Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at 
Nancy Boyda debated Lynn Jenkins. Boyda is the first-term Congresswoman who beat Jim Ryun last year. Jenkins is the Kansas state treasurer, and a former state legislator:
One of their sharpest exchanges occurred when answering a question about the federal minimum wage. Last year, Congress approved increasing the wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour by next year. …This, I must point out, is absurd. If you are a "free market girl" then it doesn't mean you think the minimum wage should remain at $5.15/hour. It means you want it to be 0. Or that you want it to be set at a level that tracks the price of goods and services set by the free market.Boyda noted that she had supported the increase in the minimum wage and told Jenkins, "There was no clear answer on what you felt about the minimum wage."
The congresswoman then suggested that Jenkins had been "backed into a corner" on the issue by her business supporters.
"First of all, no one backs me into a corner," Jenkins said. "On the minimum wage, I don't think that we need to mandate that. I'm a free-market girl. Let the free market decide."
After the debate, Jenkins clarified her answer. Asked if she opposed the minimum wage law itself -- a part of federal policy since the Great Depression -- she said she was referring during the debate only to last year's increase.
If we're going to have a minimum wage, it should be set at a level that someone can live on it. If we're not going to have a minimum wage, we should figure out what to do with all the destitute people.
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$7.24/hr is $290/week. Barely enough for one person to live on IF he/she lives in a tent in a park somewhere. That's IF his/her employer gives him/her 40 hours. Since 40 hours sometimes means the employer has to give benefits, most only get 39 hours or less.
Suppose the job requires travel to work? Suppose the job requires you to have a phone at home? If you don't have the income to support all those "unnecessary frills", you don't have a job.
Suppose your employer is one of those (and there are many) who will fire you the first time you miss a day for illness or any reason? After all, to your employer, you are just a number and one $7.25/hr employee is much like another $7.25/hr employee. Oh Well. There goes the work record reference that MIGHT have gotten you a slightly better paying job with an employer who would have hired you had you had a good work record.
Boy, it's easy being a Republican. You just ignore all of this.
Posted by: Oldfart | October 7, 2008 4:18 PM
But the point I think you're missing is this: Is it reasonable to say that every entry level job should pay enough to support that person as an adult? In other words: is it reasonable to say that a 16 year old working at McDonalds as his first job should make enough to pay for a low income apartment, food and utilities for himself? Or is it more reasonable to accept that the minimum wage is the wage limit of an entry level job.
I understand your concern, but I think that setting the minimum wage for an entry level job that requres lots of training is a different situation and a different problem than figureing out how working adults should be able to make a living.
Posted by: GregB | October 8, 2008 8:52 AM
I agree that when I was young, there were jobs for kids out of high school that were entry level. And these kids didn't need much because the vast majority of them were still living at home and their parents were feeding and clothing them and taking care of their health problems. And the kids saved the money they made to pay for their college education or to get married. In any event, the minimum wage jobs were there as a way to introduce teenagers to the job marked and get them some credibility. NOT ANY MORE. Many of those jobs are now taken by adults with families. Everytime I heard Bush brag about the number of jobs created during this or that period I had to wince because I knew exactly what jobs he was talking about. The minimum minimum jobs that make the term "wage slave" ugly. The as-hired minimum jobs that confer no rights on workers and no benefits. The Walmart jobs.
Posted by: Oldfart | October 8, 2008 9:15 AM