Minimum wage gap grows wider between states
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - With a bump in the Washington state minimum wage to $9.19 an hour, high school student Miranda Olson will edge closer to her goal of buying the black Volkswagen Beetle she's been researching online.
Olson is only able to pick up part-time hours working at a cafe after classes and on weekends. But the extra pennies she'll earn in 2013 will add up over the coming weeks and months.
"It's not much, but it's something," said Olson, 16, who works at Wagner's European Bakery and Cafe in Olympia. "Every bit helps."
Many workers around the country won't be as lucky as residents of Washington state, which is raising its minimum wage Tuesday by 15 cents an hour even though it already has the highest state baseline in the country.
Minimum-wage workers in Idaho will make nearly $2 an hour less in 2013 than their counterparts living just one state to the west.
Automatic increases designed to compensate for inflation have steadily pushed up wages in some states, even through the recession, expanding the pay gap between areas that make annual adjustments and those that don't. Of the 10 states that will increase the minimum wage Tuesday, nine did so automatically to adjust for inflation.
Rhode Island lawmakers approved that state's wage increase in the past year.
Paul Sonn, legal co-director at the National Employment Law Project, said he hopes more states will start looking at automatic adjustments as the economy recovers. He said the model - which Washington state adopted in 1998 - helps avoid sudden jolts as states try to catch up with each other.
"We think there's a case that it's better for everyone, including the business community, to have predictable, regular, small increases every year," Sonn said.
The automatic adjustments aren't much. Washington's bump will mean those who work 40-hour weeks will earn an extra $6 a week - enough for a couple lattes - or about $300 a year.
Hundreds of thousands of workers are expected to get a pay increase with the wage adjustments that begin New Year's Day. Along with Washington and Rhode Island, the changes will occur in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon and Vermont.
Among the nine states with automatic adjustments, the average minimum wage is $8.12 an hour, up from a little under $8. States that do not have automatic changes operate with an average minimum wage of about $7.40 - a difference of about $1,500 a year for a full-time worker.
Many states, including Idaho, follow the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, either because they've tied their minimum wage to that threshold or because the state-enacted minimum is lower than that.
San Francisco has set the highest local minimum wage and will have workers paid at least $10.55 an hour in 2013.
Groups such as the National Restaurant Association oppose further increases in federal or state minimum wages, arguing that it's an ineffective way to reduce poverty and forces business owners to cut hours, raise prices or lay off workers.
At Tom's 1st Avenue Bento, a downtown Portland lunch spot, owner Tom Hume said he boosted pay for minimum-wage workers before the end of the year in order to get ahead of the game. He also raised prices on one-third of his menu items by 25 cents.
Natasha Baker, 22, who works at Hume's restaurant in Portland, recently moved back in with her mother but hopes to move to another apartment in January. She said the extra $5 or $6 she's earning every week with the salary boost is OK but won't make a huge difference.
"I don't usually look at what I get paid," she said. "I'm more directed on what's being taken out, which is more discouraging than anything."
In Montpelier, Vt., restaurant owner Irene Facciolo said she supported the 14-cents-an-hour increase in the minimum wage for her employees. She said the move from $8.46 to $8.60 an hour wasn't much.
"We don't have a problem with it at all," Facciolo said.
Olson is only able to pick up part-time hours working at a cafe after classes and on weekends. But the extra pennies she'll earn in 2013 will add up over the coming weeks and months.
"It's not much, but it's something," said Olson, 16, who works at Wagner's European Bakery and Cafe in Olympia. "Every bit helps."
Many workers around the country won't be as lucky as residents of Washington state, which is raising its minimum wage Tuesday by 15 cents an hour even though it already has the highest state baseline in the country.
Minimum-wage workers in Idaho will make nearly $2 an hour less in 2013 than their counterparts living just one state to the west.
Automatic increases designed to compensate for inflation have steadily pushed up wages in some states, even through the recession, expanding the pay gap between areas that make annual adjustments and those that don't. Of the 10 states that will increase the minimum wage Tuesday, nine did so automatically to adjust for inflation.
Rhode Island lawmakers approved that state's wage increase in the past year.
Paul Sonn, legal co-director at the National Employment Law Project, said he hopes more states will start looking at automatic adjustments as the economy recovers. He said the model - which Washington state adopted in 1998 - helps avoid sudden jolts as states try to catch up with each other.
"We think there's a case that it's better for everyone, including the business community, to have predictable, regular, small increases every year," Sonn said.
The automatic adjustments aren't much. Washington's bump will mean those who work 40-hour weeks will earn an extra $6 a week - enough for a couple lattes - or about $300 a year.
Hundreds of thousands of workers are expected to get a pay increase with the wage adjustments that begin New Year's Day. Along with Washington and Rhode Island, the changes will occur in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon and Vermont.
Among the nine states with automatic adjustments, the average minimum wage is $8.12 an hour, up from a little under $8. States that do not have automatic changes operate with an average minimum wage of about $7.40 - a difference of about $1,500 a year for a full-time worker.
Many states, including Idaho, follow the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, either because they've tied their minimum wage to that threshold or because the state-enacted minimum is lower than that.
San Francisco has set the highest local minimum wage and will have workers paid at least $10.55 an hour in 2013.
Groups such as the National Restaurant Association oppose further increases in federal or state minimum wages, arguing that it's an ineffective way to reduce poverty and forces business owners to cut hours, raise prices or lay off workers.
At Tom's 1st Avenue Bento, a downtown Portland lunch spot, owner Tom Hume said he boosted pay for minimum-wage workers before the end of the year in order to get ahead of the game. He also raised prices on one-third of his menu items by 25 cents.
Natasha Baker, 22, who works at Hume's restaurant in Portland, recently moved back in with her mother but hopes to move to another apartment in January. She said the extra $5 or $6 she's earning every week with the salary boost is OK but won't make a huge difference.
"I don't usually look at what I get paid," she said. "I'm more directed on what's being taken out, which is more discouraging than anything."
In Montpelier, Vt., restaurant owner Irene Facciolo said she supported the 14-cents-an-hour increase in the minimum wage for her employees. She said the move from $8.46 to $8.60 an hour wasn't much.
"We don't have a problem with it at all," Facciolo said.
Every time the minimum wage goes up, prices on lots of goods and services goes up likewise. Those getting the minimum will more or less break even, but everyone else takes an effective pay cut. Prices went up, pay didn't. Not to mention the fact that when minimum wage goes up, employers higher fewer minimum wage employees. I just don't see this as a good thing.
Minimum wage went up by a few pennies, the taxes taken out went up by even more. So in the end, its a lose-lose.
Yes increase the minimum wage - already these grads of government schools are NOT worth $1.00 per hour so how many will find jobs?
These minimum wage jobs aren't just teen jobs. You have adults suplementing their income with these jobs. These minimum wage jobs serve a purpose in our society and most of us just take that labor for granted when we should be grateful there are people willing to wait on us and clean up after us when we want a break from doing it for ourselves. A lot of these jobs are physically demanding and for those who've had to deal with the public you already know how trying that can be.
Cost of living differs from state to state. Simple as that.Â
This story proves my theory that the Volkswagen Beetle is a chick car.
Really scattered bunch of comments. Mine is simply this. Wage to enter workforce...unskilled...etc etc. I say BS. This state is so overtaxed and everyone has their hands in your pocket before the check ever hits the bank. You have people out there running hazardous heavy equipment...a VERY skilled and safety sensitive position...for just barely above minimum wage...because they're starving. Give me a break with your paltry hike in minimum wage...let's talk about maximum tax !!!!
Since being laid off all I am able to is pick up part time work for minimum wage. I barely have enough to cover rent, water, power,& garbage. Thank goodness for the Dollar store or I would starve.
Wow. When I read the comments here all I can do is wonder how everyone lives with themselves. What a bunch of entitled, selfish, greedy people. The spending power of minimum wage is lowest it's been in 40 years. Any of you go to church? If so you might want to rethink your values and ethics. Sheesh. The comments here are beyond words. I hope I don't know any of you in real life. You should be ashamed at your lack of compassion. You make it sound as if those making minimum wage are emptying your 401Ks and depriving you of driving a Mercedes. Oh the horror of it all!
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Reading these forums is bad for my health. It only makes me lose faith in humanity, or at least in America.
My daughter, who is still in high school, makes minimum wage plus about $30 a day in tips as a busser at a restaurant. That is a lot of money for a first time job. Now she is getting a raise along with everyone else at her work. They need to provide a lower rate for employees who get tip income. I wish I made that much money when I was in high school! Even taking in account for inflation, that is still great income.
 @steve340 "I wish I made that much money when I was in high school!"
When was that? What was the price of gas, of milk, of housing back then?
When I was in the Army in the early 60's, the base e-1 pay was $80 a month. Now it's somewhere around $1,500.
I remember when my mother cleaned rooms for $0.35 an hour, my Dad pulled green chain and made $1.60 an hour, gas was 25 cents a gallon, milk was 30 cents a gallon, and my Dad built our house, many, many years ago, we  didn't have inside plumbing until I was 10 years old, used an outhouse my dad made, true story..oops, telling my age now...lol..
@steve340 - I don't know how old you are but I'm guessing when you were in high school, the cost of living was much lower. Everybody needs a decent wage these days, everything is so terribly high priced. I would rather our hard working people get the raises instead of the fat cats at the top.
@steve340 The employers love that opinion because when they can pay their employees very little and the tips make up the rest of the income it costs them less for help. When the government started taxing tips it really ate into the bottom line of regular income. I had one job years ago that by the time I paid the taxes on my tips my regular paycheck was pretty much gone. These people work HARD, these are not high skill jobs but they are lots of work and I don't begrudge them a better pay check.
 @steve340Great income? Really? Will you work for that, plus taking out additional taxes because tip earners have to pay taxes on tips even if unreported? (The IRS assumes a minimum of 10% of gross income on top of that income as tips). Sure your daughter may live with you and have all she needs but that is not everyone. My granddaughter works for minimum wage, is raising two children of her own, and, going to school. She is not on public assistance of any kind. She works hard at both her job and her school and she is barely getting by. What skin is it off your ass if she gets an additional 10 cents an hour? Why do you feel she should get less of an hourly rate but have to pay more taxes?
 @Nic Stevens  @steve340 "The IRS assumes a minimum of 10% of gross income on top of that income as tips"
Indeed they do, even if the actual tips are less...
If Irene Facciolos business isn't impacted by a few cents an hour wage increase, then by default she knows it wont impact the employees wallet either. In other words, the wage increase is simply pointless. its just another liberal feel good measure to make business leaders believe they are doing something positive, when in fact they are simply doing nothing.Â
Of course, that extra Chump Change is insignificant if your hours get cut from 40 to 28.Â
 @Getov Mylon But if there is the work to do that justifies the 40 hours, how does 28 help them? All the end up with is more people working to cover the hours fewer had been working. And it costs more to have more workers...
 @OrcasThunder It would not make sense  unless you mandate insurance coverage for full time employees.  The marginal costs aside from insurance would be insignificant.
 @Getov Mylon So...your reason for cutting everyone from 40 to 28 is due to the insurance issue, NOT the minimum wage pay.
Not related.
But, if you cut people from 40 to 28, why should you expect them to care if you get your money's worth from them?
$6.00 a week, "enough for a couple of lattes."Â If minimum wage workers are so deprived, why would they spend this vital income on expensive coffee? Give me six bucks and I'll buy a couple days worth of food.
 @subcaller Nobody is insinuating that that's what the money is going towards, it's merely a comparative reference. Good lord. You people are just so damned eager to trash the working poor at every available opportunity.
Thats becuse if they work 40 hours a week they are still eligible for all kinds of free programs for food and healthcare from the state. So it is more disposible income probably. While I feel much better helping someone working 40 hours a week than someone sitting at home collecting the states money. But some how people in many other states figure out how to survive on much less.
 @slyderwso Possibly because the cost of living is lower in other states and more people there may be getting assistance in the form of food stamps, etc.Â
 @subcaller Obviously the comment was made by someone who earns a lot more than minimum wage.Â
 @Darn it!  @subcaller It was made in terms that many higher paid workers can relate to.
How refreshing to see the coments by Ms Focciolo. As a business owner she understands how this increase increases the purchasing power of her employees and how that stimulates and supports the economy, and how that will benefit her and her business. It is sad that so many others have such a short-sighted and greedy view of this.
It's too bad that leadership has decided that the minimum wage is meant to be a living wage. When I started working at 15, I earned $2 an hour and thought I would become a millionaire. Minimum wage is meant to be an introductory wage for those who are unskilled and just entering the workforce. It is meant to teach work ethic and spur employees to better themselves to earn more, not meant to give the unskilled labor force of adults a means to feed their families. This is why we have more than 40% unemployment among our teens and college students and why the younger generation seems to believe they deserve a first job earning 6 figures at Microsoft or Amazon. Please, stop the madness!
 @takncarabizniz It probably cost you a dime to ride the bus to work too.
Actually darn it, where I lived, we had no bus service. I walked to work, every day after school and at least 3 weekends a month. I also babysat, cleaned houses and collected cans to help my parents feed our family. My point is not that the wages whether or high or low need to be addressed, but what constitutes a minimum wage job and who is receiving them. If society wants to provide a "living wage" for adults and a "minimum wage" for teens and unskilled laborers, so be it, but to have the minimum wage continually rise and see these jobs, very much unskilled, entry level, going to adults who then complain they can't raise families on it, my answer is to either petition the government to start partnering w/ business and industry to train adults to take higher paying jobs, or make a designation as to who is eligible to work at a "minimum wage" job. As I said, these jobs were historically meant to introduce people to the work force, not sustain them...
BTW, you all know that if we were to remove the more than 12 illegals currently in this country, taking 5% of NON-agricultural jobs, that we would only have a 3% unemployment rate, right? Do you realize that many of these minimum wage jobs are now going to illegals? Hotels, service industries, construction labor, fast food, are all guilty of using illegal labor...jobs that could be worked by Americans!
 @takncarabizniz "I walked to work, every day after school and at least 3 weekends a month."
Yep...10 miles uphill both ways...<G>
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 @takncarabizniz Todays minimum wage is less than anytime during the 1960's.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html
 @takncarabizniz That's all well and good, except for the part where all the jobs for the next rung on the ladder, those being the the manufacturing ,textile, and customer service jobs that were the backbone of our workforce, have all been sent overseas in the name of bigger profit margins and executive bonuses.
 @Mikeftm  @takncarabizniz Or been so regulated by the Government that it is simply too expensive to have Americans performing the jobs.
 @Gaikokujin  @EMDF9A  @takncarabizniz  @MaxVonToadenoff  @RTNavy  @Mikeftm "MSNBC & CNN all lie also"
Proof?
 @EMDF9A  @takncarabizniz  @Gaikokujin  @MaxVonToadenoff  @RTNavy  @Mikeftm "Fox has also admitted that they feel it is OK to lie on air."
Thank you for that...
 @Gaikokujin  @MaxVonToadenoff  @EMDF9A  @RTNavy  @Mikeftm  @takncarabizniz "hmm I think you just showed your bias."
Not really, it simply reflects the level of their content...
 @EMDF9A  @takncarabizniz  @Gaikokujin  @MaxVonToadenoff  @RTNavy  @Mikeftm Oh please, MSNBC & CNN all lie also. Get off your silly high horse
@Gaikokujin @MaxVonToadenoff @RTNavy @Mikeftm @takncarabizniz And you still have not supplied any emperical evidence in support of your position(s)
@Gaikokujin @MaxVonToadenoff @RTNavy @Mikeftm @EMDF9AÂ @takncarabiznizÂ
In February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an assertion by FOX News that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States.
Back in December of 1996, Jane Akre and her husband, Steve Wilson, were hired by FOX as a part of the Fox âInvestigatorsâ team at WTVT in Tampa Bay, Florida. In 1997 the team began work on a story about bovine growth hormone (BGH), a controversial substance manufactured by Monsanto Corporation. The couple produced a four-part series revealing that there were many health risks related to BGH and that Florida supermarket chains did little to avoid selling milk from cows treated with the hormone, despite assuring customers otherwise.
According to Akre and Wilson, the station was initially very excited about the series. But within a week, Fox executives and their attorneys wanted the reporters to use statements from Monsanto representatives that the reporters knew were false and to make other revisions to the story that were in direct conflict with the facts. Fox editors then tried to force Akre and Wilson to continue to produce the distorted story. When they refused and threatened to report Fox's actions to the FCC, they were both fired.(Project Censored #12 1997)
Akre and Wilson sued the Fox station and on August 18, 2000, a Florida jury unanimously decided that Akre was wrongfully fired by Fox Television when she refused to broadcast (in the jury's words) âa false, distorted or slanted storyâ about the widespread use of BGH in dairy cows. They further maintained that she deserved protection under Florida's whistle blower law. Akre was awarded a $425,000 settlement. Inexplicably, however, the court decided that Steve Wilson, her partner in the case, was ruled not wronged by the same actions taken by FOX.
FOX appealed the case, and on February 14, 2003 the Florida Second District Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the settlement awarded to Akre. The Court held that Akreâs threat to report the stationâs actions to the FCC did not deserve protection under Floridaâs whistle blower statute, because Floridaâs whistle blower law states that an employer must violate an adopted âlaw, rule, or regulation." In a stunningly narrow interpretation of FCC rules, the Florida Appeals court claimed that the FCC policy against falsification of the news does not rise to the level of a "law, rule, or regulation," it was simply a "policy." Therefore, it is up to the station whether or not it wants to report honestly. (Anybody surprised this happened in Florida?)
During their appeal, FOX asserted that there are no written rules against distorting news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves. Fox attorneys did not dispute Akreâs claim that they pressured her to broadcast a false story, they simply maintained that it was their right to do so.
Â
Yes, I am a liberal and admit my bias. Fox has also admitted that they feel it is OK to lie on air. If they readily admit that have and do lie as part of their "reporting" How is one supposed to trust anything with FOX as a source?
 @MaxVonToadenoff  @Gaikokujin  @EMDF9A  @RTNavy  @Mikeftm  @takncarabizniz Faux News? hmm I think you just showed your bias.
 @Gaikokujin  @EMDF9A  @RTNavy  @Mikeftm  @takncarabizniz I saw no "name calling" and it has everything to do with Fox News talking points: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/special-report-bret-baier/2012/12/27/federal-regulations-continue-multiplyÂ
 @RTNavy  @takncarabizniz Right, government regulations are to blame for the wildly out of control (and wildly undeserved) pay increases and bonuses corporate executives have been awarding themselves for decimating the employment market.
 @EMDF9A  @RTNavy  @Mikeftm  @takncarabizniz Typical name calling and blaming Fox News. His statement has nothing to do with Fox news.
@RTNavy @Mikeftm @takncarabizniz Can you provide specific citations or are you just spouting Faux Noise talking points?
"I'm more directed on what's being taken out, which is more discouraging than anything."
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Agreed!
@Tattooed_Angel EXACTLY!