General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Smart Capitalists for American Prosperity" Call for Minimum Wage Increase for All Workers
The group supports raising the wage to least $10.10 per hour and indexing it to inflation. Former publisher of The American Conservative Republican Ron Unz; venture capitalist and Managing Director of Greycroft LLC Alan Patricof; co-founders of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield; entrepreneur Leo Hindery, Jr; former investment banker and Harvard Business School professor Rob Kaplan; and investor Daniel Berger are among those in the 1 percent who do not think that people can survive on $7.25 an hour in the richest country on Planet Earth.
Since Congressional Republicans have been consistently recalcitrant on the issue, President Obama, in his recent State of the Union address, promised to sign an executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contract employees to $10.10 per hour, and today he will do so. That's a start, but it's not nearly enough for the hard-working Americans who toil in retail, healthcare, restaurants, and other industries where an honest day's work earns you poverty. The Smart Capitalists sent a letter recently to the President and Congress demanding a higher minimum wage for all working Americans.
The momentum to increase the minimum wage has been increasing in recent months and will likely influence the 2014 mid-terms. Polls show that most Americans support a raise. Congress is debating the Harkin-Miller Fair Minimum Wage Act while Majority Leader Reid considers the timing of a Senate vote.
Smart Capitalists spokesperson Erica Payne said that it is time to "increase income, build demand for American products, raise the standard of living for millions of working citizens without costing Americans a cent in new taxes. This is a non-partisan no-brainer."
http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/obama-signs-executive-order-financiers-and-business-leaders-call-minimum-wage
indepat
(20,899 posts)of man's greed and inhumanity to other humans imo. Yeah, USA, a nation that pays homage to a virulent RW agenda that has resulted in the United States falling to the bottom or near the bottom in all meaningful quality-of-life ranking factors among industrialized nations. Let's all pay homage to our right-wing-soused governance, the major driving force to a burgeoning and extreme income inequality.