Barack Obama to 99% of Americans: "I'm working for you"

[thegreekdog]

I have some questions:

(1) What percentage of Americans make minimum wage?
(2) What percentage of union contracts have salaries based upon the minimum wage laws?
(3) What percentage of politicians generally call for a raise in the minimum wage?
(4) What types of groups donate money and support politicians who call for a raise in the minimum wage?

[thegreekdog]

Sorry; I have more questions after reading pimpdave and jay's exchange.

(1) Who "passes" regulations?
(2) Where do the people who pass the regulations come from?
(3) Who determines which regulations are good and bad or necessary and unnecessary?
(4) Where do those people come from and who gives them money to get elected (see, e.g. pimpdave's Al Franken Hypocrisy... I mean Citizens United... thread)?

[Lootifer]

Getting all fundamental up in hurr TGD eh?

[Lootifer]

I have some questions:

(1) What percentage of Americans make minimum wage?
(2) What percentage of union contracts have salaries based upon the minimum wage laws?
(3) What percentage of politicians generally call for a raise in the minimum wage?
(4) What types of groups donate money and support politicians who call for a raise in the minimum wage?

-1- Looks to be roughly round 12-15% of households make less than 15k pa, which is roughly minimum wage for a single earner.

Dont know and/or dont care abotu your other questions

[thegreekdog]

I have some questions:

(1) What percentage of Americans make minimum wage?
(2) What percentage of union contracts have salaries based upon the minimum wage laws?
(3) What percentage of politicians generally call for a raise in the minimum wage?
(4) What types of groups donate money and support politicians who call for a raise in the minimum wage?

-1- Looks to be roughly round 12-15% of households make less than 15k pa, which is roughly minimum wage for a single earner.

Dont know and/or dont care abotu your other questions

http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2011.htm

In 2011, 73.9 million American workers age 16 and over were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.1 percent of all wage and salary workers.1 Among those paid by the hour, 1.7 million earned exactly the prevailing Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 2.2 million had wages below the minimum.2 Together, these 3.8 million workers with wages at or below the Federal minimum made up 5.2 percent of all hourly-paid workers. Tables 1 through 10 present data on a wide array of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics for hourly-paid workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage. The following are some highlights from the 2011 data.

Minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly-paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the Federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers paid by the hour, about 23 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with about 3 percent of workers age 25 and over. (See table 1 and table 7.)


About 6 percent of women paid hourly rates had wages at or below the prevailing Federal minimum, compared with about 4 percent of men. (See table 1.)


About 5 percent of White hourly-paid workers earned the Federal minimum wage or less, compared with about 6 percent of Blacks and about 3 percent of Asians. Among hourly-paid workers of Hispanic ethnicity, about 5 percent earned the minimum wage or less. (See table 1.)


Among hourly-paid workers age 16 and over, about 11 percent of those who had less than a high school diploma earned the Federal minimum wage or less, compared with about 5 percent of those who had a high school diploma (with no college) and about 2 percent of college graduates. (See table 6.)


Never-married workers, who tend to be young, were more likely than married workers to earn the Federal minimum wage or less (about 9 percent versus about 2 percent). (See table 8.)


Part-time workers (persons who usually work less than 35 hours per week) were more likely than full-time workers to be paid the Federal minimum wage or less (about 13 percent versus about 2 percent). (See table 1 and table 9.)


By major occupational group, the highest proportion of hourly-paid workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage was in service occupations, at 13 percent. About 6 in 10 workers earning the minimum wage or less in 2011 were employed in service occupations, mostly in food preparation and serving related jobs. (See table 4.)


The industry with the highest proportion of workers with hourly wages at or below the Federal minimum wage was leisure and hospitality (22 percent). About one-half of all workers paid at or below the Federal minimum wage were employed in this industry, primarily in restaurants and other food services. For many of these workers, tips and commissions supplement the hourly wages received. (See table 5.)


The states with the highest proportions of hourly-paid workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage were Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas (all between 8 and 10 percent). The states with the lowest percentage of workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage were Oregon, California, Washington, and Alaska (all under 2 percent). It should be noted that some states have minimum wage laws establishing standards that exceed the Federal minimum wage. (See table 2 and table 3.)


The proportion of hourly-paid workers earning the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less declined from 6.0 percent in 2010 to 5.2 percent in 2011. This remains well below the figure of 13.4 percent in 1979, when data were first collected on a regular basis. (See table 10.)

[thegreekdog]

By the way Loot, the purpose of the other questions, relative to this thread, is so that I can drive home to people that the government does not care about the poor and is not out to protect the poor. The reason that there is a fight over minimum wage is that one side wants the union contracts to produce higher paid workers and the other side doesn't. That's it. No one gives a shit about the 1.7 million people making minimum wage or the 2.2 million people making below minimum wage (5.2% of hourly wage workers, of which hourly wage workers are 59% of the population... so you're talking much less than 15% by the way).

So yeah, government doesn't care whether you're making slave wages. Sorry.

[Juan_Bottom]

Your point? The jobs that pay minimum wage were never designed to be lived off of. They are designed to be part time jobs for people looking for extra money or for high school and college students to earn some cash while attending classes. Raising the minimum wage only causes more unemployment (especially among the young), higher prices, or both. Not to mention that you are punishing people who have worked with a company for any length of time (assuming their wages aren't automatically adjusted upward when minimum wage goes up).

They've evolved into that, allegedly, but that's not how it was designed. These poor fool college kids aren't making any money either, due to the continuously rising costs of tuition. Tuition that Romney/Ryan want to increase. There was a long-ass period of American history where the term "wage slave" meant something real and visible.
And whatever we do, no, we can't afford to raise the minimum wage again in the North because there are too many loopholes to the system. I'm talking about employers who hire illegals and Southern politicians who crush organized labor. Well, I guess most of these problems are caused by Republicans, but that's a debate for another stupid thread.
All of this is flying in the face of the fact that the stock market is at an all-time high, so are corporate profits, & wages are at a new low. So the money is all there to raise our quality of life, but it will effect the freedom of your friends who make $40,000 a day or some shit. But I'll save my time. For another history lesson look up the Fair Labor Standards Act, it was passed sometime in the later 30s.

I wish you could do something to help us girls....We have been working in a sewing factory,... and up to a few months ago we were getting our minimum pay of $11 a week... Today the 200 of us girls have been cut down to $4 and $5 and $6 a week.

[rockfist]

As long as the government keeps having grants and low interest loans that it writes off a good portion of to fund college tuition, universities have a strong disincentive to control costs - they get paid no matter what. If you want to reduce college costs the answer is reduce financial aid and colleges will become a whole lot more efficient. I'm not advocating for it - merely pointing out the economics of it.

[BigBallinStalin]

By the way Loot, the purpose of the other questions, relative to this thread, is so that I can drive home to people that the government does not care about the poor and is not out to protect the poor. The reason that there is a fight over minimum wage is that one side wants the union contracts to produce higher paid workers and the other side doesn't. That's it. No one gives a shit about the 1.7 million people making minimum wage or the 2.2 million people making below minimum wage (5.2% of hourly wage workers, of which hourly wage workers are 59% of the population... so you're talking much less than 15% by the way).

So yeah, government doesn't care whether you're making slave wages. Sorry.

Yeah but that doesn't fit into my Welfare Liberal ideology, so I'll ignore this and/or reject it on emotional grounds. Then, I'll continue my schtick about minimum wage law and alleged slave labor and how awesome the government is because it cares about the People.

[Juan_Bottom]

By the way Loot, the purpose of the other questions, relative to this thread, is so that I can drive home to people that the government does not care about the poor and is not out to protect the poor. The reason that there is a fight over minimum wage is that one side wants the union contracts to produce higher paid workers and the other side doesn't. That's it. No one gives a shit about the 1.7 million people making minimum wage or the 2.2 million people making below minimum wage (5.2% of hourly wage workers, of which hourly wage workers are 59% of the population... so you're talking much less than 15% by the way).

So yeah, government doesn't care whether you're making slave wages. Sorry.

It's not a government problem, it's a people problem. As Nelson Mandela said, poverty is man-made and people can end it anytime that they want to. The government only cares about what we hold them accountable for. Goes without saying.

[BigBallinStalin]

Hardly anyone holds politicians accountable for coordinating with rent-seekers because of the lack of incentive. It's dispersed costs, concentrated benefits.

If I run a union, I talk to my local politician about donations in exchange for raising the minimum wage. It happens, and the costs of this plan are incurred over a huge group of people (increased wages, increased price in products, marginal shift to produce elsewhere or overseas, decreased employment, etc.), so the per-capita costs are small--especially as this is scaled up to the federal level. The costs are so small that it isn't worth fighting against, or discovering, or as a politician appealing to in order to gain votes.

That's the fundamental problem of liberal democracy in a nutshell. You can quote Mandela all you like, but if you don't address the incentives, then your post is a bunch of fluffy, warm and fuzzy talk.

[thegreekdog]

By the way Loot, the purpose of the other questions, relative to this thread, is so that I can drive home to people that the government does not care about the poor and is not out to protect the poor. The reason that there is a fight over minimum wage is that one side wants the union contracts to produce higher paid workers and the other side doesn't. That's it. No one gives a shit about the 1.7 million people making minimum wage or the 2.2 million people making below minimum wage (5.2% of hourly wage workers, of which hourly wage workers are 59% of the population... so you're talking much less than 15% by the way).

So yeah, government doesn't care whether you're making slave wages. Sorry.

It's not a government problem, it's a people problem. As Nelson Mandela said, poverty is man-made and people can end it anytime that they want to. The government only cares about what we hold them accountable for. Goes without saying.

Okay, good. So you'll get down off of your "The Jungle = awesome" soap box now?

[Phatscotty]

What about geography's impact on minimum wage? Certainly ten dollars an hour in New York is a world apart from ten dollars on hour in New Mexico...

[thegreekdog]

What about geography's impact on minimum wage? Certainly ten dollars an hour in New York is a world apart from ten dollars on hour in New Mexico...

(1) States have their own minimum wage laws.
(2) In anticipation of your next point, I suspect the US Constitution and the dormant commerce clause applies to allow the federal government to set minimum wage throughout the states (employment = interstate commerce and all that).
(3) New York minimum wage = $7.25 per hour
(4) New Mexico minimum wage = $7.50 per hour

[Juan_Bottom]

By the way Loot, the purpose of the other questions, relative to this thread, is so that I can drive home to people that the government does not care about the poor and is not out to protect the poor. The reason that there is a fight over minimum wage is that one side wants the union contracts to produce higher paid workers and the other side doesn't. That's it. No one gives a shit about the 1.7 million people making minimum wage or the 2.2 million people making below minimum wage (5.2% of hourly wage workers, of which hourly wage workers are 59% of the population... so you're talking much less than 15% by the way).

So yeah, government doesn't care whether you're making slave wages. Sorry.

It's not a government problem, it's a people problem. As Nelson Mandela said, poverty is man-made and people can end it anytime that they want to. The government only cares about what we hold them accountable for. Goes without saying.

Okay, good. So you'll get down off of your "The Jungle = awesome" soap box now?

It didn't take you long to forget about context either.

[Phatscotty]

[thegreekdog]

By the way Loot, the purpose of the other questions, relative to this thread, is so that I can drive home to people that the government does not care about the poor and is not out to protect the poor. The reason that there is a fight over minimum wage is that one side wants the union contracts to produce higher paid workers and the other side doesn't. That's it. No one gives a shit about the 1.7 million people making minimum wage or the 2.2 million people making below minimum wage (5.2% of hourly wage workers, of which hourly wage workers are 59% of the population... so you're talking much less than 15% by the way).

So yeah, government doesn't care whether you're making slave wages. Sorry.

It's not a government problem, it's a people problem. As Nelson Mandela said, poverty is man-made and people can end it anytime that they want to. The government only cares about what we hold them accountable for. Goes without saying.

Okay, good. So you'll get down off of your "The Jungle = awesome" soap box now?

It didn't take you long to forget about context either.

Do you pay taxes JB?

[thegreekdog]

You want some real world application of minimum wage?

When I was in high school I worked at an ice cream shop. I started at minimum wage ($5.75 an hour I think). Every year you worked there, you'd get a 25 cent per hour increase in your wage. After my senior year in high school I was making a cool $6.50 an hour. That year, the minimum wage went up to $6.25 an hour and my brother started working at the ice cream shop. So, even though I had worked there three years, I was making 25 cents above my brother... because of the minimum wage laws. DAMN YOU GOVERNMENT!

[Juan_Bottom]

By the way Loot, the purpose of the other questions, relative to this thread, is so that I can drive home to people that the government does not care about the poor and is not out to protect the poor. The reason that there is a fight over minimum wage is that one side wants the union contracts to produce higher paid workers and the other side doesn't. That's it. No one gives a shit about the 1.7 million people making minimum wage or the 2.2 million people making below minimum wage (5.2% of hourly wage workers, of which hourly wage workers are 59% of the population... so you're talking much less than 15% by the way).

So yeah, government doesn't care whether you're making slave wages. Sorry.

It's not a government problem, it's a people problem. As Nelson Mandela said, poverty is man-made and people can end it anytime that they want to. The government only cares about what we hold them accountable for. Goes without saying.

Okay, good. So you'll get down off of your "The Jungle = awesome" soap box now?

It didn't take you long to forget about context either.

Do you pay taxes JB?

Do you catch chickens?

[thegreekdog]

I'm just wondering what kind of work you do to help the poor.

[BigBallinStalin]

You don't catch chickens; therefore, your argument is invalid.

[Juan_Bottom]

I'm just wondering what kind of work you do to help the poor.

Don't insult me. Everyone here is poor. No one has any money. The pig is free so long as you help tear down the old machine shed.
I am wondering what this has to do with your loss of context for why I brought up the Jungle - which was a book that I borrowed from another poor person.

[Phatscotty]

you are just projecting now, Phatty

[jay_a2j]

OMG abolishing minimum wadge will not cause slavery. If Burger King is hiring at $3.00 /hr. guess what? No one will apply for the job and force BK to increase it's starting wage.

Wishful thinking. It's already possible to find illegal aliens who will work for less than minimum wage, mostly hired by Republicans.

But this is what you guys love to dwell on. This wishful thinking. That people won't buy food if it's contaminated or full of parasites, and companies would never do that anyway. Wrong. Many companies just want to wring out as much profit as possible. You guys even admit that when you're bitching about taxes. Well, if putting sawdust in sausages increases the profit margin of a meat packing company and they can get away with it, they absolutely will. Same goes for almost every other company.

Regulation is the only way to guarantee that the most participants possible follow the rules. There will always be bad actors, but regulation reduces that to the minimum. Your wishful thinking is adolescent at best, and evil intending to deceive the naive at worst.

I HIGHLIGHTED the key words in your reply. They shouldn't be here to begin with. And as such who are they going to complain to when they are here ILLEGALLY?????? Nice try but your argument falls short.


Corruption is EVERYWHERE. People are greedy. Government regulation is the LAST thing we need. I guess its the difference between people who desire to have government meet all their needs and those who prefer to meet their own needs.

[john9blue]

I guess its the difference between people who desire to have government meet all their needs and those who prefer to meet their own needs.

the guy who started this thread whines to the moderators every time anyone offends him in the slightest way. which side do you THINK he's on?? lol.

a lot of people are just pussies, honestly. they lack self-confidence, so they try to use other people to validate themselves. it's pathetic. what happened to self-reliance?