MINIMUM WAGE MEANS POVERTY. AMERICAN WORKERS NEED $28 PER HOUR

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/business/mcdonaldssamplemonthlybudget.jpg  

THE ABOVE IS A "SAMPLE BUDGET THAT McDONALD's OFFERS ITS WORKERS WHO MAKE MINIMUM WAGE.  

PLEASE NOTE THAT McD's ASSUMES THAT WORKER HAS A 2nd JOB!

MORE ON THE FAILURE OF McD's ON THIS LUDICROUS BUDGET BELOW.

AT THE TEXT MARKED *** 

IT IS NOT REALISTIC IN ANY SMALL WAY!

  COULD ANY OF US REALLY LIVE ON THAT LITTLE? 

FOR A REALISTIC LOOK AT WHAT EACH STATE'S WORKERS NEED TO LIVE, A "LIVING WAGE", GO TO THIS SITE, FIND YOUR STATE AND COUNTY AND BE PREPARED FOR A SHOCK.    
http://livingwage.mit.edu/   

February 22, 2013

Rethinking Our Minimum Wage

http://billmoyers.com/2013/02/22/rethinking-our-minimum-wage/       

<Today, a single parent earning minimum wage takes home $15,080 a year. That’s $3,400 below the federal poverty line for a family of three (a parent and 2 children). 

In 1981, in an attempt to "fight inflation", the minimum wage was frozen at $3.35 per hour despite the rising cost of living. It wasn’t bumped up until 1990, by which point it had fallen well below the poverty line for a family of TWO (about $2,500 lower than for a family of three). 
From 1997 to 2007, the minimum wage remained stuck at $5.15 per hour, as, once again, the cost of living continued to increase.

THE FOLLOWING 2 CHARTS SHOW THE DISCREPANCY CLEARLY.
http://public.tableausoftware.com/shared/T7KHMKK6B?:display_count=yes  

http://public.tableausoftware.com/shared/D87935M5D?:display_count=yes 

And the chart below shows the reality.

If minimum wage workers saw the same massive increases in income that the America’s richest have enjoyed since the 1970s, the lowest-paid worker in America today would be making $28 an hour. 

"President Obama noted the statistic in his State of the Union Address — “That’s wrong,” he said, calling for an increase in the minimum wage to $9 an hour because “in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty.”

REPUBLICANS HAVE FOUGHT AN INCREASE IN MINIMUM WAGE EVERY TIME IT'S COME UP IN CONGRESS.
WHY?
THEIR WEALTHY CAMPAIGN-FUNDERS DON'T WANT TO LOSE THOSE HIGH PROFITS BY HAVING TO PAY HIGHER WAGES, THAT'S WHY! 

WAGES HAVE NOT KEPT UP WITH COST OF LIVING SINCE THE 1970s. 

AMERICAN BUSINESSES HAVE JUST RECORDED HISTORICALLY HIGH PROFITS WHILE AMERICAN WORKERS DON'T GET A PENNY'S WAGE INCREASE BUT ARE WORKING LONGER, HARDER HOURS!

WALL STREET AND BANKS THAT LEND TO BIG BUSINESS ARE MAKING A KILLING, AND THE AMERICAN WORKER IS GETTING KILLED FINANCIALLY!

A LOOK AT WHAT "AVERAGE AMERICAN" SPENDS IN A YEAR ON THE MAJOR THINGS CAN BE FOUND HERE: 

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cesan.nr0.htm

"Average expenditures per consumer unit (1 person) in 2013 were $51,100, little changed from 2012 levels, 

the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today."

NOT ON MINIMUM WAGE! 

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FIGURES SHOW THAT "AVERAGE AMERICAN" WITH A 2.5 SIZED FAMILY (2.5???? THAT'S HOW THE FEDS THINK!) NEEDS TO BRING HOME $65,596 A YEAR TO MAKE ENDS MEET AND HAVE A "COMFORTABLE" LIFE, BECAUSE "AVERAGE AMERICAN FAMILY" HAS A $ 51,442 YEARLY EXPENDITURE
FOR JUST THE BASICS.

HOWEVER, THEY, TOO, DID NOT FACTOR IN CHILD CARE!

MOST FAMILIES PAY MORE FOR CHILD CARE THAN THEY PAY FOR FOOD OR HOUSE PAYMENTS!

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE THOSE MAKING MINIMUM WAGE? 
A MINIMUM WAGE EARNER CAN HOPE FOR AROUND $13,900 YEARLY BEFORE TAXES, BEFORE ANYTHING COMES OUT.  

AFTER TAXES, MINUS ABOUT $3400 A YEAR, MANY WORKERS ONLY TAKE HOME ABOUT $10,000. 

WHILE CORPORATIONS HAVE DEMANDED HIGHER PRODUCTION FROM THEIR FEWER WORKERS, WAGES HAVE FALLEN TO 1980's LEVELS WHEN ADJUSTED FOR COST OF LIVING. THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR DECADES!

http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1033/3174056432_840646d994_o.jpg

***BACK TO THAT LUDICROUS McONALD's MINIMUM WAGE BUDGET.***

THIS IS AN ADMISSION BY McDONALD'S THAT NO ONE CAN LIVE IN TODAY'S ECONOMY MAKING MINIMUM WAGE!

ONE WOULD NEED TWO McDONALD'S JOBS JUST TO MAKE ENDS MEET IN THIS VERY UNREALISTIC BUDGET!
BUT THAT STILL WOULDN'T PAY THE BILLS AND KEEP AN AVERAGE FAMILY AFLOAT!

McD's FAILED TO FACTOR IN SEVERAL EXPENSES THEIR WORKERS MUST PAY. 
LET'S ADD THOSE UP.

"'It surmises that health insurance costs $20 a month. 
As far back as 2010, even McDonald’s own insurance plan for its workers cost $14 a week, according to The Wall Street Journal.

It doesn’t include child care, groceries, clothing or gas for the worker’s car.

Also, another, possibly earlier, version of the budget proposed that heating would cost $0 a month."

HERE WE NEED TO ADD THAT ALL IN. THESE WILL BE "NATIONAL AVERAGES".

FOOD: ACCORDING TO THE FDA's "THRIFTY MEAL PLAN" (the cheapest and least nutritious) ADD $376 A MONTH FOR ONE PERSON, ADD $629 FOR A FAMILY OF 4.

AVERAGE CHILD CARE EXPENSE FOR ONE CHILD IN AMERICA, ADD $1000 A MONTH IN THE LOW-END STATES, UP TO $1800 A MONTH IN THE NEW ENGLAND AREA.

ADD THE 'NATIONAL AVERAGE' EXPENDITURE OF 3.5% OF INCOME FOR CLOTHING, OR A MEAGER $38 A MONTH FOR A McDONALD'S WORKER. ADD $38.

INSURANCE IS CORRECTED TO $14 A WEEK ADDING $36 TO THE BUDGET.

AVERAGE WORKER SPENDS ABOUT $360 A MONTH ON GASOLINE.
ADD $360.

AN AVERAGE ELECTRIC BILL IS $400, NOT THE $50 McD's IMAGINED.
ADD ANOTHER $350.

WE'VE NOW ADDED $1160 REALISTIC, EXPECTED, NECESSARY EXPENSES FOR A SINGLE McD's WORKER WITH NO CHILDREN TO THAT RIDICULOUS  "BUDGET". 

EVEN WITH THAT 2nd JOB McD's ASSUMED THEIR WORKERS HAD, A SINGLE, NO CHILDREN WORKER CAN'T BREAK EVEN WITH 2 JOBS!

AND IF HE/SHE HAS A CHILD, ADD ANOTHER $1000-$1200 A MONTH FOR CHILD CARE.

SHE OR HE WILL HAVE TO GET A THIRD JOB, AND THEN A FOURTH ONE !

HOW McD CAME UP WITH A $1260 MONTHLY EXPENSE FOR THEIR EMPLOYEES IS JUST ANOTHER SIGN OF HOW OUT OF TOUCH BIG BUSINESS IS WITH THE REALITY ALL WORKING PEOPLE FACE DAY-TO-DAY. 

THINGS COST MORE EVERY YEAR. 

COST OF LIVING GOES UP AND UP BUT WAGES STAY AT A LEVEL THAT PLACES ALMOST ALL MINIMUM WAGE WORKERS AT OR BELOW POVERTY LEVEL! 

BUT NO BUSINESS RUSHES TO INCREASE WORKERS' WAGES, BENEFITS, OR WANTS TO ADMIT THEY THE EMPLOYERS, ARE THE PROBLEM WITH OUR ECONOMY! 

IF WORKERS DON'T GET ENOUGH INCOME TO HAVE SOME LEFT FOR ANYTHING BESIDES MONTHLY BILLS, MONTHLY EXPENDITURES TO GET TO AND FROM WORK, ENOUGH INCOME TO PLACE THEIR CHILDREN IN DAY CARE , OUR ECONOMY HAS NO CHANCE AT ALL OF RECOVERY, BECAUSE WE, THE PEOPLE CAN'T RECOVER FROM 3 DECADES OF BEING PAID LESS THAN IT COSTS TO LIVE!!! 

AMERICAN WORKERS NEED THAT $28 AN HOUR TO "LIVE THE DREAM", BUT THE "DREAM" IS JUST THAT, AND REALITY IS SOMETHING ELSE AGAIN.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics offers us a few graphs to show the reality of wages versus corporate profits and worker productivity. 

The workers ARE making money for their bosses, but the bosses aren't rewarding anybody except top management/CEOs for that!

This started in the late 1950s and continues to today.

No one can explain WHY such a discrepancy exists except to say corporations simply got so greedy that profits for the company became more important than the American economy and rewarding the hard work of their employees that led to these historically high corporate earnings.
They put profit over everything...AND OVER EVERYBODY WHO WORKS FOR THEM!

KNOWING THEY CONTROL INCOME FOR ALL OF AMERICA, BIG BUSINESSES HAD TIME TO LOOK AT THE WHOLE PICTURE AND SAW THAT THEY COULD SHIP JOBS OVERSEAS, PAY "SLAVE LABOR" WAGES THERE, SELL THEIR GOODS IN FOREIGN MARKETS FOR A LITTLE LESS AND STILL RAKE IN HUGE PROFITS.

EVEN SMALLER BUSINESSES FIND IT MUCH EASIER TO BECOME "GLOBALIZED" TODAY, TO SEEK AND FIND FOREIGN MARKETS AND TO COUNT LESS AND LESS ON AMERICANS BEING ABLE TO AFFORD ANYTHING HERE IN THE USA.

THEY SAW THAT SENDING JOBS "OFFSHORE" WAS LUCRATIVE FOR THEM AND THEY FOUND WAYS TO DO JUST THAT.

THE REAGAN/BUSH PLAN FOR NAFTA HAS GIVEN THEM EVEN MORE INCENTIVE TO SHIP OUR JOBS OVERSEAS/OFFSHORE. 

ONCE THE JOBS WERE GONE, THE INFRASTRUCTURE THAT SUPPORTED THOSE JOBS ALSO BEGAN TO FALL APART. 

WHEN BUSINESSES CAN BUY THE BASIC MATERIALS NEEDED FOR MANUFACTURING CHEAPER IN, SAY, CHINA, AND MOVES ITS JOBS THERE, THE AMERICAN COMPANIES WHO SUPPLIES THOSE MATERIALS GO UNDER, GO OUT OF BUSINESS.

IMAGINE WHAT REMOVING EVEN 1 MILLION AMERICAN JOBS AT HOME HAS DONE FOR OUR TAX BASE, OUR GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP).

July 23, 2009, WALL STREET JOURNAL  

<The job market is doing even worse than the overall economy, prompting concern inside and outside the government that deeper-than-expected joblessness could persist once the recession ends.

Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost 6.5 million jobs, 4.7% of total employment. The unemployment rate has jumped five percentage points, while the economy has contracted by roughly 2.5%.

Though today's disparity between growth and jobs is especially stark, a jobless recovery wouldn't be new: The past two recessions were marked by firms reluctant to resume hiring right away after demand recovered. 
The current disconnect could reflect an unanticipated surge in productivity -- companies finding ways to increase output with fewer workers.>

READ THAT AGAIN, PLEASE!

The past two recessions were marked by firms reluctant to resume hiring right away after demand recovered.
The current disconnect could reflect an unanticipated surge in productivity -- companies finding ways to increase output with fewer workers.

BINGO! NAIL ON THE HEAD!
"FIRMS RELUCTANT TO RESUME HIRING"!!!
THEY FIGURED IT OUT.

THEY REALIZED THEY CAN DO MORE, MAKE MORE PROFITS, IF THEY HAVE FEWER WORKERS, AND IF THEY KEEP WAGES AS LOW AS POSSIBLE.  

THEIR "LOBBYISTS" HAVE PASSED THIS ON TO CONGRESS, PROBABLY WITH A REMINDER THAT THE MOST CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS COME FROM THOSE LISTED AT WALL STREET. 

THE "WARNINGS", THE EXPRESSED DESIRE FOR CONGRESS TO CONTINUE TO HELP OUT BUSINESSES BY PASSING BILLS TO REDUCE CORPORATE OUTLAY, OR BY REFUSING TO PASS ANY BILL THAT WILL INCREASE EXPENSES FOR BUSINESS, HAVE BEEN WELL RECEIVED BY OUR "WHORES ON THE HILL".  

CONGRESS HAS COMPLIED REPEATEDLY WITH THEIR "PRIME DIRECTIVE", KEEP CORPORATE PROFITS HIGH, WAGES LOW, AND NONE OF THAT "CHEAPER HEALTH INSURANCE" FOR LOW-WAGE WORKERS. REMEMBER THE SHAREHOLDERS OF THE NATION'S "FIRMS" WILL GET MORE PROFITS AS WELL, AND THOSE SHAREHOLDERS ALSO MAKE HEFTY CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS.

FOR THE SAKE OF OUR NATION AND OUR NATION'S LABOR FORCE, WHICH INCLUDES MANY OF YOU, PLEASE WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO, READ THIS ARTICLE, AND SEE THE REAL REASON WHY OUR ECONOMY CAN'T RECOVER...IT'S THE BUSINESSES THAT HAVE DECIDED THEY DON'T NEED AMERICAN WORKERS ANYMORE.
THEY CAN HIRE OTHERS WHO WILL WORK FOR FAR LESS THAN OUR MINIMUM WAGE.

AMERICA HAS CHANGED HOW SHE THINKS ABOUT RIGHT AND WRONG BASED ON CONSTANT MEDIA PROPAGANDA, THE MEDIA BEING CONTROLLED BY THE 'MOGULS' WHO RUN THE SHOW HERE..
WE NEED TO CORRECT THAT.

The term McDonaldization refers to “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world. “(The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer, 1993, 2007).

The central concepts employed in the fast-food industry have spread not only to other types of restaurants, but also to industries like toy stores, bookstores, newspapers, childcare, learning, and more.

What is happening is what is called 'the Chain mentality'.  

The central theme in Max Weber’s analysis of society was the process of rationalization in which traditional ways of thinking were being replaced by an ends/means analysis concerned with efficiency and social control.

A perfect example of this, according to Weber, was the bureaucracy – a large, formal organization characterized by a hierarchical authority structure, a well-defined division of labor, written rules and regulations, impersonality

ONE OF THE PRIME POINTS MADE BY THE GENTLEMAN IN THE ABOVE VIDEO WHO WAS ARGUING FOR A HIGHER WAGE FOR AMERICAN WORKERS IS THAT NO ONE AT THE TOP COMPLAINS, AND NO ONE AT THE TOP WANTS TO CHANGE ONE WEE THING TO HELP THEIR WORKERS.

THEY WANT TO MAKE PROFITS.
THEY ARE LOCKED-IN ON PROFITS. 

HE ALSO CALLS ATTENTION TO HOW "MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICA" IS BEING HIT THE HARDEST WITH THEIR HIGHER-PAYING JOBS BEING OUT-SOURCED. 
WHEN BIG BUSINESS MOVES OVERSEAS AND BANKRUPTS ITS SUPPLIERS BACK HERE IN THE U.S., THERE ARE NO JOBS TO HAVE!

NO ONE WORKS IN CLOSED FACTORIES, SMALL BUSINESSES THAT HAD TO SHUT-DOWN!

BUT EVEN THE HIGHER-PAID WORKERS, THOSE MAKING ABOVE MINIMUM WAGE ARE SEEING THEIR BETTER JOBS SHIPPED TO FOREIGN NATIONS.

WHY PAY AN "UPPER MANAGEMENT" WAGE OF, SAY, $100,000 A YEAR WHEN A COMPANY CAN FIND MANAGEMENT IN ANOTHER COUNTRY WHO WILL WORK FOR HALF THAT? 

As Ritzer points out, people with creative ways of doing work aren’t always the ones coming out on top, especially in ‘blue collar’ jobs.

In a McDonaldized society, the non-human technology controls the customers as well. 

For instance, customers face a variety of structural constraints and they follow the norms.

Get in line, place the order from a limited menu, expect to get no more than what you order but you are assured you're getting it all "your way". 

NO, YOU ARE NOT!

YOU'RE GETTING EVERYTHING THE WAY THAT BUSINESS HAS DECIDED IT WILL OFFER ITS GOODS TO YOU. 

YOU WILL ACCEPT THAT, OR DO WITHOUT, OR GO SOMEWHERE WHERE ANOTHER BUSINESS IS BEING RUN IN THE SAME IDENTICAL WAY.

Ritzer elaborates on the effects of non-human technology in universities, hospitals, and supermarkets and illustrates how they are controlling customers’ wants and needs. 

While the bureaucracy offers many advantages, it suffers from what Ritzer describes as the irrationality of rationality. 

Bureaucracy creates a dehumanizing place for a person to work in or be served in. 

 Aside from the dehumanizing effect, there are several other irrationalities. 

Bureaucracies can become inefficient when there are too many regulations. 

Also, bureaucracies can become unpredictable as employees grow unclear about what they are supposed to do and clients do not receive the service that they expect. 

For instance, in a McDonaldized society, customer service is becoming standardized and void of any real friendliness, thus it is becoming ineffective.  

People’s lives are becoming hurry-up, things must happen faster and faster due to McDonaldization. 

This even affects our educational system!  

McDonaldized education has given us online courses, and bigger class sizes have prevented students and instructors, from having that close interaction that they had previously. 

We're graduating students who may not even be able to read above a 6th grade level and who can't balance a home budget because the rush to get them in line for a diploma neglected to teach them the old basics...how to be successful with the education they get.

Little is taught in today's schools that prepares a graduate for the hurry-up, McDonalized society we now live in.

The author brings up many ways for people to help themselves and society to deal with the increasing McDonaldization in our society.

YOU MAY READ A SUMMARY OF THE BOOK HERE:
http://www.anglohigher.com/key_announce/key_announce_detail/11#ixzz2jpYOi6DO

"'McJobs, with their heavily routinized and tightly scripted procedures, are prevalent throughout the labor market. Typically, these jobs involve a series of simple tasks, which the worker is expected to perform efficiently and within a specified time period. The work is predictable and workers are controlled by non-human technologies, rendering them robot-like.'"

January 6, 2009
Conspiracy of Silence: Wage Collapse Caused Crisis
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-tasini/conspiracy-of-silence-wag_b_155531.html

"Every day, there is another example of the conspiracy of silence that pervades the traditional media's description of the current economic crisis.
Sure, de-regulation, greed and pure stupidity has a lot to do with it.

But, in truth, the underlying reason for the collapse has been a persistent war on the wages of American workers. 

Call it class warfare.

Basically, the bargain was roughly this -- if you worked hard and became more productive, you would see that sweat of the brow in your wages.
And from the post-war era until the 1970s, that deal basically held.  
Then, the lines diverge -- dramatically. You can see it yourself.

If the lines had continued to track closely together as they did prior to the 1970s, the minimum wage would be more than $19 an hour. 
The minimum wage!

So, in short: people had no money coming in in their paychecks so they were forced to pay for their lives through credit -- either plastic or drawing down equity from their homes.

I outlined a whole set of solutions to bailout American workers but the main one is simple: raise wages.
Dramatically.
And end the class warfare that has been underway for the past three decades."

[THE AUTHOR OF THIS REFERS TO THE FOLLOWING "PLAN". YOU MAY READ IT IN ITS ENTIRETY AT THE LINK BELOW. I HAVE SHORTENED IT TO HIS MAJOR POINTS.]

30 of September, 2008
An Emergency Bailout Plan That Americans Will Love
http://web.archive.org/web/20081003203307/http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=9646 

<24.5% of all Americans earn poverty wages ($9.60 or less). 

Since 1978, the number of defined-benefit plans—that means, pensions that give retirees a promised monthly amount—plummeted from 128,041 plans covering some 41 percent of private-sector workers to only 26,000 today. It’s a Dog Food Retirement future for millions of people.

The share of our entire national income hoarded by the top one percent is, as of 2005, 21.8 percent. The last time it was that high was in 1928 (23.9)—just as the Great Depression was about to hit with its full fury.

At the recent new minimum wage of $6.55 an hour [NOTE: $6.55 WAS 2008 minimum wage. As of 2009, minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, STILL BELOW POVERTY LEVEL.], if you worked every single day, 40 hours a week, with no vacations, no holidays, no health care and no pension, you would earn the grand sum of $13.624. 

The POVERTY LEVEL for a family of three is $17,600. 

So, here is what I think is a more comprehensive economic rescue plan, all of which should be attached to any new "bailout" proposal:

~ Immediately raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour, with additional increases over the fives years following raising the minimum wage to $20, which will begin to return some justice and return to workers’ sweat of the brow. 

~ Pass HR676, Medicare for All legislation to  (Rep. John Conyers is the main sponsor of the bill).
47 million Americans have no health care and tens of millions more have inadequate or costly health care that can bankrupt them. 

~ Repeal the Bush tax cuts now and raise the top two income tax rates to 40% and 45%, add a new 50% income tax bracket for those with taxable income over $1 million, and tax investment income as ordinary income. >  

IT ALL BEGINS TO TURN AROUND ONLY IF AMERICAN WORKERS CAN GET PAID WHAT THEY'RE WORTH, WHAT THEIR INCREDIBLE PRODUCTIVE ABILITY AND THEIR PROFIT-MAKING FOR THEIR COMPANIES WARRANTS THAT THEY DESERVE. 
NO HIGHER WAGES, NO ECONOMIC RECOVERY!

WE CAN'T HAVE A NATION WHERE THE "AMERICAN DREAM" IS STILL POSSIBLE WHEN ALMOST 60% OF ALL WORKERS ARE PAID LOW HOURLY WAGES!   
ACCORDING TO THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS...

     "'In 2012, 75.3 million workers in the United States age 16 and over were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.0 percent of all wage and salary workers.    

 Among those paid by the hour, 1.6 million earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
About 2.0 million had wages below the federal minimum.    

 In 2012, 6 percent of women paid hourly rates had wages at or below the prevailing federal minimum, compared with about 3 percent of men.

[Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). These data on minimum wage earners are derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly nationwide survey of households. Data in this summary are 2012 annual averages.
http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2012.htm]

A BILL MOYERS, "MOYERS AND COMPANY", ARTICLE SHOWS HOW MINIMUM WAGE AFFECTS SOME AMERICANS. IT'S NOT A "PRETTY PICTURE".
July 26, 2013
http://billmoyers.com/2013/07/26/the-minimum-wage-doesnt-apply-to-everyone/

<The Pew Research Center examined Bureau of Labor Statistics data and found that about one and a half million Americans earned the minimum wage in 2012, but nearly two million people earned an hourly wage that was even less than $7.25 an hour.

These workers, for one reason or another, are exempted from the part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) that requires employers to pay at least the minimum wage, and include tipped workers and many domestic workers, as well as workers on small farms, some seasonal workers and some disabled workers.  

“Imagine your average server in an IHOP in Texas earning $2.13 an hour, graveyard shift, no tips,” she said. “The company’s supposed to make up the difference between $2.13 and $7.25 but time and time again that doesn’t happen.” 

Another large subset of American workers exempted from both minimum wage and overtime pay is domestic workers who provide “companionship services.”

The actual duties of these workers range from providing medical care to the disabled and the elderly to helping with basic tasks like eating, dressing and bathing, shopping, transportation and cooking.

The “companionship” exemption was first created in 1974, when the FSLA was extended to cover domestic workers. At the time, in-home caregiving was a relatively small industry. But it’s grown; in 2011 the National Employment Law Project estimated that about 1.7 million Americans fell under the exemption.

The Economic Policy Institute blog reports that it would create a ripple effect, leading to higher wages for a total of 14.2 percent of all U.S. workers, creating a mild economic stimulus, helping to close the gender pay gap and decreasing income inequality.> 

WE HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE, AND WE MEANS WE!!!

CONGRESS ISN'T GOING TO PASS ANY BILLS THAT CREATE EXTRA EXPENSES FOR THEIR MAIN CAMPAIGN FUNDERS.

CONGRESS ISN'T GOING TO RAISE TAXES OR EVEN EQUALIZE TAXES FOR THE RICH AND SUPER-RICH.

CONGRESS IS NEVER GOING TO WANT TO RAISE AMERICA'S MINIMUM WAGE.

BUT WE CAN CHANGE THAT IF WE SCREAM ABOUT IT LOUDLY AND OFTEN ENOUGH.  

AS I'VE SAID REPEATEDLY HERE, WE ARE THE GREAT MAJORITY, WE, THE WORKERS, WE, THE PEOPLE, WE WHO ARE NOT IN THAT TOP 10%, NOR THAT TOP 2% THAT CONTROL CONGRESS. 

THEIR NUMBERS ARE SMALL COMPARED TO OURS! 
WE JUST NEED TO GET TOGETHER ON THIS AND PRESENT A UNITED FRONT TO OUR TRAITOROUS "ELECTEDS", MAYBE STOP ELECTING THEM OVER AND OVER AGAIN!

"THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE OIL."
BUT WE MUST ROAR, NOT SQUEAK, AND WE MUST DO SO UNTIL THE WHORES TO WALL STREET LISTEN. 

LIKE SUN TZU SAID IN HIS "ART OF WAR" 
"Let your plans be dark and as impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt."
  "...TERRIFY A THOUSAND."    

"Hard pounding, gentlemen. Let's see who pounds the longest."
   - Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington 


Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. 
That ripple builds others. 
Those ripples - crossing each other from a million different centers of energy - build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and injustice." 
   - Senator Robert F. Kennedy 


"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm's way."
"I have not yet begun to fight."   
- Captain John Paul Jones

"Audacity, audacity, always audacity."
(English translation of the French Proverb)
   - General George Patton 

IF WE WANT AN AMERICA WHERE WE COUNT FOR SOMETHING, WHERE WE ARE THE TRUE "RULING MAJORITY" AND WHAT WE SAY TO OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS MAKES THEM SIT UP AND TAKE NOTICE, CAUSES THEM TO VOTE THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE, NOT THE WILL OF WALL STREET, AND IF WE WANT OUR REPUBLIC BACK, WE MUST START WORKING TOGETHER, UNDIVIDED, WITH THE BEST INTEREST OF ALL OUR FELLOW CITIZENS IN MIND.

IF ONE OF US IN NEED, IF ONE OF US IS FALLEN, THEN ALL OF US SHOULD RUSH TO THAT ONE'S AID. 
WE ABANDON NO FELLOW CITIZEN TO RUIN OR TO AN UNJUST END!

BYALLTHEGODS, THIS IS AMERICA AND WE ARE ALL AMERICANS WITH THE SAME GOALS THAT MADE HER AN INDEPENDENT AND SOVEREIGN NATION: 

   "'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.'"

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ANNOUNCED THAT THEY HAD FORMED A REPUBLIC, "A REPUBLIC, MADAM, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT."
WE MEAN TO KEEP IT, AND WE ARE THE MAJORITY!

WE CAN'T DEFEND OUR "PARTIES" ANYMORE, THE DOGMA ASSOCIATED WITH THEM STINKS LIKE ROTTEN FLESH!  

WE MUST NOW DEFEND AMERICA, AND WE MUST DEFEND ONE ANOTHER BECAUSE WE, WE THE PEOPLE, WE ARE AMERICA!