Minimum Wage Increases, but….
August 19, 2007 at 2:17 pm | In Domestic Violence, Feminism, Food, Law, Politics | 1 Comment
Minimum Wage Increases Today, but . . .
July 24, 2007
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Good news … The Federal minimum wage is increasing today, for the first time in 10 years. Bad news … The Federal minimum wage still does not even come close to enough money to raise a family.
The Federal minimum wage increases today, from $5.15 per hour to $5.85 per hour. Based on the standard minimum wage work week of 35 hours, someone working 52 weeks a year would gross $10,647. Rarely will a minimum wage worker receive benefits. A two earner family, both working minimum wage jobs would earn $21,294 in gross earnings. Of course, FICA must be paid from all wages, reducing the couple’s net earnings to about $19,700, assuming no payment of income tax.
Unfortunately, the poverty line for a family of four in 2007 is $20,650 for the lower 48 states. Federal Register, Vol. 72, No. 15, January 24, 2007, pp. 3147–3148. So, two parents earning minimum wage, with two children, must still need to rely on additional government support programs.
Why, you may ask, is the Federal poverty line apparently wrong? The calculation is no longer accurate. In 1963, Mollie Orshansky, of the Social Security Administration, developed a simple formula to calculate the minimum income needed for a family: The cost of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture economy food plan for a family multiplied by three. At the time, food was about one third of a family’s spending.
Orshansky’s formula may have been fairly accurate in 1963, but it doesn’t work in 2007. Due to increases in the cost of housing, health care, fuel, etc., food is now much less than one third of family’s expenses. If food accounts for as much as 20 percent of a family’s spending, the poverty line for a family of four would be $34,416. (Based on the Government’s poverty line for 2007). The poverty line is 40 percent too low.
By 2009, the minimum wage will be $7.25 per hour. The two minimum wage earner family would be grossing $26,390 or netting about $24,400, still well below a realistic poverty threshold.
Many states currently have their own minimum wage laws, ranging from states that match the Federal level of $5.15 per hour to Washington which as minimum wage of $7.93 per hour.
Source: Bankruptcy Lawyer & Attorney : Total Bankruptcy : The Bankruptcy Blog
Pharyngula: It’s about the principle
August 13, 2007 at 11:37 am | In Humor, Science, Spirit | Leave a Commentfunny funny comments
“Seriously though, does this church forbid all cotton-polyester blends in ITS services?”
Well, Autumn, aren’t you being silly! the Bible would never prohibit cotton-poly–most of the flock would have to be turned away at the door. No, no, the bible is some sort of silly made up book written by mortals. It is the perfect word of god and tells us the most important lessons God has to offer, like this one:
“Deuteronomy 22:10 Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together.”
I can’t think of how often I’ve come close to breaking that one! Whew!
Although cotton-polly is fine, the bible, in its divine wisdom, does prohibit the the wearing of linen and wool at the same time–which, of course, is a completely reasonable and obvious moral stance and is as it should be. Unfortunately, the atheistic moral relativists don’t have the the solid and unerring moral foundation of the Bible to guide them and are known to mix wool and linen with Satanic abandon. Clearly, without the Bible there is no moral compass…
The Boston Globe | Women Getting Even
August 9, 2007 at 7:08 pm | In Feminism, Law, Politics | 1 Comment
In a curt dissent written, also unsurprisingly, by the only woman on the court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that the majority “does not comprehend, or is indifferent to, the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination.” Few bosses, or even colleagues, will voluntarily tell someone that they are being cheated because of their race or sex. And pay discrimination often accrues slowly, as in Ledbetter’s case, with smaller raises and bonuses compounding over time. It can take years before a woman trying to make it in a male-dominated workplace (Ledbetter was the lone woman among 15 men) decides she has taken enough guff to make a federal case out of it.
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