Webb co-sponsors bill to raise federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80
Jim Webb
U.S. Sen. Jim Webb is in the last year of his term and isn’t running for re-election, but he’s still filing legislation — including co-sponsoring The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012 (S.3453), which would raise minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 over two years.
The bill’s primary sponsor is Sen. Thomas Harkin, D-Iowa. Webb is one of 15 co-sponsors.
“Lower income workers continue to get squeezed by stagnant wages and rising cost of living,” Webb said in a news release. “In the age of globalization and outsourcing, the average American worker is seeing a different life and a troubling future. While corporate profits are at an all-time high, wages and salaries are at an all-time low as a percentage of GDP. Raising the minimum wage is an important step toward addressing this disparity.”
You can read the full release from Webb’s office below the jump:
Senator Webb Co-sponsors Legislation to Increase Federal Minimum Wage
Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012 Would Establish First Raise in Three Years
Washington, DC – Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) co-sponsored legislation Monday to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 over two years. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012 (S.3453) would then index the minimum wage to inflation to keep up with future cost-of-living increases.
“Lower income workers continue to get squeezed by stagnant wages and rising cost of living,” said Senator Webb. “In the age of globalization and outsourcing, the average American worker is seeing a different life and a troubling future. While corporate profits are at an all-time high, wages and salaries are at an all-time low as a percentage of GDP. Raising the minimum wage is an important step toward addressing this disparity.”
One of the first bills that Senator Webb co-sponsored in the Senate was The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which established the first federal minimum wage increase in ten years. Senator Webb has supported a wide range of policies to promote economic fairness including raising tax rates on capital gains and dividends, taxing hedge fund managers’ profits (carried interest) as ordinary earned income, and a one-time windfall profits tax for Wall Street banks that received bailout funds.
Key minimum wage facts:
- A full-time minimum wage earner makes about $15,080 per year, which is $4,010 below the federal poverty level for a three-person family;
- In 2011, 3.8 million workers earned wages at or below the federal minimum wage;
- The minimum wage is not currently tied to inflation, which results in an erosion of its value and purchasing power unless Congress repeatedly acts to establish an increase.
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July 31, 2012 - 1:45 PM
Why does a 16 year-old teen worker need to make $10 an hour?
“Why does a 16 year-old teen worker need to make $10 an hour?”
So he can save his money and start a small business.
But he still wouldn’t have built it on his own then Blue John…
#1 Help pay for college?
Terrible idea. Numerous studies have shown this does nothing but deny job opportunities for the low skilled labor force.
While I don’t blame minimum wage workers for wanting to make more money – all this does is raise the cost of goods & services that we buy – after all the money HAS to come from somewhere!
Way to to kill off hiring! People cant get a job now. Businesses are failing. Forcing even higher wages will kill jobs.
Terrible idea. Nothing comes for free.
Most of the entry-level jobs formerly taken by 16-year-olds are now taken by adults.
If wages were raised as they should be, organically through good business acumen, this would not be an issue. Sadly billion dollar profitable industries and businesses still “rely” on keeping the wage they pay low and thereby they add to the cost of safety nets, the instability in the economy and the erosion of security for millions of families. If they are not forced to pay better, they won’t and do not kid yourselves, we ALWAYS pick up that slack. Yet another reason no business is successful solely on its own.
We need the “cheap” goods because that is ALL the low wage workers can afford. Walmart et al have made themselves a self fulfilling prophesy and some are so anti regulation that they cannot see the truth even in black and white.
If those low wage workers cannot afford health care, housing, food etc, where do you believe it is going to come from?
Why can a billion dollar business like McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, or others NOT pay better wages? Because they don’t WANT to.
“A significant body of academic research has found that raising the minimum wage does not result in job losses even during hard economic times. There are at least five different academic studies focusing on increases to the minimum wage—including increases ranging from 7 percent to 12.3 percent made during periods of high unemployment—that find an increase in the minimum wage has no significant effect on employment levels. The results are likely because the boost in demand and reduction in turnover provided by a minimum wage counteracts the higher wage costs.
Similarly, a simple analysis of increases to the minimum wage on the state level, even during periods of state unemployment rates above 8 percent, shows that the minimum wage does not kill jobs. Indeed the states in our simple analysis had job growth slightly above the national average. [...]
All the studies came to the same conclusion—that raising the minimum wage had no effect on employment.”
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/20/503112/studies-increasing-the-minimum-wage-during-times-of-high-unemployment-doesnt-hurt-job-growth/
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2012/06/minimum_wage.html
About 1/4 of private sector workers make less than $10 per hour, which is about what the minimum wage would be had it kept up with inflation over the years. Obviously it’s not just 16 year olds who don’t get paid much.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/25/private-sector-workers_n_1699103.html
There is no state in the country where you can rent a 2-BR apartment on 40 hours a week at minimum wage (and many making minimum wage don’t get 40 hour work-weeks anyway; if they’re not FT the employers can cut out lots of benefits).
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/paying-rent-on-minimum-wage/
True MM, but very few are. In fact, more than likely none are if you take loans or other financial aid into consideration.
I support this idea. $7.25/hour is not enough to live on. Yes, you can survive on $7.25/hour, but you would have to live in a super cheap apartment, have no car payment or car insurance, and live on Ramen noodles. $7.25/hour equals out to just over $1100.00 a month, and that’s before taxes. Assuming the person is single net income could be as low as $900.00/month. The average 1 bedroom apartment in Roanoke is around $500, which would take over half of a minimum wager’s monthly income. Then let’s factor in utilities at a minimum of $100 (assuming no cable), and food at $150.00. That leaves $150 to pay for clothes, transportation, health emergencies, whatever. Yeah, I’d say you could survive, but is that what we really want for our friends, neighbors, and fellow countrymen? An extra $2.55 an hour would go a long way to making life a little more comfortable for those in entry level positions.
So by making $7.25/hr it would ENCOURAGE someone to get out and try to find a better paying job with better insurance than McDonald’s, Walmart, etc??
There. Glad that’s settled.
Perhaps, A Beasley it means that a person old enough to be living somewhere on their own should try to find an above minimum wage job with insurance??
If this drove the “Dollar Menu” to be the “$1.10 Menu”, the earth wouldn’t crash. And Jack, places that pay minimum wage aren’t failing.
As for whether or not a teenager needs to make this much money, I wasn’t aware we scaled our pay structure to the relative age of the employee.
Are these politicians crazy??? This is a job killer. In my state every day I see small businesses going under and store fronts empty. Small business cannot take any more hits!
Silly me, all these years I thought competition from other small businesses and big box stores was the bane (no pun intended) of small business owners.
Implementing a pay raise of $2/hour (even over time), will more than likely halt pay raises for those employed by small businesses. They will have nothing to work up towards anymore. Large businesses, like Walmart, can afford to do this without it crippling them. For a small business with 50 employees or so, this would jeopardize their business. Full time positions would dwindle to barely part time positions, hence loss of benefits. Not to mention, someone who has been there longer and not reached their pay raise cap can see someone come in on the first day making what they are making. Talk about resentment.
I am not so concerned about the cost of goods going up because that is inevitable whether min wage is raised or not. I am concerned about jobs here in America. It will tempt more companies to outsource b/c they can pay a fraction of what they pay workers here. Something like this could be the last straw for a lot of them. Factories closing down will kill a community.
I am one of those people who is making a couple of pennies above minimum wage. If any of you thinks it’s a bad idea to raise the minimum wage, then try walking a mile in my shoes or any other parent/parents who are struggling to raise our families with next to nothing in our pockets!
I was making minimum wage in construction, raising a family, and decided to apply for a Pell grant and a very small student loan to go back to school. After earning an A.S. degree, I got a much better job that also provided education assitance. I used that to get my 4 year degree… while working full time as well and raising a family.
*assistance in my last post
Evently you poeple don’t understand that there are a-lot people are
having to take min-wage jobs to help make up the cost of living differance
in some states Taxes are eating us alive in NC>