and will help some poor Americans make ends meet while costing others jobs without any safety net.

Realistically it's better to bump the wage to $12 immediately and tie the new minimum wage to inflation plus 2%, dropping to inflation plus 1% after 5 years and to just inflation after 10 years. With the inflation data from 2014 to 2018 that would get minimum wage to $15.26 by 2025 but would ensure that it can't fall so far under a living wage again easily. They could also tie it to an area's cost of living, the average weekly hours of a minimum wage job in that region, plus 10%. That ultimately takes a lot of work to track but ensures a living wage for anybody who works a minimum wage job.

[The Romulan Republic]

That's reasonable. I'll agree than any minimum wage increase (or basic income, ultimately) should ideally tie it to inflation, so this problem doesn't keep coming up.

[FaxModem1]

I'll take the 1.50 raise if/when it comes.

And yes, I only make 13.50 an hour.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'll take the 1.50 raise if/when it comes.

And yes, I only make 13.50 an hour.

That's very close to mine (though mine is the minimum wage up here in BC, Canada).

They're gradually upping the minimum wage in stages here- I think it'll be 15-something in a couple years, when they finish. It does seem to be the trend. But by doing it gradually, the benefits will be limited.

The minimum wage really does need to be tied to inflation.

[Broomstick]

Jumping minimum wage to $15/hour immediately would be highly disruptive.

This also gets into the urban/rural divide. While $15/hour may be essential for a living wage in, say, New York City where I live my current $12.55/hour is adequate for a single person. In addition decent housing (one bedroom apartment), decent food, and my bills being paid I am currently saving 7% of my income every month. Admittedly, some of that is possible because my vehicles are already paid for, but if I had to I could swing a payment on a new-to-me vehicle. I also live a quite frugal lifestyle and I'm not supporting other people (although I used to, on a smaller paycheck). The point being that what is required for a "living wage" in a small city/town differs from what is required in a city like Chicago.

Not that I would say no to $15/hour. Quite the contrary.

Maybe we need to stop making a one-size-fits-all rule for these things. Which we sort of already have, with certain states like New York mandating a larger minimum wage than the Federal.

The other problem is that, right or wrong, if business is forced to a $15/hour minimum wage a certain percentage of them are going to immediately boot a bunch of people to the curb as a form of protest. A $15/hour wage is useless if you don't have a job. There will also be an even faster push towards automation over employing human beings in a country with nearly no safety net. It will not lower the cost of tuition that would give displaced workers an option to retrain for another profession. None of those is a reason to NOT raise the minimum wage, but part of doing this well is recognizing the knock-on effects.

That aside, it is long past time to raise the Federal, bottom-floor minimum wage. Thirty-five years ago I was able to put a roof over my head, food on the table, AND pay off my student loans on a minimum wage job (though, to be honest, I didn't stay at minimum more than a couple years). It would be impossible to do that today. Yes, the minimum wage also needs to be tied to inflation.

I think Jub's idea is the best so far.

[LaCroix]

Over here, minimum wage is about 8.5/h which comes down to 7€ net after tax and everything (Eurocommie horror tax rates) - about 8$. But that is take home after tax and with full healthcare&national retirement plan paid.

[LaCroix]

*delete double post*

[Elheru Aran]

Over here, minimum wage is about 8.5/h which comes down to 7€ net after tax and everything (Eurocommie horror tax rates) - about 8$. But that is take home after tax and with full healthcare&national retirement plan paid.

That last sentence is vital. Minimum wage employees here who qualify for employee healthcare can easily see half their pay eaten up by the cost of paying for that "benefit". And retirement? Forget it. There's Social Security, which is an automatic tax, but it's a bare minimum that you can't collect till you're 72 (IIRC). You can start collecting earlier at a lower rate though.

Plus paid vacation is few and far between, paternity leave is limited to women and unpaid most of the time, and god forbid you have to call out sick more than a few days in a row... Yeah we get a pretty raw deal here.

[Knife]

They can pass anything, won't go anywhere in the Senate and so it's dead and null. This is the shit Pelosi wants to do so they can say they did shit while not going after El'cheeto.

[GrosseAdmiralFox]

They can pass anything, won't go anywhere in the Senate and so it's dead and null. This is the shit Pelosi wants to do so they can say they did shit while not going after El'cheeto.

The thing is Pelosi's plan is working when it comes to Trump. Impeachment will never get off the ground with the GOP running around as a solid political entity (given that Darth McConnel would effectively veto any and all proceedings anyway and the fact that the Senate is lined from end to end with GOP members who would lock in step no matter what the situation). Their base is now the GOP's base, and no one else, and they've got to ride the tiger till the end because they'll get replaced with someone that is willing to toe the line if they don't. All the investigations are doing their work slowly eroding the rest of the base that Trump and Co relly on and keeping all of Trump's crimes in the public consciousness.

Also, at this point, I'm willing to use a modified version of Huey Long's "Share Our Wealth" program and use that as part of a comprehensive 'Basic Life Guarantee' program. Given the wild variance on the standard of living across the US and the various states' history of shafting the poor in doing so...

... a 'one size fits all' solution would have to be implemented.