To Be Announced...

Coincidence? I warned you...

See: Breadwinners vs Freeloaders

CR Gazette: State, union agree to 3% raises

DES MOINES — The state of Iowa and its largest employees union have reached agreement on a collective bargaining contract that will provide a 3 percent across-theboard pay increase for each of the next two fiscal years, union officials confirmed Thursday.

Although no "direct tie" between the minimum wage increase and this one is alleged, I can't believe that the words of former union thug Edward T. Hanley weren't heeded:

“The purpose of the minimum wage is to … provide a floor from which we can upgrade your compensation through collective bargaining.”

[Source: Edward T. Hanley in Catering Industry Employee, December 1977, p. 3. Cited in Belton M. Fleisher, Minimum Wage Regulation in the United States (Washington: National Chamber Foundation, 1983), p. 9.]

And I'm sure they didn't ignore the advice of AFSCME Council 61 and AFSCME Local 12 at the University of Iowa Labor Center workshop.

Bottom of Page: Protecting the "floor" under our wages: Minimum wage laws affect our wages.

Good thing the Legislature didn't pass that automatic increase every year proposal the Democrats floated.

If you're scoring at home:

Minimum Wage --
Unions and Democrats: 1
Part Time Teenagers: 0
Business Owners: 0

Anyone still really think they should continue to call it "fair share"?

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Labels: fair share, minimum wage

Coming soon to a fast food joint near you...

From the Arizona Republic last week:

New wage boost puts squeeze on teenage workers across Arizona

...the state's new minimum-wage law that went into effect last month. Some Valley employers, especially those in the food industry, say payroll budgets have risen so much that they're cutting hours, instituting hiring freezes and laying off employees.

And teens are among the first workers to go.

Companies maintain the new wage was raised to $6.75 per hour from $5.15 per hour to help the breadwinners in working-poor families. Teens typically have other means of support.

There's that "breadwinners" word again. I still have yet to hear from one single solitary person who raises a family on the minimum wage. Not one. And I'm offering a reward of up to $300 dollars (more than a week's wages) reward in order to find one. See: $100 Minimum Wage Challenge!!!

By the way...those teens' "other means of support" is usually Mom and Dad. So, although there aren't currently any lawmakers advocating an increase in their allowance, they'll be asking for one to make up the difference.

Mark Messner, owner of Pepi's Pizza in south Phoenix, estimates he has employed more than 2,000 high school students since 1990. But he plans to lay off three teenage workers and decrease hours worked by others. Of his 25-person workforce, roughly 75 percent are in high school.

"I've had to go to some of my kids and say, 'Look, my payroll just increased 13 percent,' " he said. " 'Sorry, I don't have any hours for you.' "

Messner's monthly cost to train an employee has jumped from $440 to $580 as the turnover rate remains high.

"After a wage hike, employers seek to take fewer chances on individuals with little education or experience," one institute researcher told lawmakers in 2004.

I also love it when they find the single sole business owner who "supports the increase" again after they raise the minimum wage...

Tom Kelly, owner of Mary Coyle Ol' Fashion Ice Cream Parlor in Phoenix, voted for the minimum-wage increase. But he said, "The new law has impacted us quite a bit."

It added about $2,000 per month in expenses. The store, which employs mostly teen workers, has cut back on hours and has not replaced a couple of workers who quit.

Kelly raised the wages of workers who already made above minimum wage to ensure pay scales stayed even. As a result, "we have to be a lot more efficient" and must increase menu prices, he said.

Bwahahaha...

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Labels: minimum wage

I honestly don't think anyone will claim the $150 bucks in the Minimum Wage Challenge. I am more convinced than ever after reading a post over at the Iowa Voice blog and seeing this chart:

Certainly, you can go and read the history and comments about the chart over at Iowa Voice...or even the original post at Common Sense Political Thought.

Simply put...this is what the chart means:

The columns are as follows...Year; minimum wage workers; percent of the workforce; hourly minimum wage.

Each year the minimum wage was increased (highlighted in orange), the percent of workers who earn the minimum wage (highlighted in yellow) went up. Certainly more workers may have been affected by the initial increase, but the numbers who were on minimum wage were already going down each year, thank you very much. It even took a while after the hike for the number to continue dropping.

So much for it being such a benefit to "the little guy"...

Doubly depressing is the last figure from 2005. The lowest percentage of workers on the minimum wage in history.

Which could also be a good thing too...because there aren't many losers who will thank Democrats by voting for them.

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Labels: minimum wage

We may have a winner...

I am looking forward to giving up my $100 and CornBeltway Boys' $50 dollars to an eventual winner in the Minimum Wage Challenge now that Governor Culver has signed the bill into law...raising Iowa's minimum wage.

Contest Note: The contest ends when THE PRESIDENT signs a federal increase, so there still some time to find a winner.

I'm sure in the pomp and circumstance of signing the increase, we'll have story after story about how this wonderful piece of legislation is "touching so many lives" considering how many people will be getting a raise.

85,000...oops, old number. Sorry. 100,000 breadwinners...nope. That's not right either. It's 125,000...wrong again. 130,000.

Oh, pardon me...it's actually 260,000 Iowans. I think.

Man...it's hard to nail down an exact number, isn't it? Anyway...my hopes were dashed a little after reading the first "impact" story on the increase...

Culver signs minimum-wage bill

At the Capitol complex, it's not easy to find anyone who makes the current minimum wage, locked for the last 10 years at $5.15 an hour. Even the pages, all high school juniors and seniors, earn $8.08 an hour. Most of the cafeteria workers earn about $10 an hour.

Culver hasn't earned minimum wage since he was a teenager, pumping gas and working with the rental houseboats at a marina in McGregor.

If it's hard for a newspaper with a staff of hundreds, I can understand how difficult it is for many of you to find one. Culver doesn't qualify, but this guy might:

Brandon Chanas, 24, of Des Moines, who has Down syndrome, attended the bill signing to show support. He said he has worked at McDonald's and is now looking for a new minimum-wage job. "I will put the money in my wallet ... and take my family to Las Vegas,"

I could be wrong, but considering he has Down Syndrome, I doubt the family he's taking to Vegas is his wife and kids. My concern is about his investment idea. Why take all that money to another state when you can waste a whole lot more of it here in Iowa...we have any number of casinos within a 100 mile car trip.

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Labels: minimum wage

The numbers change again, but who really cares...

It's ironic that at my Cedar Rapids Executive Association meeting this morning, the weekly trivia question had to do with the minimum wage and I got the answer wrong. But you can probably forgive this so-called "informed" person given the number fluctuations that keep coming around over the issue.

It's sort of like the number of illegal immigrants...we know there are between 11-and-17 million in the United States. That's a pretty big span of numbers to jump through...almost as big as the gap in our border.

The question was, "How many Iowans will be getting a raise when the minimum wage is increased?"

My answer was 130,000 - but the apparent number of the week is 257,000. I still have yet to meet ONE person who qualifies under my guidelines for the Minimum Wage Contest sponsored by this here blog and The Corn Beltway Boys. I guess we'll know soon enough what the actual number is...

Iowa Senate Sends Minimum Wage Bill To Culver

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Iowa's minimum wage bill is on its way to the governor's desk.

The Senate passed a bill tonight that provides for a two-step increase to seven-dollars-and-25-cents an hour by next January.

Governor Culver has scheduled an event tomorrow afternoon on the minimum wage, presumably to sign it into law.

Supporters say roughly 100 thousand to 125 thousand Iowans are working at the minimum wage.

Republican critics warn that businesses -- particularly small ones -- would be hammered by the increase.

Not a single business owner I know at the CR Executive Association feels they'll be harmed in any way by the increase in the minimum wage. I think most Republicans are wrong about that.

Why?

Because almost no one of any consequence EARNS the minimum wage and the minimum wage only. At least none have come forward to claim the possible $300 prize in the contest. "Of any consequence" means working families and such...not the pimply faced kids at the drive through. I don't mean they're of no consequence, just that they don't meet the definition of "needy" when it comes to this issue.

Meantime...here are some choice emails received so far --

you gys are all alike. if the minimum wage is INCRESED, more people will have more money to spend. Don't you ever think of that!

Okay...I won't.

I think I know someone who might meet the conditions. But they are retirees working at Walmart. They can't earn too much tho because it would cause them to pay more taxes.

Hmmm...never thought of that. Maybe I should change the rules to allow senior citizens who no longer have children in the home as a possible "family" meeting the definition. I'll think about it. Thanks!

so instead of complaininng what do you think about it? Why not stop complaining and solve the problem.

I don't think there's a problem to solve. I think the minimum wage should be abolished. It's no longer needed. There...it's fixed. Good enough of an opinion?

The way you guys work, you'll find someone and your check will bounce. Just like our current deficit.

We "guys" are giving cold, hard cash. No check. In fact, in crisp $100 dollar bills. That way, the convenience stores they shop for groceries in won't be able to accept them. Also, so I can meet with them personally and lobby for an increase in their wages on their behalf. Read the entire contest post, please.

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Labels: minimum wage

The governor is prepared to sign a bill to increase the minimum wage in Iowa very soon. Remember, the Minimum Wage Contest sponsored by this website/blog only ends when THE PRESIDENT signs a bill increasing the federal minimum wage.

As of yet, still no qualifier in sight. I'm looking for someone who meets the definition offered by Democrats of "working poor families who need a raise" - a family of at least three people surviving on nothing but a minimum wage job for at least 4-months. For all the rules and qualifying guidelines, read the initial post about the contest.

I am getting some interesting emails - which I will post later.

In any event, here's the news of the day on the minimum wage. Governor Culver has pulled some more statistics out of his rear end and we suddenly have almost double the number of people on the minimum wage than we did just last November.

Senator Gronstal just last week said the following:

"I think for 100,000 Iowans it’s nine years past due," said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs.

And today?

Wage increase up for debate

Gov. Chet Culver said he hopes to sign into law by the end of this week a bill raising the state minimum wage to $6.20 an hour on April 1 and to $7.25 an hour on Jan. 1.

"This will affect 260,000 Iowans literally overnight - about 130,000 Iowans that are working at the minimum wage right now, another 130,000 that are working ... just above the minimum wage," said Culver, who Monday held his first Statehouse news conference since his inauguration Jan. 12.

Yes...literally overnight on April Fools day. My contention is that they truly are a bunch of fools if they're waiting around for someone to pass a law to increase their salary. My guess is, most of those 100/120/260-thousand people could probably get a raise tomorrow just by going to their bosses and asking for one.

In other news from the story, some more double-talk:

Culver reaffirmed that he's going to propose a dollar-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax to discourage smoking and raise money for health care programs.

Iowa's tobacco tax is currently 36 cents a pack.

"We have the ninth-lowest tax in the nation. It has not been raised for a number of years, and this will allow Iowa to be more in the national average when it comes to this important tax," Culver said.

Which is it? To discourage smoking or raise money? If that one statement doesn't say it all, I don't know what does. And why is it important for us to be merely "average" when it comes to this important tax? If it's so important, raise it even more...go for the gold. Let's "lead the nation" for once!

And finally, there's this:

Culver said he's not going to recommend any other tax increase, although he will propose the closing of some "corporate loopholes."

Translation: to get them to pay more in taxes.

Labels: culver, minimum wage

No one has even come close to submitting anyone who qualifies under the rules I set in the Minimum Wage Challenge, I do want to make it clear that the contest ENDS when the PRESIDENT signs a bill increasing the minimum wage. Iowa is going ahead with plans to do it, but altered slightly from their original idea.

Dems push minimum wage plan ahead

Statehouse Democrats are expected to move ahead today with plans to raise Iowa’s minimum wage, but they’re dumping the idea of automatically raising the wage floor annually.

The House Labor Committee is expected to approve a bill that would hike Iowa’s current $5.15 per hour minimum wage to $6.20 on April 1 and to $7.25 on Jan. 1.

"I think for 100,000 Iowans it’s nine years past due," said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs.

And just in time to have it considered moot when the federal minimum wage goes up. That way, both state and national Democrats can keep getting the cash from unions in time for the major fundraising to begin for '08.

Seriously...what's the point of raising the minimum wage in Iowa if the feds are going to do it for us? Politics of course.

Again...100,000 Iowans...name ONE who meets my criteria. Nobody has yet.

Senate Democrats hoped to not only raise the minimum wage but to also put in place a mechanism that would give low-wage workers a cost-of-living raise every year. Other Democrats opposed that idea, arguing that it could hurt small business.

Democrats also scrapped the idea of eliminating a lower training wage paid to teenage workers during their first 90 days of employment. Businesses argued against that idea.

Another question that can't be answered easily. Every one of these guys (save for the few mentioned) says raising the minimum wage won't harm business. So why do it in stages? Why not all at once?

Hmmmm?

Labels: minimum wage

A reader sent this:

Workers welcome wage boost

Elizabeth Lipp, a 21-year-old single mother from Sedalia, was working two jobs at $5.15 an hour when the raise took effect. She is a hotel housekeeper through the week and a nurse's aide at Rest Haven Convalescent and Retirement Home on weekends.

"Getting by on $5.15 was a struggle. I pay out $75 a week alone just for child care. You have to make every cent count, and everything had to go for something good," Ms. Lipp said.

Ohhhh...close, but no cigar. It's a possible entry in the Minimum Wage Contest, but from Missouri. Just the kind of entry I'd love to find in Iowa to claim the prize money.

I was somewhat excited about receiving it because the emailer said they had an entry in the contest and I saw Sedalia in the title and thought maybe that was a little town in Iowa I had never heard of. Nevertheless:

Ms. Lipp, who lives with her mother, said she "wants her kid to have everything," and that it is important to her to not be "just some welfare mom." She said that she would use some of the raise to help her mom with bills and to pay off her car, and would save the rest. She hopes to move out on her own by November.

That would also be a disqualification because Mom is the main breadwinner there. Also in the story is another family member who earns the minimum wage, but doesn't meet the "full time" status in the rules:

Her sister, Regiena Lipp, a 20-year-old State Fair Community College student, works about 30 hours a week at Stage clothing store in Sedalia. She said she was excited when the measure passed. "It was about time," she said. She was hired seven months ago at $5.50 an hour, and received a raise to $5.65 two months ago. She said the added money would be "a lot of help."

Besides, it seems she got a raise on her own...without the government doing it for her.

Next?

Debate on minimum wage, tax-relief report are on tap

Iowa lawmakers don't seem to want to campaign on the issue much more than just this year. Instead, they've introduced a provision in the Iowa minimum wage to make another raise automatic every year after...

A bill sponsored by Senate Democrats would automatically adjust the minimum wage for inflation, which would ratchet up the wage beyond $7.25 an hour in future years.

Good, because it's a terrible pain to have employees asking for raises on their own every year. Now that it's expected and automatic, they won't have to read any of those self-help books on how to go about improving yourself.

Next? Newspapers can seem to find minimum wage earners all the time who are supporting families. Where do they get such people? From the Kansas City Star...

Minimum-wage increase will be a big help for many

Peggy Fraley, a 60-year-old grandmother from Wichita, works as a receptionist and earns the minimum wage — $5.15 an hour.

So does her 37-year-old daughter, Karla Kimminau, a food service worker. Together, with Karla’s five children, ages 6 to 17, they are a family struggling to afford the basic necessities.

“We can barely make it,” Fraley said. “But we’ve got each other. That’s richer sometimes.”

5 children? Yikes. I would probably bend the rules and allow these two to be entrants in the contest, but again, they're from a different state. But the story has all kinds of other juicy tidbits...

The immediate beneficiaries would be nearly 2 million people who earn $5.15 per hour or less, according to federal labor data from 2005. That included 27,000 workers in Kansas and 56,000 in Missouri that year.

But those numbers don’t account for the workers who earn between $5.15 and $7.25 an hour. Some studies estimate that with them included, 6 million or more would feel the impact.

Nevermind the businesses who are sure to "feel the impact." Sure, they're excited about getting a raise. Who wouldn't be?

But the overall impact, he said, “is very hard to measure and predict.”

Not for Fraley. A $2.10 increase in the minimum wage “would be a big help, providing everything else doesn’t go up $2,” she said. “It’s a struggle.”

Well, maybe Democrats can fix those prices too...

Labels: minimum wage

Unaware of His Dream

In a recent survey of college students on U.S. civic literacy, more than 81 percent knew that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was expressing hope for "racial justice and brotherhood" in his historic "I Have a Dream" speech.

Most of the rest surveyed thought King was advocating the abolition of slavery.

Thank goodness we're working on increasing the minimum wage...

Speaking of which,

No one has yet claimed any of the amounts outlined in the Minimum Wage Contest. There are a few bites and some people who are emailing with plans to ask their friends and relatives if they know anyone who earns the minimum wage as outlined.

As one comment on the original post outlined:

Why the "sole" breadwinner stuff? So two people working on the minimum wage disqualifies them? Dude you will find NO ONE to match your criteria because it's not possible to support at minimum THREE people on a minimum wage job. Your requirements are so surreal (a sole breadwinner supporting a spouse and a child) on a minimum wage job - you are nuts. You won't find anyone because it's not possible to live on it. You might find both parents working though.

Then claim the prize. A better question would be: Then why the raise in the minimum wage? As rule #9 clearly allows, find a family where both parents/partners earn the minimum wage to support at least one child. The reason for "sole breadwinners" is because that's who Mike Gronstal and other supporters say this minimum wage increase is for.

"As a nurse, I've seen many families talk about how raising a family on the minimum wage of $5.15 is next to impossible," said Mike Glynn, a Des Moines nurse and member of the Service Employees International Union.

Gronstal: ...BUT ABSOLUTELY, THE FIRST ITEM OF BUSINESS, WE THINK, IS TO MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF 125,000 IOWANS THAT MAKE MINIMUM WAGE. SEVENTY PERCENT OF THEM ARE BREAD WINNERS FOR THEIR FAMILIES.

70% of 125,000 is 87,500 (the numbers keep changing the longer the debate goes on), so there must be way more than 1 that meet the criteria.

Of course it's impossible to raise a family on the minimum wage. That's why NO ONE DOES! They get a raise...or work harder...or move on to a better job...mostly without the benefit of a pompous politician "fighting for them." So why are we constantly reminded how beneficial it is to "working families" to raise the minimum wage?

Other emails:

Greg. I read your post about the minimum wage. I can't look for someone to qualify. I have a job and a family to support.
-Rhonda

I'm sorry I usually don't do this but: that's just about the worst thing I've seen on the internet. A contest to find someone working the minimum wage. Bush is dragging the economy in the toilet and you want to make money off of it.
-Brian R.

Greg. I know where at least 3000 minimum wage earners are. Try Iraq. Sorry. Bush killed them. Try again.
-Pat

Greg. I got the link from a friend of mine. Good luck on the search. The newspapers seem to find them all the time. Check the police log.
-Kevin

Labels: minimum wage, mlk