Re: Say NO NO NO to Wal-Mart!!!

Doug Kanter wrote:

> "Jonathan Ball" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> > People earning minimum wage don't generally have families.
>
>
> Where did you hear that???

I presume the triple question mark is to indicate your 
incredulity.  This information is as much as 5 years 
old, but the fundamental issue - who earns minimum 
wage? - has not changed.

Here:

The Employment Policy Foundation has come up with some 
enlightening statistics regarding minimum wage workers.

    * Fewer than 20 percent of the 4.4 million minimum
      wage earners live in poor families -- most of
      them being young and unskilled.

    * More than 40 percent of them live at home with
      their parents.

    * One-third are teens and more than half are under
      the age of 25.

    * Half of all minimum wage earners live in families
      with incomes above $25,000 -- and nearly
      one-fifth live in families with incomes over 
$50,000.

Fewer than one million of those earning the minimum 
live in working-poor families, which have one or more 
parents working and are still below the poverty line.

Source: Peter Cleary, "Would Minimum-Wage Hike Help?" 
Investor's Business Daily, November 9, 1999.

http://www.ncpa.org/hotlines/min/pd110999d.html


From the same source:

Congressional Democrats want to raise the minimum wage 
yet again. The $1 increase they envision would raise 
the rate to $6.15 an hour by 2000 -- an increase of 
nearly 20 percent.

Proponents of the increase portray the minimum wage 
worker as the head of a struggling family. But experts 
say that is unlikely.

    * Only 16 percent are the sole supporters of
      others, according to the Employment Policies 
Institute.

    * Most minimum wage workers are teens or spouses of
      other wage earners.

    * In fact, the average family income for minimum
      wage workers is $35,000.

    * Studies have shown that each 10 percent increase
      in the wage rate raises unemployment among
      teenagers by 1 percent.

Employment Policies Institute data show that teens lost 
128,000 jobs after the first 50-cent phase of the last 
increase took effect in 1996. If not for the wage hike, 
the economy would have added another 380,000 jobs.

Many studies show that these increases fall 
particularly hard on those entering the work force, as 
well as those whose skills are not sufficient to merit 
or justify the higher rate of pay.

Source: Charles Oliver, "Democrats Back Another Move to 
Increase the Minimum Wage," Investor's Business Daily, 
April 14, 1998.