SENATE BILL: Right Wages for the Right Regions Act (On the President's Desk)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Anyone else have an opinion in the few remaining minute before I start processing the first one?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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Status: Senators have 24 hours to object.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The amendment has passed without object.

Where are people as of right now, Senators? How many people can support this currently?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

It'll have my support.

[Franzl]

I'm willing to support this as is. I'm not happy with the last amendment, but it doesn't change the fundamentals.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

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[Napoleon]

$17,000- annual income for minimum wage earning full time employee at $10.50
$20,000- annual income for minimum wage earning full time employee at $12.00

This bill could cost lower income Atlasians up to $3,000 annually before taxes. This is the reality of the economy.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Or for some give them $17,000 where they previously had $0. That too is the reality of the economy.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

We haven't discussed a lot of things, Nix. A lot of Senators seem to be just coasting.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

This bill presents a lot of problems for me.  I don't like the idea of lowering the minimum wage ever, but it is possible that this will create jobs.  I'm inclined to oppose it, at this point.

[Redalgo]

Personally, my attitude toward the minimum wage is negative but I consider it important to keep high enough that a 40-hour work week puts an unmarried worker above the poverty line and in good enough financial shape to satisfy all of their basic needs in life. I would actually prefer that our welfare regime unconditionally guarantee a livable minimum income.

Since I've admittedly never had a clear understanding of how Atlasia's social programs compare to those of other countries, my default reaction to legislation like this is to stay well away from it to avoid getting entangled with an issue I'm un-knowledgeable about and lack the motivation to spend any considerable amount of time investigating, ruminating over, and then debating.

If someone is able to throw me a lifeline here by making this matter very easy to become familiar with I will gladly participate. Otherwise I'll probably be looking at the other bills. I realize this will sound pretty lazy and perhaps irresponsible on my part... but in all seriousness there are a lot of things competing for my time and energy. My sincerest apologies, but there can come a point where something like this doesn't even make it onto my already-crowded to-do list.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Personally, my attitude toward the minimum wage is negative but I consider it important to keep high enough that a 40-hour work week puts an unmarried worker above the poverty line and in good enough financial shape to satisfy all of their basic needs in life. I would actually prefer that our welfare regime unconditionally guarantee a livable minimum income.

Since I've admittedly never had a clear understanding of how Atlasia's social programs compare to those of other countries, my default reaction to legislation like this is to stay well away from it to avoid getting entangled with an issue I'm un-knowledgeable about and lack the motivation to spend any considerable amount of time investigating, ruminating over, and then debating.

If someone is able to throw me a lifeline here by making this matter very easy to become familiar with I will gladly participate. Otherwise I'll probably be looking at the other bills. I realize this will sound pretty lazy and perhaps irresponsible on my part... but in all seriousness there are a lot of things competing for my time and energy. My sincerest apologies, but there can come a point where something like this doesn't even make it onto my already-crowded to-do list.

I think I have an anchor for you, I believe the work week is less than 40 hours (I can see you going through Heroic BSOD right now).

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I am willing to discuss any ideas here, but raising the workweek would probably make passing this even harder.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Nix brings up an interesting point about how the minimum wage decrease could increase burdens on the safety net... but I still think it boils down to the basic principle of "jobs." This bill will create more of them. That by itself would reduce some of the burden.

Though, like Redalgo, I'll admit that I'm coming into this with less knowledge on previous Atlasian law than I should probably have.

[Napoleon]

I still think it boils down to the basic principle of "jobs." This bill will create more of them.

Any evidence for that claim?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

If no response is provided to the President's question by this afternoon, I will probably open a final vote here. In hindsight, I should have done this a while ago, but I am concerned not just about process but also about the substance and if something can be acheived, it is hard to just scuttle that. Even more so after having spent so much time on the issue. At the end of the day, it comes down once again to engagement. If Senators would come forward at the start, lay the cards on the table, we would then know at the beginning the chances of the success and the PPT can react accordingly and know better when to pull the plug. We had three Senators find a way to just not comment at all on this thread for almost the entirety of its duration. For many others that did engage, it was like pulling chickens teeth.

There is evidence to suggest that the minimum wage being increased doesn't have any impact when it is increased in small increments from RL levels. Keep in mind the study was done when the economy was stronger and the minimum was at the 1997 levels, so I don't know if that still holds true or not or whether it breaks down at a higher unemployment scenario. Such would seem to be plausible in a theoretical sense.

With the wage as high as it is in this game, I would think that it is higher then it would naturally be in several fields and thus the employment in those fields has been sacrificed to an extent to comport with the new wage requirement. Were the wage to be reduced, those would be the first to see the wages reduced to the natural level or to the new minimum if such is still higher. That decline in labor costs will open up opportunities, especially for cash strapped small busineses to hire on more workers. I think getting hard data on this would be difficult to come by for two reasons. The first being that the real life wage is far lower then ours and second most studies concern the impacts of increasing it on reducing employment, rather than a reduction potentially increasing employment.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Sorry for my absence from the senate. I've had tons to do, so I've only really been able to get on here for election news.

Anyhow, Yankee pretty much said what I wanted to say. From a brief google search, I actually can't really find any instance where the minimum wage has been lowered. That being said, our current wage looks quite high compared to the minimum wages in other countries, such that I do not believe a decrease would be a substantial blow to members of the workforce. On the other hand, I do believe that the money saved would be a good hiring incentive. Sorry I can't offer you anything more substantial, but I believe strongly enough in the principle to have faith in this measure.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I think I overwhelmed Nathan on this, whne I tried to explain how to get this to a final vote.


Since no one has commented (Debated) the merits of the bill since Hagrid, a vote can be opened on final passage as soon as 24 hours has passed since Hagrid's last post.

We won't worry about UC, unless and until it is necessitated by events.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Senators, this bill is now at final vote, please vote Aye, Nay or Abstain.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Nay

[Simfan34]

Aye

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

NAY

[Niemeyerite]

NAY

[Oakvale]

After some consideration, Aye.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

AYE!!!! MOTHER F%^KERS!!!