Bills Introduced To Raise Federal Minimum Wage To $10.10 An Hour

That's even higher than what Obama proposed. I hope it passes our minimum wage is much too low, it won't eliminate poverty but it sure could help a lot of people.

This needs to be done, but I don't have a lot of hope that it will get through.

Not a sure thing though.

I'm a public employee, so I have no idea what would happen in my case. Either way, I strongly support raising the minimum wage. I just don't have a lot of hope that it will happen yet.

The Legislature put the figure at $20.00 an hour, saying that was the minimum on which an individual could live. I believe it only applied to employers having a workforce over X amount, meaning I do not quite remember what that number was. However, as far as I can see no one observes it. I have seen lots of jobs for $8.00, $9.00, very seldom (if ever) $20.

The taxes here are very high. And I can tell from the trips I have made to Tennessee, food costs a lot more here than there. I don't really see how anyone even making $20.00 an hour can make ends meet.

Sam

The goal has to be a livable wage for a worker to support a parent and child. That has to be both achieved and protected from erosion.

My first job after graduation from college with a BS in psych
was in 1982: a state "mental hospital" that paid me 20 cents
above minimum wage. That was 35 YEARS ago !

Remember, Reagan was in office and the minimum wage remained at $3.35 an hour.
It wasn't until 1990, when Bush was in office, that it increased to $3.80 an hour. And then to $4.25 in 1991.

...THREE semesters of college(yes, my entire, illustrious college career), was in 1974, working for Johnny's Pizza(local guys) at the current minimum wage of $1.65 an hour. Man was I stoked! Gainfully employed, AT LAST!

As a Clerk II. Clerks I only made $1.60 an hour. The state was not required to pay minimum wage so few of the starting positions paid over minimum wage. The official policy was that if you had a good evaluation after your first 3 months, you got a 10% pay increase and then 10% every six months as long as your evaluations were good, so few clerks had remained at minimum wage or below for long.

Three weeks after I started the legislature put a freeze on pay increases for any reason. So in the year I worked there, despite excellent evaluations, I got no pay increase at all. My take home was less than $300 a month and I couldn't make ends meet.

My parents offered me $300 a month plus tuition if I went back to college. No brainer - I turned in my resignation and finished my degree. Then I couldn't find a job at all because the state had added a hiring freeze to their pay freeze.

That bad, huh? My memory is going.

Up only 3 dollars over a 22 year period. It's regressive.

All I remember was that my take-home pay in 1982 was $150/week,
which wasn't enough to live on. I had to live with my parents
until I found better jobs.

At $7/hr, the take-home must be around $200/week ? Still not enough
to live on.

In 1979, I made $3.35/hr working at a dept. store.

gas will become 8 dollars a gallon .

As above in 1975 I worked in a slave made jean warehouse (faded glory) for 6 months along with Harvard and M.I.T. grads starting at 2 bucks an hour .America dug its way out of that then and I hope and even pray we can do it again but greed has become the new apple pie in the country.

The conservative lobbying group Alec has been behind a major push against the pay rates of low-wage American workers by sponsoring or supporting scores of new laws aimed at weakening their protections, a new survey has found.

The proposed laws are generally aimed at reducing minimum wage levels, weakening overtime protection or stopping the local creation of minimum wage laws in cities or states. Using language similar to “model bill” templates drafted by Alec, they were put forward by local politicians who are almost always Republican and affiliated with the powerful conservative group.

Critics say Alec is backed by powerful corporate groups who are seeking to draft legislation that serves their business interests. “Public scrutiny is the best weapon against their agenda,” said Jack Temple, a policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, which advocates on workers’ rights and drew up the report.

“With real wages for low wage workers already declining in the post-recession recovery, the last thing America’s workers need is frontal assault on pay and overall compensation by state legislatures,” said Christine Owens, Nelp’s executive director.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/06/american-legislative-exchange-council-behind-push-to-lower-minimum-wages-report/

This kind of conservative group-think and money are what needs to be dealt with to get a higher minimum wage.