Living wage: How about $9 an hour?

[NNN0LHI]

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/LoveAndMoney/LivingWageHowAbout9AnHour.aspx?GT1=8178

Donna Riley never liked taking handouts. The 49-year-old parking lot attendant had for years subsisted on disability payments for her injured back and $6-an-hour part-time work, eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2003 because of her mounting medical debts.

In 2004, when the city of Buffalo, N.Y., passed its last living-wage ordinance, raising city contractors' minimum pay to $9.03 plus benefits, she saw the opportunity to finally get off disability and work full time.

Now, Riley and her husband, who also works for a city parking company, make $6 more an hour combined -- enough to pay all of their bills and buy their first new car.

"Driving out of the car lot at the dealer with a brand new car was a total blow-away," Riley said. "Now we are working on buying a house."

With federal minimum wage stuck at $5.15 since 1997, many cities and states are taking matters in their own hands. They are enacting minimum wages for city contractors and, increasingly, mandatory minimums for all area businesses in an attempt to lift the fortunes of workers on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

[asthmaticeog]

1. 'Bout damn time.

Almost 30 years of overwhelmingly favoring supply side stimulus has left us in a massive economic mess. Hopefully in time poeple will finally see the real-world results of demand-side stimulus and the economic quackery that's plagued us for decades can finally earn its spot in the dustbin.

[HughBeaumont]

2. "You can't raise the wage earner by punishing the wage payer!"

. . . or whatever those free-market, anti-labor dumbasses can think of to justify keeping the ants in their place. Doesn't take a genius to see that the minimum wage is in serious need of an increase, having lost value thanks to inflation over the past 10 years.

[LiberalEsto]

19. Pity the poor Exxon/Mobil CEO

who only makes $13,700 an hour. We wouldn't want to cut into his good life by paying his workers a living wage, would we?

[HughBeaumont]

21. That guy and others like him are the REAL terrorists, IMO.

They hold America hostage via low wages and increasing prices on just about everything while they drive a new car for each day. They want another South America at this point, with them in the limos and us in the gutters.

[LiberalEsto]

24. Absolutely. Economic terrorism

is the most descriptive term for it.

[HornBuckler]

3. Cheers!

Although I think 9 bucks an hour is still bullshit - but it's a start - I am glad they can make a living for themselves!

:toast:

[marmar]

4. And I think a living wage needs to be adjusted by region...

What might qualify as living wage in Butte, Montana, would equate to abject poverty in New York City.

[HornBuckler]

5. Good point

Although I don't think 9 bucks an hour would be 'hog's pay' in Montana either.

Let's hope things change for the better.

[Breeze54]

8. No "might" involved. It IS abject poverty!! -

Livin' in the Streets! (old song)

[hogwyld]

9. To live in California

You would need a minimum wage of close to 15.00 per hour.

[marmar]

10. I bet....

I cannot believe how much my friend pays for a teeny apartment in San Mateo.

[wicket]

18. Agreed

n/t

[arachide]

6. Minimum wage in Ireland 8.50 (Euros)

Which right now translates into almost $10 per hour. The economy here is off-the-charts healthy, tons of immigration, low unemployment, all government budgets are balanced, and 100% healthcare (albeit people gripe about the quality - what a luxury, to be able to be CRITICAL of universal healthcare). But its impossible to do this in the US... why?

[Breeze54]

12. because American Co.'s outsourced to Ireland??

????

:shrug:

Intel Ireland includes two facilities located in Leixlip and Shannon.
Ireland is Intel's centre of manufacturing excellence in Europe.
Intel Ireland is a major source for the manufacture of high speed Pentium® 4 support chips
and the latest Flash technology using leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing processes.
The site also includes a Technical Customer Support Network that is focused on customer
quality and reliability engineering.

Number of Employees
4,700
Operating Since
1990
Primary Language
English
Highlights
Fab 24, one of the industry's most advanced 300-millimeter wafer factories,
opened for production in Leixlip in June, 2004.
Fab24-2, the latest Intel $2 billion investment at the Leixlip site,
will begin production in 2006.

-------------------
http://h10055.www1.hp.com/jobsathp/content/home/home.asp?Lang=ENen&area=IE

Jobs at HP - Ireland
Customer Support
Delivers warranty & trade support for the Industry Standard Server range and Enterprise Storage Servers (ESS) including operating system and hardware to the French & Greater Western European regions. Support is provided in accordance with customers preferred mode of interaction,
including: Telephone Support; Web-based self-service; and System-to-System connectivity.
More recently, providing Offsite Microsoft Software Support for Microsoft Authorised Premier Support (Maps)
and software support to the professional Microsoft Customers across Western Europe.

Leixlip - Co Kildare
HP has invested more than half a billion dollars into our green-field site,
transforming it into a highly advanced technology campus.

more..........

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Well, that's more money than I make now

What we need is not only a living wage (and in some places it could be higher, others lower, as the cost of living in Arkansas isn't as high as the East Coast, for example) AND single payer health insurance. That would help enormously.

[novalib]

11. $9.00 is hardly "Livable"

$9.00 an hour works out to about $18,000 a year.

Hard to support yourself -- let alone a spouse and/or kids on THAT!

Livable wages should be set AT LEAST at $15.00 an hour -- and more like $18,000 an hour!!

[Coyote_Bandit]

20. Agreed

I am single, own my own home outright and provide for all of my expenses - including high deductible health care coverage. I have no docmented health problems. My annual expenses for auto insurance, homeowners insurance, health insurance, and property taxes is about $10,000. Assuming payment of 15% of gross income to taxes that would leave about $5,000 annually (or a little less than $100 per week) for all other expenses - ultilities, transportation, food, clothing. If you are frugal, already own your own home, have no outstanding debt or unexpected expenses you could probably get by without any savings on $18,000 annually. Add a mortgage or rent payment or a credit card balance and that becomes nearly impossible.

[HeeBGBz]

22. Try living on waitress wages $2.15 an hour

Then deal with the no tipping sons of bitches who stiff you because the cook forgot to put a tomato on their sandwich.

[rucky]

13. How about a national COLA index

that adjusts the living wage/poverty level depending upon where you live?

National comapanies do it to determing salaries, why can't the government?

[NJ_Lib]

14. After reading this, I may believe you can actually...

... raise a family on $9 an hour... If I didn't know better... Still poverty-level...

[rman]

15. Amount of living wage depends on cost of living,

which differs from place to place to place, and changes with time.

So you can't really have a fixed amount for it.

[Mr.Green93]

16. Really stupid move to buy a 'new' car

These people need some credit counseling fast.

[Minnesota Libra]

17. I'd say that's a great idea for....................

.....legal American workers. :applause:

[snooper2]

23. dumbasses...

buying a new car before they start working on buying a house....

Der Der Der....