Minimum wage laws by states

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Every Kerry state (and DC) has a minimum wage higher than the federal, except PA, MD, and NH. MI will raise above the federal later this year.

Every Bush state has a minimum wage of at most the federal except FL and AK.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm

Higher than Federal Minimum wages ranked:

Now:
Washington $7.63
Oregon $7.50
Connecticut $7.40
Vermont $7.25
Alaska $7.15
DC $7.00
Hawaii $6.75
California $6.75
New York $6.75
Rhode Island $6.75
Massachusetts $6.75
Illinois $6.50
Maine $6.50
Florida $6.40
New Jersey $6.15
Minnesota $6.15
Wisconsin $5.70

Jan. 1st, 2007:
Connecticut $7.65
Washington $7.63
Oregon $7.50
Hawaii $7.25
Vermont $7.25
Alaska $7.15
New Jersey $7.15
New York $7.15
DC $7.00
Michigan $6.95
California $6.75
Massachusetts $6.75
Rhode Island $6.75
Illinois $6.50
Maine $6.50
Florida $6.40
Minnesota $6.15
Wisconsin $5.70

Note that San Francisco has $8.50.
Minnesota is less for small employers.

As for the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, it compares to $9.12 in 2005 dollars in 1968. The Republicans hate the working poor.

[Sam Spade]

Pretty much the only people who make minimum wage anywhere nowadays are teenagers working at burger joints and people employed at small businesses who are trying to keep overhead low.

Does that describe you?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Pretty much the only people who make minimum wage anywhere nowadays are teenagers working at burger joints and people employed at small businesses who are trying to keep overhead low.

Does that describe you?

No, but I don't hate the poor, so I support raising minimum wage.

[Sam Spade]

Pretty much the only people who make minimum wage anywhere nowadays are teenagers working at burger joints and people employed at small businesses who are trying to keep overhead low.

Does that describe you?

No, but I don't hate the poor, so I support raising minimum wage.

Understood.  But you do hate small businesses.  Just checking.

[WalterMitty]

massachusetts state legislature is considering a bill that would raise the state's minimum wage to $8.25 over the next two years

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Pretty much the only people who make minimum wage anywhere nowadays are teenagers working at burger joints and people employed at small businesses who are trying to keep overhead low.

Does that describe you?

No, but I don't hate the poor, so I support raising minimum wage.

Understood.  But you do hate small businesses.  Just checking.

They're often exempt or have lower minimum wages than large businesses anyways. There are other ways that very small businesses can get around paying minimum wage. Anyways what's really hurting small businesses is health care, we need single payer health care.

[Alcon]

I've never entirely understood why our minimum wage is the highest in the nation.  It could explain why we are solely lacking blue-collar labour jobs and why we have such high levels of unemployment for an educated, skilled population.

[Dave from Michigan]

Michigan rate will go up to 6.95 on Oct 1st of this year and 7.15 on July1st  of 2007 and 7.40 on July 1st 2008

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I've never entirely understood why our minimum wage is the highest in the nation.  It could explain why we are solely lacking blue-collar labour jobs and why we have such high levels of unemployment for an educated, skilled population.

Minimum wage in the bay area (excluding San Francisco) is $6.75 an hour which is a total joke compared to the cost of living, and yet we have plenty of unemployed too. There goes that argument.

[TX_1824]

Good politics is often bad economics. Most of the time minimum wage laws are irrelevant, as pointed out by Sam, as pay rates are higher than the min wage rate. Higher minimum wages just creates a dead weight loss.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Good politics is often bad economics. Most of the time minimum wage laws are irrelevant, as pointed out by Sam, as pay rates are higher than the min wage rate. Higher minimum wages just creates a dead weight loss.

A higher minimum wage gives the poor more disposable income, which they spend, which gives the economic method that actually works, "trickle up economics".

[TheresNoMoney]

The state of Michigan raised their minimum wage today.

The only reagon the GOP legislature voted for it is because it was going to be on the ballot in 2006 anyway, and they were scared of high Democratic turnout.

[A18]

Good politics is often bad economics. Most of the time minimum wage laws are irrelevant, as pointed out by Sam, as pay rates are higher than the min wage rate. Higher minimum wages just creates a dead weight loss.

A higher minimum wage gives the poor more disposable income, which they spend, which gives the economic method that actually works, "trickle up economics".

Let's have a universal, $100 per hour minimum wage for everyone. Then the economy will really prosper.

Virtually no serious economist, left or right, believes in the "high wages create prosperity" fallacy anymore.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Good politics is often bad economics. Most of the time minimum wage laws are irrelevant, as pointed out by Sam, as pay rates are higher than the min wage rate. Higher minimum wages just creates a dead weight loss.

A higher minimum wage gives the poor more disposable income, which they spend, which gives the economic method that actually works, "trickle up economics".

Let's have a universal, $100 per hour minimum wage for everyone. Then the economy will really prosper.

Virtually no serious economist, left or right, believes in the "high wages create prosperity" fallacy anymore.

A $100 per hour minimum wage is a straw man position. The point is that the minimum wage was about $4 an hour higher in 2006 dollars in 1968 than it is today.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The state of Michigan raised their minimum wage today.

The only reagon the GOP legislature voted for it is because it was going to be on the ballot in 2006 anyway, and they were scared of high Democratic turnout.

Updated.

[A18]

The logic behind your argument justifies a $100 minimum wage.

And no, what minimum wage was in 1968 was not your "point" in the post I responded to, unless you meant to say something completely different from what you actually said.

[TheresNoMoney]

The minimum wage does not hurt the economy until it reaches a certain price where it would be unaffordable for companies to retain their staffs.

Thus, a $100 minimum wage would put most of the country out of business, but a raise to $7.50 would have little negative effect and a lot of positive effect.

[A18]

No, you're not going to boost demand no matter what. The most you can hope to do is shift demand from the investment sector to the consumer sector, which is actually worse for long-term economic growth and productivity.

[TX_1824]

Good politics is often bad economics. Most of the time minimum wage laws are irrelevant, as pointed out by Sam, as pay rates are higher than the min wage rate. Higher minimum wages just creates a dead weight loss.

A higher minimum wage gives the poor more disposable income, which they spend, which gives the economic method that actually works, "trickle up economics".

The reason why the minimum wage is irrelevant is because the market minimum equalibrium wage is above the federal minimum wage. Same goes for states. Competition by employers for employees sets this rate above the minimum wage. The vast majority of people earning the minimum wage do not rely on their job to pay basic living expenses. Those people include teenagers living with their parents, retirees receiving pension and social security income, and husbands or wives with a spouse that has a higher paying job that covers at least basic living expenses. By raising the marginal cost of labor, the mandated wage hike reduces competition for workers. Since government-mandated raises don’t result from compensating productivity increases, the resulting higher marginal cost of labor means that some workers that were worth hiring at the previous wage are no longer worth hiring at the higher mandated wage. This is where the dead weight loss comes into effect. I could even argue that a higher minimum wage can lead to higher employment discrimination as employers would now have a surplus of labor in which to choose from.

[opebo]

$15/hour is the best compromise.

[Democratic Hawk]

Why on earth have the Democratic legislatures in Alabama and Mississippi, or the Democratic governors of Arizona and Tennessee not sought one?

Of course, they may have only for their Republican opposites in the other branch to block it

As for Louisiana, the only state to be uniformly Democrat at the state level, what's its excuse?

I'd have thought that a minimum wage would be favorable among populist Democrats in the South

Dave

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

I can live with moving minimum wages up to adjust for inflation from time from time but arbitrarily imposing a minimum wagem uch higher than the market will support? just no

[TX_1824]

$15/hour is the best compromise.

Yes, but you're insane.

[Alcon]

I've never entirely understood why our minimum wage is the highest in the nation.  It could explain why we are solely lacking blue-collar labour jobs and why we have such high levels of unemployment for an educated, skilled population.

Minimum wage in the bay area (excluding San Francisco) is $6.75 an hour which is a total joke compared to the cost of living, and yet we have plenty of unemployed too. There goes that argument.

Not an argument so much as a hypothesis.  I don't know much about macroeconomics.

Besides, even most blue-collar jobs like those at Boeing pay more than $6.75/hour.  However, I do not see why what you said refutes my hypothesis.  My hypothesis was that this creates a solely white-collar economy where blue-collar businesses are afraid to operate due to high minimum wage levels.  Now again, I'm not sure what labour jobs of that sort pay.

However, what you said only suggests the (probably incorrect) hypothesis to be correct -- the Bay Area has a high minimum wage, is primarily white-collar, and has high unemployment.  Cost of living isn't probably going to be put into the equation by companies.  If a place has a high cost of living and a low minimum wage, versus the opposite, they would go to the place with the low minimum wage.  Cost of living wouldn't affect the business all that much, would it?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Why on earth have the Democratic legislatures in Alabama and Mississippi, or the Democratic governors of Arizona and Tennessee not sought one?

Of course, they may have only for their Republican opposites in the other branch to block it

As for Louisiana, the only state to be uniformly Democrat at the state level, what's its excuse?

I'd have thought that a minimum wage would be favorable among populist Democrats in the South

Dave

Those useless DINOs in states like Mississppi would rather ban sex toys than have any minimum wage laws. Yes, that's right, Mississippi has a solid Democratic majority in the state legislature, and absolutely no state minimum wage laws. How long have I been trying to explain to people like you that DINOs are completely useless? Throw them all out.