Don't try to sell the recovery notion to them. The American middle class, like the American economy in general, is ailing. Labor-force participation has hit a 35-year low. Median household income is lower than it was five years ago. Only the top 5 percent of households have seen their incomes rise under President Obama. Commuters are paying ... MORE
by Warner Todd Huston. In what is being reported as a surprise move, the 40,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced that they have formally ended their association with the AFL-CIO, one of the nation's largest private sector unions. The Longshoremen citied Obamacare and immigration reform as two ... MORE
And some what to further raise minimum wage. Friday's jobs report was disappointing, but it also contained a truly heartbreaking statistic. Black teen unemployment is a shocking 41.6%. In July last year, the unemployment was considerably lower, at 36%. That almost half of black teens who want to work can't find jobs is a stain on ... MORE
The economic case for a living wage is unfounded. Once again politicians and pundits are calling for increases in the legal minimum wage. Their reasons are familiar. Market wages are supposedly immoral. People need to earn a "living wage." If the minimum wage went up at least to $7, or better still to near $10 an hour, millions would be ... MORE
The vision of government minding the sheeple. At the heart of the left's vision of the world is the implicit assumption that high-minded third parties like themselves can make better decisions for other people than those people can make for themselves. That arbitrary and unsubstantiated assumption underlies a wide spectrum of laws ... MORE
by James Sherk. Liberals argue that raising the minimum wage boosts the economy without costing jobs. To which conservatives often respond: then why not really hike it and see what happens? Venture capitalist Nick Hanauer appears to have taken this rhetorical point literally. He recently proposed raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Hanauer ... MORE
Without raising the minimum wage. The minimum wage law is in the news again, largely because the Democrats have misinterpreted the election as something other than a protest against the Iraq War and one-party rule. Why do politicians love to propose increases in the minimum wage? 1. It costs them nothing other than the ink and paper ... MORE
No surprise here. Small business owners' fear of the effect of the new health-care reform law on their bottom line is prompting many to hold off on hiring and even to shed jobs in some cases, a recent poll found. "We were startled because we know that employers were concerned about the Affordable Care Act and the effects it ... MORE
by Michael Saltsman. A group calling itself the Small Business Majority (SBM) recently released a survey
to support its argument that two-thirds of small businesses support a
hike in the minimum wage. It’s a counterintuitive result: After all, if
small businesses don’t mind a minimum wage hike, then pursuing the
policy should be a ... MORE
by Evan Feinberg. Young Americans looking for work could receive another crushing blow this week as the U.S. Senate will decide Thursday whether to confirm Thomas Perez as the next secretary of labor. Perez has been touted as President Obama's point man for a national minimum wage increase that will disproportionately harm Millennials. ... MORE
Pricing low-skill workers out of the game. The 2012 platform for the Democratic Party promised to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.50 per hour and to tie future changes to inflation. Just as with arguments for a "living wage," this sounds like a good and compassionate idea, but it has a false allure. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ... MORE
The stifling effect of taxation. Suppose you buy a gallon of gas for $3. How much did it cost you? You
say, "Williams, that's a silly question. It cost $3." That's where
you're mistaken, because there's a difference between price and cost. To
prove that price and cost are not the same, consider the following.
Suppose you live and work in New York ... MORE
by Kitty Donaldson. The U.K. government is considering cutting or freezing the national minimum wage if it’s shown to be damaging the labor market, Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman said. The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported today that the Business Department has changed the remit of the Low Pay Commission, which sets the ... MORE