Washington State and Seattle set the nation’s highest minimum wage

Commentary by James Shott

   Since 1998, Washington State has led the nation in both local and statewide minimum wage levels, which attracted the attention of Labor Secretary Tom Perez who praised the state for having “the highest minimum wage in the country for the last 15 years.” But the full picture is much less rosy than Secretary Perez would have us believe.

   In an article on Forbes.com the Freedom Foundation’s Maxfeld Nelson put things in perspective. “Although the state’s overall job growth has remained strong since adoption of the high minimum wage, growth in industries with a prevalence of low-wage workers has slowed,” he reports. Citing Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data he writes that while Washington State’s share of the nation’s population increased by 5.7 percent from 1998 to 2014, and its share of total U.S. jobs increased by 6.3 percent, the state’s share of U.S. hotel and restaurant jobs, which could have been expected to rise commensurately, fell by 5.7 percent. Those industries are where thousands of people the higher minimum wage was supposed to help were once employed.

   In fact, while Washington’s teen unemployment rate had roughly paralleled national trends prior to the 1998 minimum wage hike, every year since then it has been substantially higher, and at one point reached 34 percent above the national rate.

   Not content with the state’s $9.47 minimum wage, SeaTac, a small city that depends heavily on businesses benefitting from its airport, decided to raise its minimum to $15 an hour in a close vote in a 2013 election. “Although the narrow drafting of the ordinance and ongoing litigation have limited the law’s scope to a mere handful of businesses and employees,” Mr. Nelson writes, “it is still having consequences. A parking company has added a ‘living-wage surcharge’ to its rates. One hotel closed its restaurant and laid off 17 employees. Employees at another hotel reported losing an array of benefits, with one stating that the $15 minimum wage ‘sounds good, but it’s not good.’”

   And now Seattle has hopped on board that bandwagon with a phased-in minimum wage, raising the minimum to $11 an hour April 1, and the rate hike will be fully implemented by 2025. Some businesses, however, are on a sped-up schedule, like Ritu Shah Burnham’s Z Pizza restaurant.

   Even though she has only 12 employees, her business is classified as part of a “large business franchise,” putting her on the fast track to raising the minimum. “I’ve let one person go since April 1, I’ve cut hours since April 1. I’ve taken them myself because I don’t pay myself,” she told a local TV station. “I’ve also raised my prices a little bit; there’s no other way to do it.”

   One of her employees was initially excited at the advertised benefits of getting a raise and having a better life. “If that’s the truth,” he told the TV outlet, “I don’t think that’s very apparent. People like me are finding themselves in a tougher situation than ever.” He will only get to enjoy the higher pay until August, when Ms. Burnham has determined she must close her business. “I have no idea where they’re going to find jobs, because if I’m cutting hours, I imagine everyone is across the board,” she said.

   Jake Spear, the director of 15 Now Seattle, a wage hike advocate group, was unmoved at the plight of these 12 employees. It’s just one restaurant, after all. “Restaurants open and close all the time, for various reasons,” he said.

   Back during the flower child era of the 1960s and 70s, the operative slogan was, “If it feels good, do it!” That slogan has more recently been co-opted by pandering politicians, labor union leaders, and others more interested in the immediate rewards of increased numbers of fawning, adoring voters and thankful union members than with the reality of lost jobs, higher consumer prices, and struggling businesses. They have another favorite slogan, as well: “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”

   The fallacy in the minimum wage debate is that so many people – liberal feel-gooders, people new to the workforce, people in the most basic jobs and/or with the lowest skill levels, along with pandering politicians and union bosses – don’t understand the significance of varying wage levels. It eludes them that wages must be earned, not merely given like a gift, and that higher wages require more training, knowledge, skill and experience from workers than lower wages do. There is more involved in earning a high wage than just getting hired and showing up for work. You have to contribute something positive to the business you are fortunate enough to work for, and the greater your contribution, the more you are able to earn.

   A mandated high minimum wage contributes to the entitlement mentality, where people expect to exist without having to contribute very much to their own well-being. This is not a positive development for a society that was built by generations of Americans who were hard working and self-reliant.

   Detroit and Baltimore are graphic examples of the failure of liberal policies, and now we see Washington State and Seattle heading down that same path.

Cross-posted from Observations

What is Wrong with Maryland

What is wrong with Maryland

 

Perhaps the title should be rephrased to what is right about Maryland. Nearly six million people inhabit the Free State as it was nicknamed after slavery was outlawed in 1864. Blessed by this State’s endemic Democrat government the word free has taken on an entirely new meaning. Maryland Government has a clear agenda to deprecate the entrepreneurial sector to vantage the entitlement class. Illegal is no longer a term permitted to be spoken by the bluest of blue within the confines of this State. Once removed from the illegal category “immigrants” can dip into a vast amount of cash being offered to them on the proverbial silver platter by Maryland’s left of the left government. Trumped up taxes, levies, fees and move support several million people who have decided it is better to sit on their backsides than work a job. Why are O’Malley and his crew so intent on giving away your money? Votes! Freebies to the indolent, lazy and sloths among us keep the support flowing for those who want to move up the food chain with a blue ring on his or her finger. O’Malley’s policies extort money from anyone who has a business or receives a paycheck. State coffers are starved for these funds. So where do all these funds end up?

 

An intricate system of entitlement fund delivery has been created in the Free State. This system is purposely complex to fool the most ardent person who seeks knowledge of it. Checks are flying out the doors of Maryland Administrative offices faster than the cash coming in to support the State’s socialist activities. Have a child out of wedlock in Maryland get a check. Have several children and receive multiple checks. Take a trip to your local entitlement office. They are located conveniently throughout the state. The social workers in these offices are begging for business and will welcome you with open arms. As you sit before one of them he or she will pull out a menu of giveaways and ask what your needs are. With minimal information to support your state of poverty these social workers are ready to write checks. Energy assistance, food stamps, housing supplements, cell bills, cable support and a dozen more freebies are waiting for you. Would you like to go to school? No problem with minimal qualifications or check for citizen status the money will be forthcoming the next day. Has your child been misdiagnosed with a chronic medical condition, there is a very good chance Maryland will send you a check. Perhaps you are from Baltimore City. Seventy percent of households there are single parent homes or so the government believes. Stay unmarried, but cohabitate, Maryland will send you two checks.

 

Health professionals relate multiple stories of patients on Medical Assistance, now Obamacare, who come to their offices driving Range Rovers, Mercedes and BMWs. Many of these patients live in the equivalent neighborhoods their automobiles reflect. Governor O’Malley and his minions could very easily compare the Medical Assistance assignments to the Motor Vehicle master list to uncover this specific fraud. He has chosen not to which in a sense sends a signal to these thieves that it is okay to steal from the taxpayer since politicians do it all the time.

 

Start a business in Maryland and the Comptroller’s office becomes your best friend. Do they lend you money to start and or stay in business? No. Do they provide guidance for your business to improve its function? No. Instead they are useless dolts commandeering your money in the form of levies, licensing fees, surcharges, taxes and various penalties from the outset. Recently a poll of Marylanders suggests that 47% of its residents would leave if circumstances would permit. This number may reflect the feelings of business owners as well.

To answer the question what is wrong with Maryland: government overreach, high taxes, extensive number of violent crimes and a political cast of thousands using its residents as pawns are but a few of the problems legal residents face. Maryland is on its way down. With a slight push many of its jurisdictions could go over the edge. As O’Malley moves off the stage he leaves behind a fiscal disaster so trenchant that Maryland will be bleeding economically for the next decade. Perhaps the electorate will vote “right” next time.  

 

Mark Davis MD, President of Davis Writing Services. For media content and author support contact us. www.daviswritingservices.com. platomd@gmail.com Dr. Davis is an on air media consultant. His latest book is Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Prescription for Disaster.

An item from the “truth is much stranger than fiction” department

Commentary by James Shott

Mobile, Alabama’s hometown TV station WALA FOX10 reports the following story, which contains comments that will leave most people scratching their head in disbelief.

An unidentified man who was shopping at the local Family Dollar store in Mobile saw a masked man pointing a gun at an employee and leading the employee toward the front of the store.

When he moved closer to investigate, he found the following: “He had the gun to his head. He had him on his knees,” said the man. “I drew my gun on him and I said 'Hey, don't move.' At that point he swung around and before he had a chance to aim the gun at me, I fired. I didn’t want to shoot him,” he said.

The gunman, 18-year-old Adric White, was not killed, and was transported to a local hospital where he was treated and is now recuperating in police custody at the hospital. A second young man, 19-year-old Tavoris Moss has been arrested as an accomplice to the Family Dollar robbery, although the FOX10 story did not explain the role he is accused of playing in the incident.

Court records show that Adric White was out on bond for robbing The Original Oyster House at gunpoint a little more than a month before the Family Dollar robbery, and records show the Baldwin County District Attorney's Office has now filed to have the bond in that case revoked.

Summarizing this incident, a young man out on bond for armed robbery was holding an employee of a retail establishment at gunpoint, and was challenged by a Good Samaritan with a gun, who then shot the young man when the Good Samaritan thought he was about to be shot.

Where this story gets really strange is in the reaction of Adric White’s family. The relatives of this young man who had already been charged in one armed robbery and was wounded in a second attempt to rob a store at gunpoint might reasonably condemn the young man’s behavior and be thankful that this wayward son is still alive and in relatively good condition, and therefore might be subject to rehabilitation. But that is not how at least some of his relatives reacted.

A female family member who did not want to be identified said the 18-year-old should have never been shot to begin with.

“If his (the customer’s) life was not in danger, if no one had a gun up to him, if no one pointed a gun at him - what gives him the right to think that it's okay to just shoot someone?” said the relative. “You should have just left the store and went wherever you had to go in your car or whatever,” FOX10 reported the relative as saying.

Apparently, judging from this relative’s comments she believes the victim in this scenario is the robber holding the employee at gunpoint, not the employee being held at gunpoint. And, the person who has done wrong is not the guy holding an employee at gunpoint during a robbery, but the Good Samaritan who thwarts a robbery and saves the employee from possible harm or death at the hands of the robber.

Where does such upside-down thinking develop? Is it a feature of only a relative few troubled minds, or is it far more widespread? Is it born in a soul convinced that he/she is entitled and therefore can do no wrong, or somehow is not subject to the laws governing our behavior? Is it a product of a failing culture that has not imparted basic American and human values to more recent generations?

Interestingly, FOX10 had interviewed Adric White’s parents, but the station reports that they later called the station and demanded the video not be aired. We are left to wonder whether they share the screwy morality of the relative whose sentiments were reported above.

For the record, the police emphasize that the Good Samaritan – whose name was not released, perhaps for his own protection – who shot the alleged robber was justified and broke no laws.

“[Criminals] tend to think that they are the only ones with guns," the Good Samaritan told FOX10. "I’ve been legally carrying my firearm for a little over four years now, and thank God I’ve never had to use it until, of course, last night. It just goes to show it's good to have a concealed carry [permit]. You never know when you’re going to need it.”

This story is sure to contribute to the fierce debate over gun control. It is a point in favor of the idea held by many of those who defend the constitutional right of Americans to keep and bear arms that the best way to combat a bad guy with a gun is the presence of a good guy with a gun. It shows that there may be positive results when law-abiding citizens are armed.

Whichever side of that argument you are on, we can all acknowledge that because of the behavior of this man legally carrying a gun, a robbery was thwarted and the perpetrator did not harm anyone.

Cross-posted from Observations

Awakening of American minds

Awakening of American minds

 

For the last five years Americans have been asleep. As we slumbered Democracy was being supplanted by forces unfriendly to it. The very strength of our nation drained away as the blood of socialism was being transfused into our institutions, industries and classrooms. Many of us, who saw the changes coming, were ignored, became banter of late night talk shows or found our words squelched by left-wing media outlets. Five years later the laughs have stopped giving way to the concerns that America’s transition is detrimental to all political persuasions. United States is now managed by a group that believes it can pick and choose which laws it will follow. Justice is meted out by those with a skewed view of the Constitution. Laws have become weapons in their hands to move narrow agendas forward which benefit only a few. A formerly strong and conscientious nation appears foolish on the World stage. Barack Obama leads from behind. His hesitations, lack of transparency and indecisions have defined him as less of a leader and more of a follower, who takes his cues from the social deviants in which he keeps company. America’s re-fabrication has redefined the essence of this nation. Be the best you can be has been replaced with give as much as you can and as often as you can to those who do not want to contribute to the collective. Be dependent is the theme from the White House. Individuals who succeed on their own are an anathema to those who move up the food chain on the backs of others. Any attempt to change the dependency apparatus in the nation’s capital is met with an array of disarming statements such as: poor children will starve or the elderly will be put out in the streets. None of it true, yet it keeps the gravy flowing to a population that knows how to cajole politicians to keep the entitlement faucet open. The half of America which has awakened to its own plight realized omens of failure were apparent throughout the country. Massive student loan debt, trillions promised to public pension plans, an untenable mortgage market backed with dwindling government coffers and a million unfulfilled promises by politicians are the seeds which will sink this nation fiscally. Great leaders rise up from the murk every so often, our President in not one of them. In the event Congress performed the task of governing appropriately, Barack Obama would have heard the gavel of impeachment by now. Instead he continues to party and deride the country as though tomorrow may never come. Perhaps he knows something the rest of us don’t. Mark Davis, MD, President of Healthnets Review Services and Davis Book Reviews. Author of Demons of Democracy and the newly released book, Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Prescription for Disaster. www.healthnetsreviewservices.com, platomd@gmail.com, twitter.com/americasssage. Do you want to debate this issue? If so please join us in the group on LinkedIn, Government in Transition.

Progressivism transforms “welfare to work” to “welfare to not work”

 Millions of Americans get some kind of financial support from the federal government. Some of them have earned it (Social Security and retirement recipients), some of them really need it (the poor and disabled), some need it temporarily (like those who can’t find a job in the non-recovering economy) and some don’t really need it, but get it anyway.

The widely reported number of Americans in poverty is 46.2 million, about 15 percent of the population. July’s Household Survey revealed that 11.5 million were unemployed; 2.4 million will work but aren’t actively looking; and 8.2 million wanted full-time work but could only a find part-time job. And the Civilian Labor Force Participation rate was a very low 63.4 percent.

Yet CBS News reported that a survey of 2,000 employers showed one-third of them said lots of jobs go unfilled for three months or more. Many of the roughly three million unfilled jobs are in skilled trades and pay good wages, making one wonder about the current “everybody needs a college education” mania that now grips the country.

Another reason that good jobs go unfilled is that the federal government’s assistance programs make it easy to not work, and frequently pay more than some jobs.

The Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner, writing in the Los Angeles Times (Online) notes that, “Contrary to stereotypes, there is no evidence that people on welfare are lazy. Indeed, surveys of welfare recipients consistently show their desire for a job.” Yet the “U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says less than 42 percent of adult welfare recipients participate in work activities nationwide,” he continued. “Why the contradiction?”

“Perhaps it’s because, while poor people are not lazy, they are not stupid either,” he writes. “If you pay people more not to work than they can earn at a job, many won’t work.”

In looking at federal assistance programs, Mr. Tanner noted that most reports on welfare focus on only a single program, the cash benefit program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. But he explained that “focusing on this single program leaves the impression that welfare benefits are quite low, providing a bare, subsistence-level income.” However, most get assistance from more than one of the federal government’s 126 separate programs for low-income people, 72 of which provide either cash or in-kind benefits to individuals.

In order to analyze how the federal assistance programs affect recipients, the Cato Institute created a hypothetical family consisting of a mother with two children, ages 1 and 4, and then calculated the combined total of seven of the most common benefits that the family could receive in all 50 states.

In Washington, D.C., and Hawaii, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, New Hampshire and California, that group of seven programs provide benefits worth more than $35,000 a year. The value of the package in a medium-level welfare state is $28,500.

Since welfare benefits are not taxed, to put the benefits issue in perspective the Cato study calculated how much pretax income the family would need to earn in order to provide the same amount as a 40-hour-per-week job. This calculation took federal and state income taxes, earned income tax credits and the child tax credit into account.

The study found that welfare pays more than an $8-an-hour job in 33 states and the District of Columbia, and that in 12 states and the District of Columbia welfare pays more than a $15-an-hour job. And, in Hawaii, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, D.C., welfare pays more than a $20-an-hour job.

Comparing the results with specific jobs, the Cato study found that in California and 38 other states, it pays more than the starting wage for a secretary and in the three most generous states, welfare benefits exceed the entry-level salary for a computer programmer.

While not every welfare recipient gets these seven benefits, many do, and some receive even more than the package used by the Cato study. “Still,” Mr. Tanner concludes, “what is undeniable is that for many recipients in the most generous states — particularly those classified as long-term recipients — welfare pays substantially more than an entry-level job.”

Welfare is supposed to be a temporary thing for most recipients, not a career. Yet in many cases able-bodied men and women do not look for work because they can do better on welfare.

Such a system discourages people from taking responsibility for themselves and their families. It creates a large faction of government dependents; a status that deprives people of self-respect and the pride of accomplishment that results when one succeeds in life because of their own efforts.

Even a low wage job is better than welfare, as it often is only a first step to better jobs. U.S. Census figures show that only 2.6 percent of full-time workers are poor, while 23.9 percent of adults who do not work are poor.

This country became what it once was not by millions depending upon government to feed and clothe them, but by Americans making themselves successful through determination and hard work. That is the goal our welfare system must have.

My country tis of thee; land of dependency; what’s happening?

 
Commentary by James H. Shott
 

CNN Money reported in April that “more than one in three Americans lived in households that received Medicaid, food stamps or other means-based government assistance in mid-2010,” citing a study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

 

“Some 26 percent of Americans lived in households where someone received Medicaid, while the figure was 15 percent for food stamps,” the report continued. “Those programs were by far the largest of the safety net.”

 

And, when Social Security, Medicare and unemployment benefits are included, nearly half of the nation -- more than 148 million Americans – lived in a household that received a government check, the CNN Money report continued.

 

It is shocking enough that so many of us get some form of government support – although Social Security and Medicare recipients are receiving money they paid into the system – but most stunning is that the price tag for all of that support hit the $2 trillion mark for fiscal 2010 and that the 2010 figure is nearly 75 percent higher than ten years ago.

 

Government Gone Wild reports that 41 percent of all births and 60 percent of all elderly long-term care is paid for by government, and that one out of three Americans lives in a household that receives food stamps, subsidized housing, cash welfare or Medicaid.

 

The food stamp program has been given the stigma-free title “SNAP” (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and the government now spends our tax money advertising food stamps to attract even more takers. 

 

And, according to Judicial Watch, as part of the administrations’ campaign to eradicate “food insecure households,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded what the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) called a $5 million “performance bonus” for ensuring that Oregonians eligible for food benefits receive them and for its “swift processing of applications.”
 

It is the fifth consecutive year that Oregon has been recognized by the federal government for “exceptional administration” of the entitlement program, according to the DHS new release. One of every five Oregon residents receives food stamps, 780,000 in all, and that is 60 percent higher than in 2008.
 

And then there are unemployment benefits, at one point lasting up to 99 weeks – nearly two years. Even in times of high unemployment there are jobs available, but generous benefits provided for an extended period dulls the incentive for people to look for work, or even to start up their own business to earn a living.

 

The owner of a temporary staffing agency told a Florida newspaper that some prospects just aren't interested in working; they'd rather pick up unemployment checks. Other sources say many of those out of work feel it would be silly to take a job that pays less than the unemployment benefit, while some are comfortable waiting until the “right” job comes along to go back to work or wait until benefits have almost run out to look for work.

 

Programs that are supposed to provide temporary assistance for people in poverty or out of work have turned into long-term welfare programs that are so generous that they remove the incentive to earn one’s own way from those they are intended to help and turn them into dependents.

 

President Barack Obama reminded a campaign audience recently, “We’re the country that built the Intercontinental Railroad [yes, that’s what he said], the Interstate Highway System. We built the Hoover Dam. We built the Grand Central Station.” He’s correct about that. Well, not about the Intercontinental Railroad. But America accomplished those great things through self-reliance and positive ambition; it wasn’t done with only about half of us paying taxes to support the federal government while one-third received support from the federal government.

 

Tax payers are the ones who fund these federal support programs, but Government Gone Wild reports that while the number receiving these benefits is on the rise, the number of tax payers is falling. During Ronald Reagan’s administration only 19 percent of households didn’t pay any federal income tax, under Bill Clinton it jumped to 25 percent, it rose to 30 percent under George W. Bush, and under Barack Obama it has jumped to 47 percent.

 

A warning about what results from providing too much help to people is making the rounds on the social medium Facebook. It appears in the form of a photo of a newspaper clipping that reads: “The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud be distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever. Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us to ‘Please Do Not Feed the Animals.’ Their stated reason is because the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.”

 

America is fast becoming a nation of dependents, and that is dangerous for two reasons. First, we simply can’t afford the cost of supporting so many people. But perhaps more important, continuing to rob people of the incentive to provide for themselves through over-generous government benefits is weakening the strong spirit of individualism that made this nation great. We need more, not less, of that.

 

Cross-posted from Observations