Senate votes against House minimum wage bill.

[harveyc]

The Congress can't come to an agreement on this? More tax cuts?

--- 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.

On a 54-43 vote, liberals lost an effort to advance a House-passed bill that would lift the pay floor from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour without any accompanying tax cut. Opponents of the tax cut needed 60 votes to prevail.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8MRPDR83.htm

[Deep13]

1. So who will be on record against this in '08?

I sure wouldn't mind expanding our majority.

[maddezmom]

4. more discussion here if you want to check it out

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2701590&mesg_id=2701590

[harveyc]

8. Thanks and sorry ...

if I had seen that I wouldn't have started this thread. :(

[Ian David]

2. We should now introduce an identical bill to raise it to $7.30 an hour.

If it's voted down again, we'll raise it to $7.35 an hour.

[LeahMira]

6. I like how you think!

;)

[ieoeja]

11. We have to restore the lost tax base.

Increasing the minimum wage to $7.25 would have increased the tax base (fed, state and local). Cutting taxes as the Republics want will decrease the benefits of raising the minimum wage. So it only makes sense that if we give the Republics the tax cuts they want, they give us an even greater minimum wage to get that tax base up where we wanted it.

I don't think $7.35 is going to do that. So lets get it up there around $10.00.


Actually, last time I changed jobs I did what you're saying. When their offer was about 40% lower than my asking price I increased my asking price. It took them several weeks to reach my original asking price by which time I my asking price had almost doubled ... but I then agreed to honor my original offer. The original offer really was WAY too low according to the market research I did. In fact, my argument during re-hiring was so effective the firm conducted a salary review and a year later raised everyone else's salaries within the department by 20-30%. Which finally brought to end a period of several years in which new employee retention averaged less than 3 months.

For some reason, "why don't we raise salaries" is rarely the solution a company thinks of even though it is often the only solution.

[LeahMira]

3. If the Senate believes

that the economy is so stagnant that small business owners won't be able to handle a $2.10 increase for their workers over the next few years, our economy is REALLY in trouble.

[wakeme2008]

5. Reid from the start wanted a minimum SMALL business tax cut

to use against Bush and to get Repug votes. I think he knew what he was doing...

[oasis]

7. The GOP cruisin' for another bruisin' in '08.

[katsy]

9. And they don't care how many people fall through the cracks

in those to 2 years. Or how many children go hungry or turn to crime.

:cry:

[Orangepeel]

10. Obstructionists!

We need a finger pointing smilie.