Want A Real Recovery? Raise the Minimum Wage.

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/want-real-recovery-raise-minimum-wage-1342791951


Scratch the surface of just about any economic debate this election year, and you'll find one issue that goes all the way to the core: the yawning gap between the 1% and the rest of us, as skyrocketing income inequality. A new report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), "Big Business, Corporate Profits, and the Minimum Wage," shows the extremes of that divide, and makes the case for raising the federal minimum wage as a means of closing that gap, and putting the national economy on the road to a real recovery.

The report explores the connection between stagnant —and falling — wages, and it's central finding explodes the argument that raising the minimum wage will cause employers to stop hiring, and the hurt small businesses that opponents of a minimum wage increase (and of the idea of a minimum wage itself) claim are the primary employers of low-wage workers.

The central finding of this report is that the majority of America’s lowest‐paid workers are employed by large corporations, not small businesses, and that most of the largest low‐wage employers have recovered from the recession and are in a strong financial position.

The data in the report only strengthens the case.

The majority (66 percent) of low‐wage workers are not employed by small businesses, but rather by large corporations with over 100 employees;
The 50 largest employers of low‐wage workers have largely recovered from the recession and most are in strong financial positions: 92 percent were profitable last year; 78 percent have been profitable for the last three years; 75 percent have higher revenues now than before the recession; 73 percent have higher cash holdings; and 63 percent have higher operating margins (a measure of profitability).
Top executive compensation averaged $9.4 million last year at these firms, and they have returned $174.8 billion to shareholders in dividends or share buybacks over the past five years.

[midnight]

1. IF the millionaire in Washington cared about anyone else's family they would of already done that...

[xchrom]

2. +1

[Amonester]

3. That, and eliminate Social Security's Cap loophole. n/t

[Freddie]

5. Yes!!!!

I'm a payroll administrator and nothing pisses me off more than to see the already priveleged get yet another privelege with their mid-year FICA cap raise. And the real crime is that I think 80% of the population dosen't realize this happens.

[raccoon]

4. k&r nt

[Sirveri]

6. Won't work, we need to raise taxes on the rich first.

All a min wage raise will do is cause price inflation. We need to stop the rich from sucking the profits out of their companies with punitive taxes on high level earnings. At which point they'll have no choice but to reinvest corporate profits back into their labor pool instead of simply raising prices and continuing to rake in obscene amounts of money. Otherwise all that will happen is the further erosion of the middle class and a race to the bottom.