Minimum Wage Hits $9.50 in Santa Fe
January 26th, 2006
www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5191
This month, in the liberal bastion of Santa Fe, New Mexico, they are raising the minimum wage in the city to $9.50 per hour. The measure applies to all businesses with 25 or more employees.

The driving force behind this decision was Acorn, the “national community organization,” as Jon Gertner describes it in The New York Times Magazine for January 15, 2006.

Acorn has discovered that the way to win on the minimum wage issue is to cast it not as an economic issue but as a moral issue. When Santa Fe’s City Council got a round table of nine residents to “settle the specifics of the proposed living-wage law” they found that  

“What really got the other side was when we said, ‘It’s just immoral to pay people $5.15, they can’t live on that.”  

On February 26, 2003, the council voted to “set a wage floor at $8.50 an hour,” increasing to $9.50 in January 2006 and $10.50 in 2008 for businesses employing 25 or more people.

So liberals believe in legislating morality after all.  They just draw the line at other people legislating morality.

Jen Kern isn’t just any old activist for Acorn.  In a 2002 Christian Science Monitor article she’s identified as “executive director of the Living Wage Resource Center for the  Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).”

“ACORN is a grassroots political organization that grew out of George Wiley’s National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO),” according to Discover the Networks.

“Today it claims 175,000 dues-paying member families, and more than 850 chapters in 70 U.S. cities.”  

It runs schools to teach children its philosophy of class warfare.  Its finances are rather murky, but it is believed to get a lot of money from labor unions to fund Jan Kern’s living wage program.  In return, it usually manages to exempt union members from the minimum wage laws that it sponsors, and in 1995 sued in California to have its own employees exempted from California’s minimum wage laws. And, of course, in the 2004 election cycle ACORN’s

“get-out-the-vote activists turned up at the center of numerous reports of voter fraud, especially in the swing states of Ohio, Colorado, Missouri Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Minnesota.”

The problem with minimum-wage laws, as ACORN lawyers argued in their brief in California state courts, is that

“the more that ACORN must pay each individual outreach worker, . . . the fewer outreach workers it will be able to hire.”  

Economists have done a pretty thorough job analyzing the phenomenon too, and they agree with ACORN.  Writes Thomas Sowell, economist:

[M]inimum wage laws in countries around the world protect higher-paid workers from the competition of lower paid workers… the net economic effect of minimum wage laws is to make less skilled, less experienced, or otherwise less desired workers more expensive—thereby pricing many of them out of jobs.

When Jen Kern gets Santa Fe to raise the minimum wage up to $9.50 and soon to $10.80 she is getting the city to saw off the bottom rungs of the employment ladder.  Marginal, entry-level workers that aren’t worth $9.50 an hour for an employer to train—well they just won’t be able to find a job, not in liberal Santa Fe.  Maybe they can take the bus to the red state of Texas and get a job there.

Let us relate this issue to Lee Harris and his analysis of the world-historical conflict between the productive western team and the “eternal gang of ruthless men” in his book Civilization and Its Enemies. For two hundred years the United States has offered a means for people, usually peasants, to escape from under the knout of their local gang of landowners to the world of trust and teamwork in the city, the promised land where a man need not shelter in dependency and clientage under a powerful lord but may prosper merely by offering his skills and talent on the labor market.

Along that road to the middle class the peasant encounters the roadside stalls of various hucksters hawking a variety of social and political institutions to help them on their way.  The offerings range from the predatory gang to the self-governing team.  There is the stall of the city street gang, the city political machine, the radical activist group, and the labor union.  Then there is the enthusiastic church, the fraternal lodge, the self-governing association.  Which one will the traveler choose?

Many immigrants to America have started out life in the new world by subordinating themselves to a criminal gang or city machine or to a radical political group like ACORN.  That is their right.  The glory of America is that, any time they are ready, they can climb out of the desert of the gang culture for the sunny green uplands of the productive team.  

Except in Santa Fe.

I haven't made minimum wage since I was 17.

Minimum wage is for teenagers and fucking filthy illegal aliens, no normal person is supposed to live on that. And why is that every poor dumb mother fucker, like illegal aliens are always the ones with a shit load of fucking rug rats and therefore just expect to make a living wage?

hell, let's just raise it to $50,000 a year and everyone will be happy!

Quoted: I haven't made minimum wage since I was 17. Minimum wage is for teenagers and fucking filthy illegal aliens, no normal person is supposed to live on that. And why is that every poor dumb mother fucker, like illegal aliens are always the ones with a shit load of fucking rug rats and therefore just expect to make a living wage?

Preach on Brother!  

Quoted: [This month, in the liberal bastion of Santa Fe, New Mexico, they are raising the minimum wage in the city to $9.50 per hour. The measure applies to all businesses with 25 or more employees.

I wonder how they arrived at THAT threshhold, and how many employers will keep themselves at 24 employees.........

Probably not many Lib/Hippie owned art galleries , Head shops, basket and pottery shops that employ even 24 people.

Lower the cost of living in that POS city and they won't have to set the wage at that level.  I know some people that run a restaurant there and they can't make any money when you have to pay that amount to even the lowest level employee.

Quoted: Lower the cost of living in that POS city and they won't have to set the wage at that level.  I know some people that run a restaurant there and they can't make any money when you have to pay that amount to even the lowest level employee.

Usually restaurant employees have their own minimum wage scale becuase they are making $$ from tips.

I'm sure the people in Santa Fe who worked to better themselves and get jobs earning more than Minimum Wage are loving it.

They should fucking abolish the minimum wage.

I have never made minimum wage.

Quoted: Quoted: I haven't made minimum wage since I was 17. Minimum wage is for teenagers and fucking filthy illegal aliens, no normal person is supposed to live on that. And why is that every poor dumb mother fucker, like illegal aliens are always the ones with a shit load of fucking rug rats and therefore just expect to make a living wage? Preach on Brother!

Indeed. I earned minimum wage when I started flipping burgers in high school, but that lasted all of two months before I got a raise. Who stays at minimum wage if they do good work?!?

Quoted: I'm sure the people in Santa Fe who worked to better themselves and get jobs earning more than Minimum Wage are loving it. They should fucking abolish the minimum wage.

Correct, there is a wage credit. For example, Florida's wage credit is #3.02, so instead of paying our waiters and busboys $6.40 an hour, we only have to pay at $3.38 an hour. Just think, last May, we were only obligated to $2.13 an hour.

Quoted: I have never made minimum wage.

Me either.  My first job was at a grocery store.  I asked for a quarter more than their offer of minimum wage.  I got it and every other raise I asked for throughout high school. My negotiation skills began early.

What's in Santa Fe anyway?
I never been but I thought it was a yuppie tourist town, pretty much all faggy art galleries and overpriced ethnic food shops and they don't want tacky fast-food joints ruining the decorum anyway....  
~

Usually restaurant employees have their own minimum wage scale becuase they are making $$ from tips.

Only waitresses.  Most of the employees of a restaurant are subject to minimum wage laws.  That includes cooks, some servers, bakers, hostesses, dishwashers, bus boys, and some management.  I do books for several restaurants, and by far most of their employees do not make tips and are paid minimum wage or above.  Jacking-up the minimum wage to this high amount would probably close most of them.  They're all barely getting by as it is now.z

Gotta be enough to raise a family on

Not when your (immediate) family has 42 members and remember Western Union takes a cut, too.



ETA: As does Vicente Fox if he catches a whiff of the greenbacks.

Quoted: Minimum Wage Hits $9.50 in Santa Fe January 26th, 2006 www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5191 This month, in the liberal bastion of Santa Fe, New Mexico, they are raising the minimum wage in the city to $9.50 per hour. The measure applies to all businesses with 25 or more employees. ........................ Acorn has discovered that the way to win on the minimum wage issue is to cast it not as an economic issue but as a moral issue.

So he's saying it is moral for a business with 24 to pay 5.15 but immoral for an outfit with 25 on payroll? Dayum.

Good job...now the company that had 27 employees yesterday will have 24 today. Guess the minimum wage for those other 3 employees is now $0.

Quoted: What's in Santa Fe anyway? I never been but I thought it was a yuppie tourist town, pretty much all faggy art galleries and overpriced ethnic food shops and they don't want tacky fast-food joints ruining the decorum anyway....   ~

Pretty much.

I used to live in Santa Fe for college.  I liked it.  Shitty drivers, but real nice country.  Santa Fe is kind of silly with all the new-agey stuff and other pretentious stuff but that didn't bother me too much.  As for their minimum wage, the leftists with that ACORN group (didn't know they agitated for this kind of stuff, usually they're in the business of cheating in elections to get Democrats elected) are not really accomplishing anything but making it harder for people to get entry-level jobs and raising the prices of services for everyone in Santa Fe.  Way to go.

In other news, "Businesses leaving Santa Fe in droves", and "Big mac value meal raised to $10.50 at Santa Fe Mcdonalds"

There shouldn't be any minimum wage!

Quoted: There shouldn't be any minimum wage!

racist!





ha, ha; DUers, I beat ya to it!




</kidding>

They are already paying $8.50, a dollar increase is not very much

I wonder how high the prices are there already
Here in Texas low paid workers make $6-7.50hr

$10 is usually for a job with at least some sort of skill\experience,
or one with hard labor\bad work conditions

The funny thing is that people making 50% more than minimum wage here
will wind up making minimum wage if the same increases are voted in here
The employers are not likely to be in a big hurry to give them $3\hr raises

Quoted: ...Minimum wage is for teenagers and fucking filthy illegal aliens...

Oooh sorry, wrong answer.Johnny, show him what he almost won.

Minimum wage has damn little to do with teenagers and illegal aliens. However it directly affects UNION CONTRACTS which are all negotiated as an amount over minimum wage. Whatever "chip" or "chico" makes is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall effect this will have on their economy.

The market will adjust itself for this soon enough, and they'll be back to square one only at a higher price.

Quoted: Quoted: ...Minimum wage is for teenagers and fucking filthy illegal aliens... Oooh sorry, wrong answer.Johnny, show him what he almost won. Minimum wage has damn little to do with teenagers and illegal aliens. However it directly affects UNION CONTRACTS which are all negotiated as an amount over minimum wage. Whatever "chip" or "chico" makes is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall effect this will have on their economy. The market will adjust itself for this soon enough, and they'll be back to square one only at a higher price.

Could it be that you might both be right? The grassroots efforts SPECIFICALLY address the
"illegals immigrants can't support a family or buy a house on $6.50\hr" aspect of low earners

That is going to put some buisnesses under.

Max

Quoted: Quoted: ...Minimum wage is for teenagers and fucking filthy illegal aliens... Oooh sorry, wrong answer.Johnny, show him what he almost won. Minimum wage has damn little to do with teenagers and illegal aliens. However it directly affects UNION CONTRACTS which are all negotiated as an amount over minimum wage. Whatever "chip" or "chico" makes is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall effect this will have on their economy. The market will adjust itself for this soon enough, and they'll be back to square one only at a higher price.

Yep, the prices will adjust and the minimum wagers will have exactly the same buying power they had at their previous pay - everyone else making this amount or more before the new minimum took effect just took a step backward with there buying power (unless they all get raises too which is highly unlikely). Just one more step on the socialist ladder to (economic) equality for all - no matter what you do.

I wasn't saying that minimum wage was specifically set up for teenagers and illegal aliens.

I'm saying jobs that pay that are for teenagers and illegal aliens, because no self respecting adult would take a job for that pay.

22bad is right though, and along the lines that I was thinking, the Libtards talk about it as though it's supposed to be the minimum wage you need to have a new car, a house and to support 8 kids.

So actually I'm not really wrong, maybe just misunderstood.

I'm well aware of the opposite affect raising minimum wage actually creates. It even lessens my buying power even though I make nowhere near minimum wage.

Quoted: I'm saying jobs that pay that are for teenagers and illegal aliens, because no self respecting adult would take a job for that pay.

I just want to point out that while a FEW individuals might be FORCED into situations
where they might have to do this short term, that is true for the mass majority of people

IF YOU WANT TO RAISE A FAMILY AND DRIVE A CAR YOU SHOULD HAVE MORE EARNING POWER
(but, fear not, the libs are on the way to make "housing affordable", pc will be the death of our country)

Quoted: 22bad is right though, and along the lines that I was thinking, the Libtards talk about it as though it's supposed to be the minimum wage you need to have a new car, a house and to support 8 kids.

And thats actually what they refer to as the living wage. Not exactly the same as  a minimum wage, although some of the living wage folks try to use it interchangibly.

Quoted: Quoted: 22bad is right though, and along the lines that I was thinking, the Libtards talk about it as though it's supposed to be the minimum wage you need to have a new car, a house and to support 8 kids. And thats actually what they refer to as the living wage. Not exactly the same as  a minimum wage, although some of the living wage folks try to use it interchangibly.

Isn't that the purpose of this whole thing, to turn the minimum wage into a living wage?

Quoted: Indeed. I earned minimum wage when I started flipping burgers in high school, but that lasted all of two months before I got a raise. Who stays at minimum wage if they do good work?!?

I had a friend that worked at a bar and grill as a dish cleaner. He worked as a dish cleaner for about a month, then his boss made him cook... without the extra money in his paycheck. Not once in the next 8 months did he get one single raise - even after asking his boss dozens of times. He quit after about 9 months when his boss cut down his hours to 2 hours a week at $5.50. He had to have money for college, no way was he going to be able to do it under that cheapskate's management.

Quoted: I'm saying jobs that pay that are for teenagers and illegal aliens, because no self respecting adult would take a job for that pay.

What the hell are you talking about? That statement is ignorant as hell.

What if your company laid you indefinately off and you started having bills piling up? Working at McDonald's/other minium wage jobs is better than sitting on your ass and collecting unemployment.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I haven't made minimum wage since I was 17. Minimum wage is for teenagers and fucking filthy illegal aliens, no normal person is supposed to live on that. And why is that every poor dumb mother fucker, like illegal aliens are always the ones with a shit load of fucking rug rats and therefore just expect to make a living wage? Preach on Brother!   Indeed. I earned minimum wage when I started flipping burgers in high school, but that lasted all of two months before I got a raise. Who stays at minimum wage if they do good work?!?

I don't agree with the minimum wage raise. But I find just as much wrong with the arguments you guys use in this response.  Let me start with the last one - you were flipping burgers probably back when the minimum wage was so low they could afford to give you a small raise within a few months.  so you got a little more money, you were still pretty damn close to MW.

The comment before that one regarding how MW is for "teenagers and fucking filthy illegal aliens" man, you gotta be about 18 years old.  What you don't know is we have a lot of old folks who are having to go back to work for whatever reason.  Sometimes it's their fault, sometimes it's someone else's fault like Ken Lay or Tyco.  Life is not as black and white as you think there brother.

Now while I disagree with your youthful trashtalking, I agree with the ultimate issue of the MW raise being more socialist than capitalist.