News....

I just heard about the Senate Rejecting the Estate tax and Minimum Wage Bill which would increase Minimum wage by $2.10 over several years. What's the most appalling part of this is Minimum wage hasn't been raised from $5.15 since 1997. This is equal to $10,712 (that is if you were paid 5.57 an hour).

Recently, in the State of Pennsylvania we passed a minimum wage raise from $5.15 an hour to $6.25 and by 2007 $7.15. This is a small comfort when you realize if minimum wage was current with the cost of living it should be 9.50 an hour. This translates to $19,000 a year; still poverty level but when you think of all the labor being exploited right now from the most base of wages (5.15 an hour) you wonder why more people AREN'T on some sort of subsidy from the government and out protesting. It's morally wrong to keep people in a state of poverty.

Most people have only heard of minimum wage or only experienced minimum wage all their life...But what is a living wage? "The living wage level is usually the wage a full-time worker would need to earn to support a family above federal poverty line, ranging from 100% to 130% of the poverty measurement. The wage rates specified by living wage ordinances range from a low of $6.25 in Milwaukee to a high of $12 in Santa Cruz."

Jonathan Singer blogger & writer with the LA Times wrote some good insights to the recent events:(written July 29, 2006)
"Last night the Republican House passed legislation giving Paris Hilton and other wealthy heirs a massive tax cut while also increasing the minimum wage...(However)when Americans say that they want something to get done, as they have on the minimum wage with 85 percent favoring a more than $2 per hour increase, they want it done, not just symbolically passed during the dead of night by legislators who know that their proposal will never actually be enacted into law... this is just a hollow gesture" Apparently, Senate Republicans don't "care one lick about working class Americans, particularly those who have to live on the minimum wage."

Comments

Rhiannon said…
Makes you want to puke doesn't it Emily? The Republicans get the "kudos" while refusing to really acknowledge the problem let alone help the people living in poverty in this country..and I am one of them!.....its getting so hard and really scary..got to have hope thought..

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