New state laws raise the minimum wage, etc

[Kurtz]

For hundreds of thousands of minimum-wage workers around the country, the new year brings a raise. Musicians worried about copycats get some protection in Illinois. And California takes steps to reduce the power-plant pollution that is believed to contribute to global warming.

Jan. 1 brings new laws in many states, offering both a glimpse of what is on the voters' minds and a preview of some of the issues Washington might take up. Many states take action long before Congress does.

Seven states — Arizona, California, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — are raising their minimum wage. The federal minimum is $5.15 an hour. The new wages go as high as $7.50 an hour.

"We've made Massachusetts the best state to live in for struggling working families," said Carl Nilsson, an activist for poor people, citing the higher minimum wage and an earlier state law that requires health care insurance for all.

In Illinois, copycat musical groups who misrepresent themselves as the original artists will face fines of up to $50,000. The new law requires live acts to make it clear in their advertising that they are a salute or a tribute to the real thing.

"From now on when the public goes to a rock 'n' roll show in the area, they can be sure the artist is the original, and not some rip-off band," said Mary Wilson of The Supremes. Supporters are pushing for similar laws in every state.

Frustrated by what some see as inaction in Washington, California passed a law that seeks to force coal-burning plants in the western U.S. to install cleaner technology if they want to sell power in the nation's most populous state.

States also dealt with immigration (Nurses from other countries must have English language proficiency to practice in South Carolina), eminent domain (Illinois requires local governments to pay more and meet a higher legal threshold before seizing private property), and campaign finance (North Carolina and Pennsylvania set stricter rules).

Alaska will provide school systems with training to help prevent bullying, while South Carolina will require districts to adopt policies barring harassment, intimidation or bullying.

"We were getting too many complaints from parents that their children were being bullied and intimidated," said state Rep. Robert Walker. They were "fearing to go to school."

Crime and punishment, as always, were high on the agenda. Wisconsin took steps to guard against wrongful convictions by requiring law enforcement agencies to record all interrogations of felony suspects, with either video or audio.

Alabama and West Virginia cut taxes on the poorest, and North Carolina lowered taxes on the highest earners. New York and Oklahoma dropped the so-called marriage penalty that imposed higher taxes on married couples than on single people. South Dakota and Texas raised taxes on cigarettes.

Georgia increased from 13 to 29 the number of screening tests performed on newborns to detect life-threatening metabolic and genetic disorders. Massachusetts' new health care law hits a new milestone, allowing those earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level to buy into subsidized plans. (Those at or below the poverty level are already being signed up for virtually free health care).

In Indiana, a new license plate featuring the American flag and the words "In God We Trust" will be available at no extra charge. Rep. Woody Burton, the sponsor, predicted they will "sell like crazy.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_us/new_laws

[Dano]

Say goodby to summer jobs, teenagers.

[FunDeeMental]

Who even goes to "rock and roll shows" anymore anyway? :snicker

[Saguaro]

For hundreds of thousands of minimum-wage workers around the country, the new year brings a raise. Musicians worried about copycats get some protection in Illinois. And California takes steps to reduce the power-plant pollution that is believed to contribute to global warming.

Jan. 1 brings new laws in many states, offering both a glimpse of what is on the voters' minds and a preview of some of the issues Washington might take up. Many states take action long before Congress does.

Seven states — Arizona, California, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — are raising their minimum wage. The federal minimum is $5.15 an hour. The new wages go as high as $7.50 an hour.

"We've made Massachusetts the best state to live in for struggling working families," said Carl Nilsson, an activist for poor people, citing the higher minimum wage and an earlier state law that requires health care insurance for all.

In Illinois, copycat musical groups who misrepresent themselves as the original artists will face fines of up to $50,000. The new law requires live acts to make it clear in their advertising that they are a salute or a tribute to the real thing.

"From now on when the public goes to a rock 'n' roll show in the area, they can be sure the artist is the original, and not some rip-off band," said Mary Wilson of The Supremes. Supporters are pushing for similar laws in every state.

Frustrated by what some see as inaction in Washington, California passed a law that seeks to force coal-burning plants in the western U.S. to install cleaner technology if they want to sell power in the nation's most populous state.

States also dealt with immigration (Nurses from other countries must have English language proficiency to practice in South Carolina), eminent domain (Illinois requires local governments to pay more and meet a higher legal threshold before seizing private property), and campaign finance (North Carolina and Pennsylvania set stricter rules).

Alaska will provide school systems with training to help prevent bullying, while South Carolina will require districts to adopt policies barring harassment, intimidation or bullying.

"We were getting too many complaints from parents that their children were being bullied and intimidated," said state Rep. Robert Walker. They were "fearing to go to school."

Crime and punishment, as always, were high on the agenda. Wisconsin took steps to guard against wrongful convictions by requiring law enforcement agencies to record all interrogations of felony suspects, with either video or audio.

Alabama and West Virginia cut taxes on the poorest, and North Carolina lowered taxes on the highest earners. New York and Oklahoma dropped the so-called marriage penalty that imposed higher taxes on married couples than on single people. South Dakota and Texas raised taxes on cigarettes.

Georgia increased from 13 to 29 the number of screening tests performed on newborns to detect life-threatening metabolic and genetic disorders. Massachusetts' new health care law hits a new milestone, allowing those earning up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level to buy into subsidized plans. (Those at or below the poverty level are already being signed up for virtually free health care).

In Indiana, a new license plate featuring the American flag and the words "In God We Trust" will be available at no extra charge. Rep. Woody Burton, the sponsor, predicted they will "sell like crazy.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_us/new_laws


:confused

[TrueBlue]

Oh, is that why we keep minimum wage low? A kindness to teenagers? :think

[Dano]

Oh, is that why we keep minimum wage low? A kindness to teenagers? :think

Teenagers, and those who do not have the skills/training to provide enough value to a job to make it worthwhile to spend that kind of money on them.

The minimum wage is heavily supported by unions, who will argue that with an increase in the minimum wage, their members should also get an increase.

This move will cost a lot of people dearly as jobs are eliminated because they just aren't worth the price of having them done.

[TrueBlue]

Teenagers, and those who do not have the skills/training to provide enough value to a job to make it worthwhile to spend that kind of money on them.

The minimum wage is heavily supported by unions, who will argue that with an increase in the minimum wage, their members should also get an increase.

This move will cost a lot of people dearly as jobs are eliminated because they just aren't worth the price of having them done.

I have certainly heard that rationale before.

However, we seem to need warm bodies to fill jobs. The same thing is predicted with every minimum wage increase, but things seem to go on as usual. :shrug

[Wabash]

I have certainly heard that rationale before.

However, we seem to need warm bodies to fill jobs. The same thing is predicted with every minimum wage increase, but things seem to go on as usual. :shrug

Yes, they do, prices of everything goes up, available jobs go down.....more and more folks I know are paying friends and family under the table....

[TrueBlue]

Raising the minimum wage isn't simply about the price of labor. It's also about our respect for labor. One of this country's greatest business innovators, Henry Ford, made history almost a century ago by raising the salaries of his production-line workers far beyond the prevailing wage. Ford not only paid his employees well enough to buy the products they built, but he kept his employees loyal and productive. That's also very good business.

The myth that raising the minimum wage will lead to job cuts is just that: a myth. In fact, research suggests just the opposite. According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, since 1998, states with higher minimum wages experienced better job growth than states paying only the federal minimum wage. Among small retail businesses in those higher minimum-wage states, job growth was double the rest of the country.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/20/dobbs.june21/index.html

[Kurtz]

Yes, they do, prices of everything goes up, available jobs go down.....more and more folks I know are paying friends and family under the table....
Do you mean they are breakin' the law? :lol

[Dano]

The U.S. Department of Labor reports: "According to Current Population Survey estimates for 2004, some 73.9 million American workers were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.8 percent of all wage and salary workers. Of those paid by the hour, 520,000 were reported as earning exactly $5.15." (http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2004.htm#2)

Workers earning the minimum wage or less tend to be young, single workers between the ages of 16 and 25. Only about two percent of workers over 25 years of age earn minimum wages.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Sixty-three percent of minimum wage workers receive raises within one year of employment, and only 15 percent still earn the minimum wage after three years. Furthermore, only 5.3 percent of minimum wage earners are from households below the official poverty line; forty percent of minimum wage earners live in households with incomes $60,000 and higher; and, over 82 percent of minimum wage earners do not have dependents.

The U.S. Department of Labor also reports that the "proportion of hourly-paid workers earning the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less has trended downward since 1979."

Another issue that's not often taken into consideration is there's a difference between what a worker takes home in pay and his total compensation. Employers must pay for legally required worker benefits that include Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, health and disability insurance benefits, and whatever paid leave benefits they offer, such as vacations, holidays and sick leave. It's tempting to think of higher minimum wages as an anti-poverty weapon, but such an idea doesn't even pass the smell test. After all, if higher minimum wages could cure poverty, we could easily end worldwide poverty simply by telling poor nations to legislate higher minimum wages.

Poor people are not poor because of low wages. For the most part, they're poor because of low productivity, and wages are connected to productivity. The effect of minimum wages is that of causing unemployment among low-skilled workers. If an employer must pay $5.15 an hour, plus mandated fringes that might bring the employment cost of a worker to $7 an hour, does it pay him to hire a person who is so unfortunate as to have skills that permit him to produce only $4 worth of value per hour? Most employers would view hiring such a person as a losing economic proposition.

Two important surveys of academic economists were reported in two issues of the American Economic Review, May 1979 and May 1992. In one survey, 90 percent, and in the other 80 percent, of economists agreed that increasing the minimum wage causes unemployment among youth and low-skilled workers.

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/06/folly.html

[TrueBlue]

Minimum wage workers tend to be young. About half of all hourly-paid workers earning $5.15 or less were under age 25, and about one-fourth were age 16-19. Among teenagers, about 9 percent earned $5.15 or less. About 2 percent of workers age 25 and over earned the minimum wage or less. Among those age 65 and over, the proportion was 4 percent. (See table 1 and table 7.)

About half of all hourly workers earning $5.15 or less are under age 25.

About two percent of workers age 25 and over earned minimum wage or less.

:think

[Dano]

This isn't higher math...........

Teenagers (and early 20's) will have trouble finding summer jobs. I said that didn't I? They make up half of the minimum wage earners.

Translated;
An increase in the minimum wage will affect only 2% of the (adult) workforce.
But people above the MW will see their wages increase (re; Union arguements), which results in a status quo - with inflation.

[TrueBlue]

This isn't higher math...........

Teenagers (and early 20's) will have trouble finding summer jobs. I said that didn't I? They make up half of the minimum wage earners.

Translated;
An increase in the minimum wage will affect only 2% of the (adult) workforce.
But people above the MW will see their wages increase (re; Union arguements), which results in a status quo - with inflation.

So who are the other half of minimum wage earners?