Tag: minimum wage

Why Big Labor thinks that McJobs are more fertile ground than Dirty Jobs.

Nick Gillespie, on the misdirected zeal of Big Labor trying to up the unemployment rate by upping the minimum wage:

While there is nothing wrong with any job, the simple fact is that nobody is going to get rich—or even comfortably middle class—if his or her main gig is punching the buttons at a McCafe. The skills necessary to work there are simply not that advanced to increase wages exponentially and the entire economy of fast food is based on keeping prices—and by extension, wages—relatively low.

Rather than focus on fast food, it would be smarter to focus where the jobs—and wages—are. There’s something on the order of 3.7 million openings (about the size of the entire minimum wage workforce) in various trades ranging from construction to carpentry to ++electrical to welding. These are jobs that are not only in high demand but pay relatively high wages, often around the median household income of $51,000. Mike Rowe, the former host of the cable show Dirty Jobs, makes a compelling case that these are exactly the sort of gigs that can secure people steady work that allows for advancement and serious benefits.

Continue reading Why Big Labor thinks that McJobs are more fertile ground than Dirty Jobs.

Obviously, we need to walk through minimum wage raises.

It goes like this:

(pause)

…’this’ was turning into a lecture, even with bullet points.

(pause)

And the lecture was a lecture, too.  Dull as dishwater – which is the problem.  So to hell with it: Continue reading Obviously, we need to walk through minimum wage raises.

‘I Was a High-Tech Sweatshop Worker for the Obama Campaign!’

Sorta: the guy actually is a pieceworker for an internet site called ChaCha Search Inc. that the Obama campaign happened to hire to expedite searches. Via Internet Scofflaw, Dan Mage of Reason tells the sorry tale:

The Obama campaign’s use of ChaCha was simple and brilliant. Messages would go out advising customers to vote early for Obama and to text back the keyword OBAMA for more information. That would direct them to pro-Obama websites such as VoteForChange.com. If the keyword failed to trigger the automatic response, an expeditor like me would route it to a guide.

Here’s the question: Did Obama have personal knowledge of ChaCha’s employment practices? His campaign’s use of the company was certainly no secret. ChaCha proudly displays an article on its website from USA Today describing their partnership—though the article makes no mention of the compensation received by expeditors and guides.

[snip]

Does Obama’s relationship with ChaCha matter? Consider his own words, first spoken during a March 2008 campaign appearance in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and later incorporated into his campaign infomercial (transcribed here by Time‘s Mark Halperin): “If they’re able and willing to work, they should be able to find a job that pays a living wage.” Obama also favors raising the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour by 2011. But despite all of that lofty talk, his campaign still employed ChaCha’s high-tech sweatshop labor.

Continue reading ‘I Was a High-Tech Sweatshop Worker for the Obama Campaign!’