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WAGING WAR

Boehner Says No to Obama's Minimum Wage Hike

$9 per hour plan nixed right out of the gate

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: AP

In what will no doubt be the first of many State of the Union plans to get shot down, Obama's call to raise the minimum wage has met with a flat N.O. from House Speaker John Boehner.

"Listen, when people are asking the question 'Where are the jobs?' why would we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people?" Boehner told Politico. "I've got 11 brothers and sisters on every rung of the economic ladder. I know about this issue as much as anybody in this town."

"What happens when you take the rungs away on the economic ladder, you make it harder for people to get on the ladder," the Speaker said. "Our goal is to get people on the ladder and help them climb that ladder so they can live the American dream."

Via Politico.
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Is Boehner correct that a minimum wage hike will keep people off the job ladder?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • justapirate
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    @Neo_NtheMatrix What elaboration is necessary. Obama is gonna say one thing and Boehner is gonna recite the opposite. Purely politics with little forthought.
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    Slowmo
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    @DogLady_1 ..and trying to nullify reasoning of opposing logic by saying that its simply because it came from the other team is an example of the attitude that is causing the division in this country. And hinders the possibility of constructive progress.
  • View all 10 replies >
  • gammler
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    This is a no-brainer. $9.00 p/h would price a lot of unskilled workers out of the labor market. The people who would benefit are union workers whose wages are TIED to the minimum wage.
  • gammler
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    @dances-weebles The value that unions have contributed to the American economy is yesterday's news. Today what the unions produce are rich union leaders and casinos in Las Vegas.
  • DogLady_1
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    @dances-weebles - Unions have fought for and won something within the private sector... that is far different from the federal gov't mandating wages... When you work for a private employer, what you get paid is an agreement between you and your employer... I think some people are willing to work for $5/hr if it meant getting some food on the table. Wages are a private thing... I do not support min wage laws... they artificially inflate the cost of living. If they worked, then why do we still have poor people after 40+ years of min wage laws?
  • View all 12 replies >
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    Hireman
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    A blanket raise to the unskilled workforce is inflational and counter motivational. This reduces this willingness of employers to take risks on new entrants to the workforce and rely on experienced workers with less upside. Lack of business understanding drives this.
  • u
    DapperDave
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    I don't often agree with Boehner, but I think he's right on this one. The minimum wage was never intended to be a "living wage" for adult workers, but a "stepping stone" wage to allow entry level workers - primarily teens - an opportunity to gain work experience while earning some spending money. If you want a job paying decent wages then get a decent education, or at least some decent training in a skilled trade. I realize there are developmentally challenged people who fall outside the bounds of the "to get a good job get a good education" mandate, but that is a subject for a whole other debate.
  • o
    USailCapital
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    @NormalFlora
    So you agree then Minimum is NOT a Living Wage. Damm you liberals can't make up your mind can you? If Minimum Wage is supposed to be a Living Wage, then any welfare benefits should be ceased. Can't have both, a Living Wage and Welfare. Common sense... which obviously escapes the left.

    As to affording college, most everyone has to take student loans. Obama has promised affordable no-demand loans. They get a loan, go to school, earn a higher paying job, just like everyone else. So what's your complaint now?
  • NormalFlora
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    @USailCapital Were you home schooled? I said that $14,000 a year (the current minimum wage) will NEVER allow anyone to escape from poverty. And that's why we need to raise the minimum wage. Even if they get the student loan, how do they reduce their hours in order to attend classes? You stingy bigots always chant "lazy, lazy, lazy" at anyone not fortunate enough to be born into wealth.
  • dances-weebles
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    @USailCapital everyone else, who?

    please show us where all those 'higher paying jobs' are, and how to get them not that conservative interests have farmed them all over seas. minimum wage is the livable wage for about 1/3 of the adult population... including many college graduates who can't find work due to the fact that it's no longer available for them.

    you had better leave the 'right/left' argument alone until you know what you're talking about. it's clear that you don't know the difference.
  • View all 49 replies >
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    BelinKS
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    Good. I thought it was a bad idea from the moment Obama said it. It also causes inflation, so that hike in pay really ends up doing no good. I like Boehner's explanation. Also, if you want to make more money, get a harder job. The people working their butts off at factories do no do so to make barely above minimum wage. Raising minimum wage does not mean the factory employers are going to raise their wages. Another way is to go to college or trade school while working your minimum wage job. I was married with two babies and waitressed my way through college. Sure doing things out of order made it harder for me, but I did it! If I did it, most others can too!
  • u
    Polusalo
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    I don't know about that first part. Inflation is constantly going up right now, whether the minimum wage does or not. Raising minimum wage would just help the current wages keep up with the current inflation.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
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    BelinKS
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    @Polusalo
    Only affecting minimum wage earners at first, then when the inevitable inflation because of the raise of minimum wage will hurt the people earning the new minimum wage plus everyone else. Plus, as I said, this does not mean factory workers and skilled laborers will get raises. These people working harder jobs do not do so to make barely above minimum wage. "Why should I be welding when I could get more flexible hours without the backbreaking work and just make a little less?" No raising the minimum wage! It's only meant as a start to begin with. If someone is too lazy to do the work so many others have to better their lives, they do not deserve it. If you plan on only working a minimum wage job, then get used to your parents basement. If you are having to start over, 2 jobs just like everybody else until they find a better job. It had been this way for as long as I could understand it. I'm 41. I waitressed and went to college.
  • u
    Polusalo
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    @BelinKS
    Isn't this the argument a lot of people are always making?

    "Why should I be welding when I could get more flexible hours without the backbreaking work and just make a little less?"

    So that person quits, gets an easier job making a little less, forcing the previous employer to either pick someone else who they'll quickly lose, or raise wages. What's that quote everyone keeps quoting all over Facebook and Politix?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch...

    Same principle applies. You should get paid what you're worth when you have a specific trade. If you're just a person bumming around crappy jobs and will never stop from bumming around, you should atleast be paid enough to eat.

    For the record though, before anyone gets the wrong idea. I'm not a minimum wage worker. I just remember what it was like having to work a total of 70 hours a week at two jobs just so I could have a place to live and also eat, without having to get government assistance. It was rough and if I had my way, no one would ever have to go through it.
  • View all 8 replies >
  • sevenSecrets
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    This is one of the things i heavily disagree with Obama on, and disagree with how we do the wage system of the entire nation. i manage a small business, as much as im sure the owner would love to pay all the employee's 9/hr...it would strangle us and we would be forced to fire to cut even, and then severe measure and changes will have to happen to be able to turn a profit...if we stay in business and can still supply the customer with a quality product. I also believe that it would hinder growth as well. i think the wage amount only should be placed in the hands of the congressional districts of each state...maybe even the county boards, given basic regulations by the feds (living cost, population size, land value...all factored). just my thoughts
  • WMCOL
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    Gotta keep that minimum wage down so those folks can keep qualifying for gubmint benefits. Raise it to $9 an hour and guaranteed some of their eligibility for some gubmint benefits will go away, which would save the taxpayers a little scratch, and maybe raise the price of a McDouble or Sausage Biscuit a dime.

    Mickey D could promote "a dollar and a dime gets you a McDouble".
  • u
    CaryNickel
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    Business is already cutting back employees hours in order to escape the onerous demands of ObamaCare, resulting in nothing but part time jobs that are exempt from most of the health care law's most oppressive and expensive edicts, which will force a lot of people to work two different jobs, and likely spread those jobs over 7 days a week, in order to earn a full days pay. Now Obama wants to raise minimum wage, so that business would be forced to look for ways to cut those part time jobs in order to survive and remain profitable in a continued recession. Obama has all the wrong answers to our economic problems.
  • WMCOL
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    The kind of businesses you are talking about, Walmart is at forefront, likes nothing better than a lower minimum wage so employees can keep qualifying for government services.
  • u
    Knight80
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    It's easy to get up and say raise the minimum wage. Heck it makes you look good. But as with many issues, our dear old President doesn't have a clue. When you raise minimum wage up, you also have to raise everybody else's pay as well. You can pay the unskilled worker the same as someone with some skill so you raise their pay too. Now you can't pay someone with some skill the same as someone with skills. So you raise their pay. ETC........ Does the President and his almighty followers actually think the business is going to eat the cost? Wishful thinking. That $1 menu becomes a $1.50.(EX:)You used to be able to get a burger, fry, and drink for $3, but it will now cost you $4.50. Every product at the store goes up say a quarter as well. Guess what? That extra $60 bucks a week you just got, ends up costing you $100. That raise puts you $40 in the hole for the week. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. But apparently it take being more than a President though.
  • dances-weebles
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    you're wrong, you know... minimum wage was 75¢. mcdonald's hamburgers used to be a dime and fries for a nickle... when they first started with the big mac it was 99¢ and most people thought that was outrageous. everything's gone up, and it's not due to minimum wage. wages have to keep up to what the conservative businessmen like ray crock want to grab for their substandard products. would you like to hold down the minimum wage? if so, then you'll have to convince industry to roll back all the prices to a 1970 level and increase the quality once again...

    let me know how that works for you, okay?

    .
  • u
    Knight80
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    @dances-weebles
    So you think that the companies will eat the cost too? Good luck with that. Your as clueless as our President. When you move ones pay up, the others will be raised up as well. Not only does that effect the regular pay the company pays out, but the o.t. pay as well. Once again, do you think the company is going to eat this cost? CLUELESS! The cost of EVERYTHING will go up MORE than the extra you will make. Thus you will have more people poor than they already are. Did you also notice that our dear President said "FULLTIME" workers? That means not the part time workers. This means you will have less fulltime and more part time workers. Oh that part time worker will be working less than 30 hrs to avoid the health coverage.
  • dances-weebles
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    @Knight80 btw... that's old news. actually the companies decided to move everything back to the way it was as they figured out that the new health care plan actually cost them less to pay than the money they lost by hurting their employees.

    the only thing wrong with mr, obama's health care plan is that it doesn't go far enough... and he knows this, also.(and so do you, if you think about it)
  • justapirate
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    Well, I see the same ol' arguments. No one has taken the time to look up the actual figures devoid of politics and 'translation' except me in another thread. Naivete (and party politics) runs strong in this thread, grasshopper.
  • MarkJM
    !
    Anyone with a grasp of basic economics would tell you that a minimum wage hike would hurt more than it would help. With a hike in minimum wage, yes certain employees would get a little more, but the general population would make less as a result. Those in the middle class would be bumped down the ladder because they wouldn't see a raise. When businesses see a bump in the minimum wage, they see the need to raise prices to adjust for added inflation. Businesses who have to pay more would also be forced to raise their prices. No more dollar value menus at McDonalds, they would be more like $2 value menus. Boehner is absolutely right in saying no to 0bama lame-brained idea of a minimum wage hike. Lastly, look at minimum wages in many localities, it's already higher than the proposed $9/hr. that 0bama wants. Another detail that 0bama clearly doesn't understand as I would bet Harvard did a poor job of teaching him basic economics.
  • justapirate
    !
    I guess just for the sake of argument, care to explain how Australia survives with a 17 buck minimum wage? If you listen to the anti- arguments here then the Aussies should be in foreclosure. Exceptin' they ain't.
  • MarkJM
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    @justapirate That's Australia and they have their own way of doing things. Additionally, their population is but only a fraction of ours.
  • u
    AceLuby
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    Economic consensus is that increasing minimum wage has minor, if any, negative affects on employment. For every 10% increase you'll see a decrease in teenage employment of 1% and 20-24 age employment of less than .5%, both of which have zero effect on overall unemployment rate.

    Let's also not forget that most small businesses do not have to follow the federal rate. The biggest effect it would have is places like Wal-Mart, which happens to have the highest number of employees living below the poverty line and also has the most employees using medicaid and food stamps. In fact, on the first day of employment they show you how to apply for govt benefits so that they don't have to.
  • Arumizy
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    Another job killer from Obama, saw it coming from a mile away. When the economy or if the economy recovers then we can talk about.
  • VVP
    !
    Sorry, Even though I have worked minimum wage jobs in the past and know how hard and basically impossible it is to live off of minimum wage, the simple fact is raising minimum wages NEVER help.

    All raising the minimum wage ever ends up doing is inflating the cost of everything to effectively nullify any benefit from such an increase would yield.

    Moving it from 5-7$ when they did was somewhat reasonable. It had been roughly a decade since the last increase. However trying to push it to 9 now will not accomplish anything. Prices have in fact increased since the last push, but each time it is pushed up everything else increases and to try to outpace such inflation is like a dog trying to catch its own tail.

    You want to fix the problems poor people face? Fix the problem of match inflation first before you even think of a MWI.
  • Tralee
    !
    Hiking the minimum wage always results in fewer hires and fewer young people getting part time jobs. If companies must pay the higher wage, they want experienced employees and will do more with less. This always happens. Obama is just legacy building, that's all this soaring rhetoric is about. The biggest lie was that all his pipe dreams wouldn't add once cent to the deficit, really? Are all these things free?
  • Tralee
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    @PNWest LOL - THAT study shows otherwise, the competing studies are about 50/50 with a slight edge toward my opinion. Also, most business people tell us this will be the case. And as a final point, just as unions priced themselves out of may international markets, too high of a minimum wage will price way too many youngsters out of the market. Gotta pay top dollar for inexperienced help? Then, we get the help with the most experience, not entry level employees.
  • PNWest
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    @Tralee I'm not going to argue the point as the laws of supply and demand would make you think that raise the price of labor = lower the demand for labor but studies like the one I posted indicate that at the bottom pay tier that it doesn't necessarily work that way. Even you have gone from 'always' to 50/50 on this. There are a few more variables in the equation apparently. Things aren't always black and white.
  • u
    seedtick
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    This is just one way that Barack Husssein Obama wants to make someone else pay for the high cost of living his economic policies are causing. With almost 6 million people on unemployment one would think that he could see a problem with this.
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