About 2 million Americans get a raise Thursday as the federal minimum wage rises 70 cents. The bad news: Higher gas and food prices are swallowing it up, and some small businesses will pass the cost of the wage hike to consumers.
A North Carolina waitress on Saturday lauded the Democratic-initiated increase in the minimum wage, saying in the party's weekly radio address that the extra money will have a ripple effect on millions of lives.
The nation's lowest-paid workers will soon find extra money in their pockets as the minimum wage rises 70 cents to $5.85 an hour on Tuesday, the first increase in a decade.
Fast-food waitress Fawn Townsend of Raleigh, N.C., knows exactly what she is going to do if her salary goes up with Tuesday's increase in the federal minimum wage: start saving for a car so she can find a second job to make ends meet.
America's lowest-paid workers won a $2.10 raise Thursday, with Congress approving the first increase in the federal minimum wage in almost a decade.
Increasing the minimum wage should be easy for a Congress controlled by Democrats, especially with President Bush's pledge of support.
House tax writers will consider small business tax cuts worth $1.3 billion over 10 years in hopes of freeing minimum wage legislation currently stuck in an impasse between the House and Senate.
Low-wage workers will have to wait to see an increase in the minimum wage, a Democratic priority now caught in a party dispute over business tax breaks.
Republicans are warning Democrats not to tamper with Senate-passed minimum wage legislation, saying the bill's mix of $8.3 billion in tax breaks and a $2.10 an hour wage hike offers the right economic and political balance.
Democrats' promise of a quick increase in the minimum wage ran aground Wednesday in the Senate, where lawmakers are insisting it include new tax breaks for restaurants and other businesses that rely on low-pay workers.
Tax breaks aimed at easing the burden of a minimum-wage increase on small businesses sailed through the Senate's tax-writing committee Wednesday.
House-passed legislation boosting the federal minimum wage moves to the Senate, where Democrats intend to add billions of dollars in tax breaks to make it easier for business to swallow.
Tackling a top priority, House Democrats pushed a $2.10 an hour increase in the federal minimum wage toward passage Wednesday, calling it only a partial restoration of purchasing power for America's lowest-paid workers.
Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to fast-track efforts to boost the federal minimum wage and could seek to bring a bill directly to the House floor in January.
Ethics reform, a higher minimum wage and more money for stem cell research are the top items on the Senate agenda next year, incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.
It looks like full steam ahead for a significant boost to the federal minimum wage when Democrats assume control of Congress in January.
More than 650 economists, including five winners of the Nobel Prize for economics, called Wednesday for an increase in the minimum wage, saying the value of the last increase, in 1997, has been "fully eroded."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Tuesday to give California one of the highest minimum wages in the nation.
Both Democrats and Republicans insist they emerged as winners from last week's failed GOP effort to cut taxes on multimillion dollar estates and raise the minimum wage.
A bill combining an estate tax cut with a boost in the federal minimum wage, an election-year combination engineered by Republicans, may see another vote this fall.
Republicans muscled the first minimum wage increase in a decade through the House early Saturday after pairing it with a cut in inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates.
House Republican leaders, giving in to political reality, plan a vote to raise the $5.15 minimum wage before leaving Washington this weekend for a five-week recess.
Democrats gained some traction in their election-year campaign to raise the minimum wage Wednesday when 64 Republicans joined in a symbolic vote supporting more money for the nation's lowest-paid workers.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, viewed as Democrats' presidential front-runner, roused a crowd of 3,000 activists Monday with calls for higher wages, better health care and fairer elections.
Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, a potential 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, told supporters of a ballot issue to increase the state's minimum wage that a hike in Ohio would be the first step toward increasing wages across the nation.
An uncommon protest: all the cool kids are doing it. ;) "Taking your clothes off outside 10 days before Christmas shows real conviction."
Though Obama caried a smal portion of the South, nearly all of it went to McCain who used unfounded fear (of Obama and terrorists), guilt by association ( however loose ), name-calling ("(terrorist"), flawed logic (the surge brought peace to the "Sunshine" movement, and allo …
The redistribution of wealth is definitely the buzz phrase of the week. It is such a hot topic you can hardly turn on a news program without hearing the phrase shouted from the rooftops by at least one right wing mouth piece.
More than 100 daily newspapers have endorsed Obama this year. Among the latest is one of the newspapers that knows Obama best - his hometown Chicago Tribune. It is the first time in the Tribune's 161-year history that the paper has endorsed a Democrat.
One of our most gifted satirists on the NewsVine, Ian Walter, recently wrote a piece fantasizing about exacting a bit of revenge on the CEOs involved in the recent Congressional bailout of big business.
Here they are, see for yourself! Barack Obama's voting record from votesmart.org and... John McCain's voting record from votesmart.org. ******************************************
Obama also talks about "restoring fairness to the economy," code for soaking the "rich" — a segment of society he fails to understand that includes mom-and-pop businesses filing individual tax returns.
Wisconsin's minimum wage would increase to $7.25 per hour next July to match the federal rate under a proposal subject to a public hearing this week. The state Department of Workforce Development wants to raise the state's minimum wage from the current $6.50 per hour.
An explanation of the harm done by the minimum wage.
Differing political factions are already at each other's throats over the July 24th raising of the federal minimum wage to $6.55 per hour.
About 2 million Americans get a raise Thursday as the federal minimum wage rises 70 cents. The bad news: Higher gas and food prices are swallowing it up, and some small businesses will pass the cost of the wage hike to consumers.
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to pay thousands of state employees the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour until lawmakers reach a deal on California's overdue state budget.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans next week to slash the pay of more than 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum of $6.55 per hour to deal with the state's budget crisis, according to a draft executive order obtained by the Chronicle today.
A SYRIAN lorry driver swapped the Rock of Gibraltar for Gibraltar Point, Skegness, when his sat nav took him 1,600 miles in the wrong direction.
More than a million low-wage workers will get a pay raise this week.
It should surprise no one, at this point, that an arm of the Bush administration charged with protecting Americans' rights or safety is not doing its job.
From the NYT: At the height of the Great Depression, industry convinced President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress to enact a law allowing companies to collude to drive up prices.
At the height of the Great Depression, industry convinced President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress to enact a law allowing companies to collude to drive up prices.
According to economist David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine, for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, employment for high school dropouts and young black adults and teenagers falls by 8.5 percent.
The news that the unemployment rate jumped half a percentage point in May has certainly received plenty of coverage in the news. A closer look at the data reveals some interesting sub-plots.
CIBC has recently predicted that gas prices in the United States could hit seven dollars a gallon in four years, rumors of gas hitting $7 a gallon by the end of this year are flying, though I haven't been able to find a reputable source for this information.
Description: This site is "a resource center, a salary-checker and a tool for helping American workers understand more about pay and work life." Find state-by-state minimum wage and tax information, career tips and job search advice, and information about V.I.P salaries.
"The proposal is unworkable, un-American, impractical and dangerous to our institutions," said Representative Wade Kitchens, a Democrat from Arkansas, during the Congressional debate over the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The Federal Government has dismissed criticism by the Opposition that it has not said how much the minimum wage should be raised.
Gordon Brown has announced that the national minimum wage will rise by 21p to £5.73 an hour from October. The move will boost the pay of almost a million workers across the country.