Feel Bad News: Manchin undercuts Biden on $15/hr minimum wage

[rjmacs]

But he says his proposal would go to eleven!! (dollars an hour)

[pdq]

I'd be inclined to take it, as a show of good faith. $15 an hour probably sounds pretty rich (!) in West Virginia, and my understanding is this only applies to Federal jobs anyway.

And then if/when the Repubs all vote against whatever Covid package gets hammered out, Biden can get rid of this fantasy of bipartisanship with the current GOP for once and for all.

[rjmacs]

The $15/hr minimum wage proposed in the covid relief bill would apply to all jobs nationwide that are subject to the minimum wage. The racist and sexist rules that exempt farm workers and tipped employees would continue.

CORRECTION (per pdq - thanks!): the proposed bill would phase out the lower tipped employee minimum by 2027. If you're a seasonal farm worker, sorry Charlie, er, Carlos.

[pdq]

rjmacs wrote:
The $15/hr minimum wage proposed in the covid relief bill would apply to all jobs nationwide that are subject to the minimum wage. The racist and sexist rules that exempt farm workers and tipped employees would continue.

Sorry, my bad. I stand corrected.

In fact,

The proposed bill would also raise the tipped minimum wage and youth minimum wage, by phasing both out by 2027.

I'm still inclined, however, to not let perfect be the enemy of good. It's $7.25 now, and was last increased over a decade ago (2009) following law that was passed in 2007. That's a record long lapse.

[cbelt3]

rjmacs wrote:
The $15/hr minimum wage proposed in the covid relief bill would apply to all jobs nationwide that are subject to the minimum wage. The racist and sexist rules that exempt farm workers and tipped employees would continue.

And 'Seasonal workers' outside of migrant farm workers. I did that for a summer in the 70's. Earned 50 cents less than minimum wage.

[RgrF]

When originally passed the minimum wage should have been tied to some sort of benchmark like Social Security or an annual national inflation barometer. Had it been today the minimum would hover somewhere around $22-23/hr and these troglodytes are spitting nonsense about $15 or less.

If they had tied it to executive compensation levels it would probably be around $175/hr.

[Acer]

If you get $11 now, it will be another decade until they address it again. So be sure $11 is what you want.

[RgrF]

Any amt should be tethered to an inflation barometer.

[Ted King]

RgrF wrote:
Any amt should be tethered to an inflation barometer.

:agree:

[Buzz]

They really oughta just tie it to a regional Cost of Living Index, within reasonable limitations. You could buy the whole of Looneyville, WV for the price of one NYC home. Not that the disparity is justified, but Manchin does have a valid point.... I think the disconnect is adversely affected by the disparity in population relative to the cost of living; the more peeps ya get in one place, the more the price of everything seems to go up. Heck, $11 in Looneyville probably has more worth than $15 in the Big Apple.
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