...because the federal minimum wage went up by 70 cents today.

Whew! That was a close one, huh?

$6.55 an hour?

F*CK

Quit raising the minimum wage, thx

I have bad news for ye...

It goes up to $7.25 an hour next year. THEN the economy will REALLY be kickin' along!

hooray for the Unions! now they can get a raise without "getting a raise"

Silly man. Everyone knows that Unions have managed to get their members paid MUCH more than the minimum wage. The only people that make minimum wage are single mothers just trying to feed their children and pay their electric bills.

Unions rock for a whole variety of reasons. They are there to negotiate fairer working conditions, pay, and they provide legal assistance. I understand that unions have had a bad rep in the US for the while, but I always make sure to be in a union if possible.

*personal example*

My dad was a teacher at a technical college. He had been one for pretty much his entire adult life. He was a good teacher. He was the one that student's hoped they got (seriously). He was one of those teachers who would put in the extra effort to make sure a student understood the work, if they asked for it. A few years ago, he failed a couple of female students because they sucked at life. So they went and filed a complaint that said my father discriminated against them and failed to answer their questions and acted in a generally sexist manner towards them.

Now here's the thing. My dad is deaf in one ear. He makes this extremely clear to his classes. If he ever does not respond to you, it's because he probably didn't hear you. Ask again, until he answers you. It's something that everyone in his classes knows, and does. It's literally impossible to be in one of his classes frequently and not pick this up, as he frequently apologises for the fact.

But regardless of this, the technical college put him on unpaid leave and (more or less) accepted the two students' version of events. They are government funded, and it's a fairly standard approach to protect their own arses.

The majority of the students who were in the class came forward and spoke out in support of my Dad, about how he was an excellent teacher, and how those two girls were horrible students who never paid attention. It didn't matter.

Various students that he's had over the last two decades individually came forward of their own volition with letters stating that my father was an excellent teacher who had never behaved in even a remotely sexist manner. It didn't matter.

My dad called the Teacher's Union (one of the largest and most powerful unions in Australia) and they sent one of their lawyers to be present and support him during the next meeting he had with the faculty (where they had already organised to force him into early retirement). That mattered.

They suddenly had a complete reversal of opinion, investigated the incident by talking to other students from the class (the same students who had previously volunteered to speak), and suddenly it was very clear that my Dad was innocent and it was merely two vindictive students trying to hurt my Dad's career without cause.

The union also negotiated that he be fully reimbursed in backpay for all of the time that had been made to take off with the unpaid leave. And that he got a formal apology.

All because he had a union representative with him.

*/personal example*

Sure, unions can get corrupt, but they're damn useful, and provide individual employees with protection that they would otherwise lack, or be unable to afford.

It's a good thing I only hire illegals to work at my house...no minimum wage there!

well unions also protect stupid things.
*general example*
in MA the legal time a person has to file charges for child molestation is 25 years. unless the perp. is a teacher. then I believe its 7 years.

do they really need that kind of protection? we have teachers that can't teach because of sexual offense who still go to the school and sit in a room doing nothing. but they can't lose their job because...they're in the union.

and yes ST53 I know the unions benefit nothing from min wage increase. and anyway that's not why the min wage gets raised, its because the dems are for the less fortunate, nothing to do with the union influence. that's just the spin the right puts on it, right?

Have you know WA is already there at that minimum.

In CA the min recently went up to $8, which really effects everyone to a degree. Min goes up, and the cost/prices of everything else follows, so the raise these people got is wiped clean, and then those of us who make more suffer as a result (as well), because everything goes up in price to accommodate, but our wages didn't increase proportionately. For what it's worth though, there's absolutely no way in hell that a person making $8/hr can afford to survive in CA on that alone.

s'ok,doesnt everyone out there have a side job as an actor/dancer/screenwriter on the side. :joke

Yes. But usually not paying jobs. :serious

move?

not complaining.

FWIW, jobs paying $8/hr aren't usually the kind of jobs designed for people to survive on that alone anyway. It's for high school kids working for the summer an' stuff. And Wal-Mart (this is a joke, I have no clue what cashiers make at WM.)

Hell, around here you can't get people to go flip burgers for $8/hr. I hire unskilled laborers to go work at plants and they START at $12/hr. And I still have people drag up on me.

Agreed.

*back on topic*

But it (min wage) does just become a ruthless cycle that never really helps anyone, as noble a cause as it may be, although wages go up a little, all expenses do just the same, so that the people in charge don't loose profit margin on overhead. It really seems that the middle class in very rapidly transitioning into the new working-poor.


Also agreed. But...it's happening that way, as more and more businesses are cutting positions/hours due to financial hardships, otherwise skilled workers are being forced into lackluster jobs just so they can scrape by. FWIW, I'm actually looking to see if I can grab a second job for the moment, because my roommate bailed out on us and I need to pay his share of our rent now as well.

*remembers in 93/94 working at McD's making $4.25/hr. @ min.

*remembers working at Heroes and Legends for the same*

well you can all rest easy that walmarts prices are staying the same...they just cut everyone in my dept's lunch, which comes to about 2000 a year per person.
they used to buy it since our jobs keep us hours away from home every day.

Gotta get that money to pay those entry-level employees an extra $28 a week (which works out to about $1500 a year per employee) from somewhere, am I right?

absolutely, and they get to stash the extra 500.

but its not about the budget, its a policy issue. :manager in training

This only works if there are an equal amount of entry-level employees (e.g. minimum wage employees) to employees who's lunch was bought and paid for. Knowing Wal-Mart, there are probably waaay more of the former than the latter.

Incidentally, there's this stock girl at my local Wal-mart that is hawt. Can you get her number for me?

"Don't you worry about ______, let me worry about _______."

Thank God you're not in a union or anything, or I might have to spend an extra nickel when I go to Wal-Mart.

Enjoy buying your lunches from now on.

*isn't for the minimum wage increase, either*

'sok now my lunch becomes a business expense and tax deductible. let em eat cake.

I'm no accountant or anything, but I don't think it works that way unless you're actually conducting business at lunch. Your break at Wal-Mart doesn't count.

well since business takes me out of town every day which would not be the case otherwise...

you'd have to know my job to understand. I am technically conduscting business when I eat lunch unless I'm at home.