that we could get the house back before the elections.

Real Democratic Party legislation? We haven't seen this in a while. It has no chance but we should definitely lobby all Dems to support it.

this wont do squat imo to address the income gap of employees vs management.
Will raising the minimum wage help those at the lower end for a bit? Maybe but it wont last long because businesses will raise prices plus they will cut employees hours to the bone so any gain will be lost in order that those at the management or higher level will be the ones who still get the real money in the end.
So no, raising the minimum wage wont help much. Instead what we really need is some way to get businesses to actually step up and do the right thing themselves and close the disparity of employees vs management pay but I would not advise holding my breath on that happening anytime soon if ever.

and that is to stop buying the corporate shit...support all local business and refrain from spending you money with the big businesses.
And a plan to supplant what the sell us with what we produce ourselves and a new business model of manufacturing solely owned but the workers...
We can't kill them because they are apparently immortal but we can starve them out.

Walmart is that those companies would have to lay off even more people who would then spend less and then the places they would have spent money at would have to cut their own people and so on and so on.
Tweaks are needed though to fix the income gap but I am thinking more along the lines of tweaks such as making it so that the bigger the gap that exists in pay and perks for the executive level compared to the average worker the bigger the tax the company has to pay.

And I am not talking about a boycott...just a shift on where you spend your money....if you spend your money at a local restaurant then local restaurants will hire more people....and if you buy your food from local business and not Walmart then they too will hire more or open new businesses.
Think of it like this....if you spend your money locally no part of that goes to Walmart executives in another state or another country...but it all stays local.

For instance just a quarter mile from me is a Fruit stand...run by a local person that has an orchard....and they are carrying a lot of what I use for food...veggies and local produce and fruit...and I have noticed that lately their business is booming so much that they had to hire some local people to help out at the busy season...that puts more money in the local economy and starves the big companies...just a little but if that trend grows more local business will thrive and the big chains will wither..
I also shop at a local grocery store...and when Wall Mart came to town they predicted it would drive them out of business...but that did not happen...and in fact the local store increased it's business and is thriving.
You don't have to boycott Walmart just consciously spend your money.

It's assumed the smaller businesses won't have good deals and therefor you should shop at Wal-Mart. This is not always true. Smaller businesses are getting better at creating deals. Furthermore, smaller businesses is often where full time work is at. Big corporations like Wal-Mart are getting to where they're allergic to giving people full time hours. They want the employees to have flexible hours, but won't make up for it by giving them full time. That's a problem. Small businesses need more power.

It is but one of the essential changes that must be enacted.

with mandatory health insurance coverage.



it can be done.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/31/BA711MEVP1.DTL

This is one of the things that has made me disillusioned with both parties. All too often, they both like their wedge issues that they can bring up every few years to gin up support. One of ours has been minimum wage. I have contended that is why it has never been fought for hard by the left to have it indexed. Once that is done, it is rarely, if ever, an issue again.

Thank you to these 18 representatives for TRULY fighting for the long-term viability of the working class.

President Obama needs to PUSH and market a HUGE spending bill for infrastructure to create jobs - LOTS of jobs, and then have the Republicans filibuster it and explain to the Americans why government shouldn't be spending to help create jobs.

it was then and still is called The American Jobs Act in September of 2011 that would have created between 1.3 and 2 MILLION Jobs. And, as usually, the Repuggish Party rejected it and has since been stonewalling the heck out of; not bringing up any type of Jobs plan proposal themselves.
For the less informed, here's a link: http://www.americanjobsact.com/
For those of us who like PDF's:http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/jobs_act.pdf
For just a general explanation:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jobs_Act

since it'll be rejected by the GOP - enabled by Congressional do-nothing Democrats - anyway. As Chris Matthews said, if his bills are going to be rejected anyway, why not put out a HUGE bill filled with hundreds of billions of investment for rebuilding our infrastructure?

While pragmatic and fair, the American Jobs Bill was too small. There's no way Congress is going to approve any investment from now to November so why not go as big as he can possibly fathom? Then dare the GOP - and congressional Democrats - to sweep it under the rug. At least the American people will see where the problem lies since it's pretty clear they still don't get it.

just create a Jobs bill that's way up there in the stratosphere(very little oxygen up there), and let in come back down to where it will breathe some air... !?

This would help go a long way to doing just that.

Our party is finally bringing up bills that would actually um..I dunno, help. Rather than obsessing over deficits. This along with the Equal Pay Act would be great for our economy and our middle class.

no.

Then it would yield $31,200 a year for a 40 hour week, a living wage. Ten dollars an hour would yield $20,800 a year, which in my corner of the country wouldn't cover all basic expenses and would have to be subsidized with food stamps, Medicaid and other government help. IMHO, employers shouldn't be subsidized by government to maintain cheap labor costs except perhaps health care. Single payer health care would relieve businesses of the expense of health care benefits and worker's comp. Other than that they should be required to pay a living wage. But then my socialist way of doing things is frowned upon by the establishment.

which would be to propose the minimum wage be something crazy like $25, and then let it get "negotiated" down to $16

We've only been open six months. We pay our staff slightly over minimum wage, which is higher here than the federal minimum, but we haven't been able to take a cent out for ourselves, and are living on our savings. Doubling the minimum wage would put us out of business the same day; we wouldn't be able to open our doors.

Don't think of us as filthy capitalists; think of us as long-term unemployed trying to make ends meet.

without breaking the bank. If your business model relies on slave wages to operate then it's not a viable business. Back in the days when minimum wage was a living wage, I always managed to find a way to cover any raises in the minimum wage or other expenses, whether it was increasing business volume, raising prices or finding cash cows and other gimmicks to cover additional expenses. You need to go back to the drawing board again. You should be making money after six months in business. If not, you are doing something wrong. Of course, in a bad economy it is harder, but people do need to eat so examine your books, lurk at other establishments to see what they are doing and invent a new business plan.

Something new that people are doing here is adding gratuity on the bills. That automatically increases wages when business is brisk. You don't necessarily need for the patrons to know, just put it as part of the price and give the servers and kitchen help a percentage of each ticket. It also gives the workers an incentive to make good sales and work harder at pleasing customers. I don't mean to preach to you but really you should be making money after six months if your restaurant is one people want to go to.

On the other hand they will all vote to raise their own pay checks.

They can only raise next Congress's pay. If they so choose.

Thank you for your attention, Idiot Americans.

Go back to your favorite reality show...

view this youtube clip by Nick Hanauer, and try to understand what this "ripple" effect will be like.

It would cause Democrats to win elections in droves.

I hope you have a great day..

After the election, no matter how the election turns out, it will be back to minding only thems that gots money. That won't be us, by the way.

There has to be a real shake up of our government by the American people before anything proper will get done.

They need to reword this. All people are asking for is enough money perhour/week/month etc to be able to pay their rent,utilities,food,clothing etc and perhaps a little set aside for emergency or another vehicle or perhaps education for their offspring. They are not asking for the world. It's too bad we don't have a maximum wage for CEO's. Perhaps then they would see what it is like to know no matter how hard you work you won't be breaking even every time something goes up in price, from a pair of jeans to a box of corn flakes your buying power shrinks. The ones at the top never have this problem. They always get more money,more bonus's,more perks and when all else fails they start cutting wages and jobs at the bottom.

Are you crazy? If we pay those poor people that much, they'll have no incentive to work hard!

In MY day derision and threat of starvation worked just fine, thankyouverymuch!

it should have been tied to inflation all along.

Still not a living wage in many parts of the country, but getting closer!

A first step to recovery.

many already get it

What about those who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own? Have you seen the unemployment rates lately? For some people, minimum wage jobs might be the only jobs available to them.

Just like millions of Americans have experienced in the past few years.

Or you were set to retire only to see your nest egg obliterated by the crashing stock market and forced to work at Walmart or McDonalds just to make ends meet.

Two things.

First of all, it's not always about bad decisions. I work for a corporation that hardly pays past minimum wage at all. They're cheap. It's full time, and I have insurance, but they're cheap.

Second of all, just because somebody made some bad decisions doesn't mean they should have to suffer forever and ever. That doesn't mean to keep making bad decisions, but a person shouldn't be forever punished.

Also, there are plenty of people under thirty who have families to take care of. Ideally people wouldn't have families if they cannot support them, but A) people make stupid mistakes, B) people lose their decent paying jobs during poor economic times and have to do whatever it takes (and they should be applauded for that)

Anyway, the whole "if you make minimum wage at such-and-such age, then you deserve being poor" always rubs me the wrong way. We expect and prefer people to go out and get jobs so that they can hopefully support themselves, right? If someone loses a well paying job at age 34, it's better for them to get some sort of job, even if it's minimum wage, right? I put it in the same category of statements as those who say "people can afford their cell phones/cars/food, but they can't afford health insurance." It's stupid and short-sighted. If people do not have a phone or car, then they will find it impossible to find better employment or go to school (and work)

The point being, we expect and want people to take positive actions toward improving their situation, but attitudes like the one you demonstrate here only serve to make it more difficult for those who truly want to improve themselves.

*While I agree there are a lot of people who simply do not care about improving their position in life, I think they are a very small minority and most people want to improve.

who has never made bad decisions.

Current NMW rates in UK
There are different levels of NMW, depending on your age and whether you are an apprentice. The current rates (from 1 October 2011) are:
£6.08 - the main rate for workers aged 21 and over (approx. $9)
£4.98 - the 18-20 rate

so why can't we?

But I think some people are against it because it would encourage companies to only hire younger people, and ignore the older people who may have just got laid off and need something. The argument being that someone who is older and perhaps needing to support a family would benefit more from the job than some kid in high school who just needs extra spending money....

Hello, I'm new here and I'm trying to regain control of my life after spending last year spending all my savings and doing minimum wage jobs in various cities while being an activist in various Occupy cities like NYC and Boston.

Take it from me, you can't live on minimum wage and I'm not even supporting a family. The necessities of life have changed and it now includes such vital tools as a cell phone and transportation.

The 1%ers want to keep us down while they wallow in their greed. I'm very disheartened by the 1%ers taking Wisconsin away from us. It's shear evil that they want to keep us at poverty levels with a wage that is life threatening. I got a college degree 3 years ago and the best work I can find is minimum wage at restaurants or cashier jobs. Im working at a nonunion grocery store in a wealthier neighborhood and it pains me to see people buy expensive steaks and bottles of pomegranate juice while I'm living off of frozen spinach and pasta. It's not fair.

There are millions of 99%ers like me all over the country who are very committed to making fairness an issue. We can't continue to live like this. A good start would be a real living wage.

So, how does a living wage work? I like the idea, but I don't see how it could work because companies will continue to raise their prices and fire people to make up for what they're losing.

We know the companies will try to make up for what's lost. They'll fire people. They'll cut hours. They'll raise prices. They'll take more jobs overseas.

What we really need to do to help the poor and others is to get those gas prices down.