Minimum Wage

From Bob Geiger:

Another unfortunate milestone in the reign of George W. Bush and the recently-deposed Republican Congress was reached on Saturday when the federal minimum wage set a new record for the longest period without a raise since its establishment in 1938. As of December 2, the $5.15-per-hour wage rate has remained unchanged for nine years and three months.

More statistics/info- here.

Nancy Pelosi has reiterated that this will be the first priority of the Democratic congress.

I always hear that the conservative opposition to this... that a wage increase will actually undermine workers because businesses (to compensate for the extra cost) will either have to hire less workers and/or raise prices. I am no economist, but this to me comes off as the most backwards, nasty argument. "Why, this business may only make an $11 million profit this year instead of $16 million!!! Fuck you, socialists!!!".

First off, I seriously doubt that any business owner will go out of business by this move. Most small businesses I would bet are already paying their workers more than the minimum. The businesses that this will really affect are chain stores and/or restaurants which make such obscene profits that their CEOs should be punched for even thinking of complaining. These are also the companies that already undermine our economy through outsourcing and worker exploitation. If a company chooses to hire less people and/or raise prices because Congress forces them to treat their workers humanely, than it is the company who is at fault, not the Congress and not the workers. That's not anti-capitalism; that's just basic human dignity. It is sad that 'compassionate' conservatives would debate this.

Furthermore, raising the minimum wage has been proven to help local economies.

Secondly, if you did buy this argument, then you could never raise the minimum wage. Because the argument would always be true and you'd paying people $5.15/hour forever to avoid inflation or hiring freezes. Which is just impossible for people to live on that in 2006, let alone 2007 and beyond. Hell, even the $7.25/hour the Democrats have proposed is only marginally better for many families (but is better than no increase).

How supporting corporations over people became a conservative value, I will never know.