That is the minimum wage in this country.
I saw this story over at Huffington Post about Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.
"'The Last Word' host Lawrence O'Donnell challenged Steele to defend Alaska Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller's assertion that the minimum wage is unconstitutional, according to a rush transcript blasted out by MSNBC and reproduced below. 'I had a minimum wage job once, and I had trouble living on that,' O'Donnell said when Steele tried to deflect the line of questioning."
Of course most people don't know what the minimum wage is especially Republicans who think it's unconstitutional! I wonder if they feel the same about child labor laws and unsafe work environments, after all these kinds of provisions aren't specifically addressed in the Constitution.
For the record, in Oklahoma, it can be worse. The minimum wage for a service industry job such as waiting tables or bartending is $2.13 an hour. Talk about the public subsidizing wages! The last bartending gig I had paid me $5.00 an hour and I was ecstatic to make that much.
So the question of the day is this: have you ever worked for a minimum wage job and lived comfortably (many conservatives believe that only school age kids work for this wage) and do you believe the government should control such a wage? Is Michael Steele correct in asserting that creating jobs is more important than worrying about wages? I'm sure given the chance large and small businesses alike would do the right thing, no?
2 comments:
I lived on minimum wage when it was was less than what it is now. It's tough. No comfort about it. The minimum wage needs to be raised but if that happens, companies will layoff more workers, prices of everything will go up to cover the cost of having to pay more to workers. Creating jobs is important but so is making it possible to survive on your paycheck
Oh Matt, you're worth every penny of $2.13 an hour!!
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