Saturday, December 07, 2013 8:46:39 PM
Fleeing to Next Town, Bosses May Find Minimum Wage Is Rising There, Too
Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press
Tracey Anderson, 26, restocking boxes this week at one of the two new Walmarts in Washington.
ROCKVILLE, Md. — When Marc Elrich, a county councilman in the northern Washington suburbs, sought to raise the minimum wage, businesses threatened to move across the Montgomery County line to pay workers less.
So Mr. Elrich did something that experts say is unprecedented: Enlisting the governments of Washington and Prince George’s County to the east, he got all three governments to agree to raise minimum wages together — essentially forming a regional pact to make it far less tempting for businesses to flee next door.
“We keep getting bombarded by the business community about our taxes are too high and our social services are too generous,” Mr. Elrich, a liberal Democrat, said on Thursday after a ceremony in which his bill was signed into law in the county Executive Office Building in Rockville. “It’s their wages that cause the government to do this.”
At the previous minimum of $ 7.25, or about $ 15,000 a year, many workers in Montgomery County, which includes affluent suburbs like Bethesda and Chevy Chase, were too poor to afford an apartment and received county support, which Mr. Elrich said amounted to a public subsidy for private companies.
The pact comes at a time when the minimum wage is becoming a defining issue for those, including President Obama, who are anxious about economic inequality.
Speaking in one of Washington’s poorest neighborhoods on Tuesday, Mr. Obama threw his weight behind a $ 10.10 federal minimum wage, saying declining social mobility and inequality “pose a fundamental threat to the American dream.”
Democrats across the country are hoping to use the issue in next year’s midterm elections. Drives to place a minimum-wage measure on the 2014 ballot are underway in half a dozen states, including three — Arkansas, Alaska and South Dakota — where Democrats are fighting to retain vulnerable Senate seats in states that voted for Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.
“There is much more action at the state and local level around raising the minimum wage than we’ve ever seen before,” said Paul Sonn, the general counsel of the National Employment Law Project, which tracks the issue. “We clearly think what’s driving it is the fact that the economy is producing mostly low-wage jobs. Every indication is Democrats are going to run on it.”
Republicans counter that low pay will indeed be an issue in the midterm elections, but in ways that favor their candidates. They argue that Mr. Obama’s health care law has suppressed hiring and could cause employers to shed full-time employees in favor of part-time workers.
The debate over the minimum wage’s impact on jobs is sufficiently disputed by economists to offer ammunition to both sides. Mayor Vincent C. Gray of Washington, a Democrat, vetoed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $ 12.50 last summer after Walmart threatened to pull the plug on as many as six stores it planned for the city.
On Tuesday, the Washington Council unanimously passed a veto-proof version of the bill. It would start with a bump up to $9.50 an hour in July from the current minimum of $ 8.25. The floor rises to $ 11.50 in 2016 and thereafter is tied to inflation.
The two Maryland counties, the most populous in the state, reach $11.50 in 2017.
Mayor Gray, who is seeking changes to the bill, which must clear another Council vote, has warned that anything more than $10 will cause beauty shops, restaurants and other small businesses to reduce hiring. But a spokesman, Pedro Ribeiro, said the mayor, who moved this week to seek a second term, would sign a bill substantially like the one the council already passed.
In a coincidence of timing, Walmart opened two stores in Washington on Wednesday, bringing low-cost goods and entry-level jobs to an increasingly gentrifying city with a shortage of both. The company said 28,000 people applied for about 600 jobs.
A Walmart spokesman declined to say whether plans for four other stores were in jeopardy with the city set to approve the $ 11.50 minimum wage.
“We realize that the discussion around the minimum wage is an important one and recognize government will take steps to address this issue,” said Lorenzo Lopez, the spokesman.
http://yourebusinessnews.com/2013/12/07/fleeing-to-next-town-bosses-may-find-minimum-wage-is-rising-there-too/
==== .. from the F6 post, 23 Reasons Life Is Better In Australia .. add: not so many guns, nor Santorum/Cruz types ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94744583 ..
7. The minimum wage .. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/19/the-u-s-has-a-7-25-minimum-wage-australias-is-16-88/ .. in Australia is $16.88. SIXTEEN DOLLARS AND EIGHTY-EIGHT CENTS! In America, minimum wage ranges by state .. http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm .. from $5.15 (Georgia) to $9.19 (Washington).
.. 2 images from the first link above ..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/19/the-u-s-has-a-7-25-minimum-wage-australias-is-16-88/
.. the 2nd link .. http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm .. reminds that Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and S. Carolina, with no minimum wage law, are the 5 states dragging the chain with their workers on the end of it ..
==== .. oh, well .. there are always food stamps from the evil Federal government ..
10 States Who Use The Most Food Stamps
10. South Carolina - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 18.2 percent stamps
9. Maine - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 18.6 percent
8. West Virginia - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 18.7 percent
7. Kentucky - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 18.8 percent
6. Louisiana - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 19.2 percent
5. Michigan - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 19.7 percent
4. New Mexico - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 19.8 percent
3. Tennessee - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 19.8 percent
2. Oregon - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 20.1 percent
1. Mississippi - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 20.7 percent
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/13/10-states-with-the-greatest-food-stamps_n_860233.html
.. note, of the 5 "no minimum wage law" states only Alabama missed the top 10 ..
Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press
Tracey Anderson, 26, restocking boxes this week at one of the two new Walmarts in Washington.
ROCKVILLE, Md. — When Marc Elrich, a county councilman in the northern Washington suburbs, sought to raise the minimum wage, businesses threatened to move across the Montgomery County line to pay workers less.
So Mr. Elrich did something that experts say is unprecedented: Enlisting the governments of Washington and Prince George’s County to the east, he got all three governments to agree to raise minimum wages together — essentially forming a regional pact to make it far less tempting for businesses to flee next door.
“We keep getting bombarded by the business community about our taxes are too high and our social services are too generous,” Mr. Elrich, a liberal Democrat, said on Thursday after a ceremony in which his bill was signed into law in the county Executive Office Building in Rockville. “It’s their wages that cause the government to do this.”
At the previous minimum of $ 7.25, or about $ 15,000 a year, many workers in Montgomery County, which includes affluent suburbs like Bethesda and Chevy Chase, were too poor to afford an apartment and received county support, which Mr. Elrich said amounted to a public subsidy for private companies.
The pact comes at a time when the minimum wage is becoming a defining issue for those, including President Obama, who are anxious about economic inequality.
Speaking in one of Washington’s poorest neighborhoods on Tuesday, Mr. Obama threw his weight behind a $ 10.10 federal minimum wage, saying declining social mobility and inequality “pose a fundamental threat to the American dream.”
Democrats across the country are hoping to use the issue in next year’s midterm elections. Drives to place a minimum-wage measure on the 2014 ballot are underway in half a dozen states, including three — Arkansas, Alaska and South Dakota — where Democrats are fighting to retain vulnerable Senate seats in states that voted for Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.
“There is much more action at the state and local level around raising the minimum wage than we’ve ever seen before,” said Paul Sonn, the general counsel of the National Employment Law Project, which tracks the issue. “We clearly think what’s driving it is the fact that the economy is producing mostly low-wage jobs. Every indication is Democrats are going to run on it.”
Republicans counter that low pay will indeed be an issue in the midterm elections, but in ways that favor their candidates. They argue that Mr. Obama’s health care law has suppressed hiring and could cause employers to shed full-time employees in favor of part-time workers.
The debate over the minimum wage’s impact on jobs is sufficiently disputed by economists to offer ammunition to both sides. Mayor Vincent C. Gray of Washington, a Democrat, vetoed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $ 12.50 last summer after Walmart threatened to pull the plug on as many as six stores it planned for the city.
On Tuesday, the Washington Council unanimously passed a veto-proof version of the bill. It would start with a bump up to $9.50 an hour in July from the current minimum of $ 8.25. The floor rises to $ 11.50 in 2016 and thereafter is tied to inflation.
The two Maryland counties, the most populous in the state, reach $11.50 in 2017.
Mayor Gray, who is seeking changes to the bill, which must clear another Council vote, has warned that anything more than $10 will cause beauty shops, restaurants and other small businesses to reduce hiring. But a spokesman, Pedro Ribeiro, said the mayor, who moved this week to seek a second term, would sign a bill substantially like the one the council already passed.
In a coincidence of timing, Walmart opened two stores in Washington on Wednesday, bringing low-cost goods and entry-level jobs to an increasingly gentrifying city with a shortage of both. The company said 28,000 people applied for about 600 jobs.
A Walmart spokesman declined to say whether plans for four other stores were in jeopardy with the city set to approve the $ 11.50 minimum wage.
“We realize that the discussion around the minimum wage is an important one and recognize government will take steps to address this issue,” said Lorenzo Lopez, the spokesman.
http://yourebusinessnews.com/2013/12/07/fleeing-to-next-town-bosses-may-find-minimum-wage-is-rising-there-too/
==== .. from the F6 post, 23 Reasons Life Is Better In Australia .. add: not so many guns, nor Santorum/Cruz types ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94744583 ..
7. The minimum wage .. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/19/the-u-s-has-a-7-25-minimum-wage-australias-is-16-88/ .. in Australia is $16.88. SIXTEEN DOLLARS AND EIGHTY-EIGHT CENTS! In America, minimum wage ranges by state .. http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm .. from $5.15 (Georgia) to $9.19 (Washington).
.. 2 images from the first link above ..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/19/the-u-s-has-a-7-25-minimum-wage-australias-is-16-88/
.. the 2nd link .. http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm .. reminds that Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and S. Carolina, with no minimum wage law, are the 5 states dragging the chain with their workers on the end of it ..
==== .. oh, well .. there are always food stamps from the evil Federal government ..
10 States Who Use The Most Food Stamps
10. South Carolina - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 18.2 percent stamps
9. Maine - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 18.6 percent
8. West Virginia - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 18.7 percent
7. Kentucky - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 18.8 percent
6. Louisiana - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 19.2 percent
5. Michigan - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 19.7 percent
4. New Mexico - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 19.8 percent
3. Tennessee - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 19.8 percent
2. Oregon - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 20.1 percent
1. Mississippi - Percentage of Population on Food Stamps: 20.7 percent
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/13/10-states-with-the-greatest-food-stamps_n_860233.html
.. note, of the 5 "no minimum wage law" states only Alabama missed the top 10 ..
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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