Making It on the Minimum Wage in Montana

[snapcat]

Interesting article from New West Missoula, a prograssive Montana political blog ...

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SPECIAL PHOTO ESSAY

Making It on the Minimum Wage in Montana



By Brian McDermott, 11-06-06

"I wish the rent," wrote poet Langston Hughes, "were heaven sent." The approximately 30,000 Montanans making less than $6.15 an hour would probably agree.

On Nov. 7, Montana’s ballot will include Initiative 151, which would raise the minimum wage statewide to $6.15 per hour. Yearly cost-of-living adjustments are also mandated by the initiative. Currently, the rate is $5.15 per hour and was set in 1996. A person earning the minimum wage and working full time will make about $10,700 per year. If the minimum wage went up to $6.15, that same person would earn about $12,800. A difference to be sure, but the raise is modest at best when a year of childcare in Montana is estimated to cost more than $5,000 and the average person spends more than $7,000 a year to own a car, according to AAA.

This year, basic photojournalism students at the University of Montana embarked on a project to photograph Montanans earning from $5.15 to around $6.15 per hour. By exploring the lives and opinions of those directly affected by the initiative, the students hoped to use their newfound journalistic skills to look more deeply into the issue of the minimum wage initiative itself. Should the minimum wage be raised? If it is, is $6.15 an hour enough to live on? These pictures let the viewer decide.

Opponents of the ballot initiative argue that the yearly cost of living increases, which are tied to the consumer price index, will make the wages in Montana dependent on national economic trends. Average annual wages in Montana are among the nation's lowest. Montana joins three other western states -- Arizona, Nevada and Colorado -- with ballot measures to raise the minimum wage. 23 states already mandate a wage above the federal level of $5.15.

Brian McDermott, Teacher

 

[snapcat]

Jessica Slehafer, 21, works at McDonald's to support her family. She and her husband have an eight-month-old daughter and recently moved to Ronan, where Jessica's grandmother lives. Jessica walks two miles to work and on $5.15 an hour she pays rent for their one bedroom apartment. Their favorite pastime is going to the library. "It's alright," she said, "if I could just resist spending so much on baby girls clothes." PHOTO BY DEBORAH MCDONALD​

 

[Fastdavy]

Man my heart goes out to these people.Who can raise a family on minimum wage?

 

[levenshulme31]

Talk of raising the minimum wage has sparked some interesting responses from the food industry. Since the profit margin will be directly affected by an increase in wages, the number of employees will be cut and the price of goods sold will rise. And when the customers start to complain, it will be suggested that they thank their congressmen.

There seems to be a plausable explanation for everything except why prices continue to rise, taxes still go up, never down, and it is always somebody else's fault. We don't want big government but we want the government to take care of us from the cradle to the grave. And the grass continues to be greener. somewhere else

Strange how its always the argument that to pay for minimum wage increases, jobs will have to be cut and prices increased. How about cutting the profit dividend a bit? The overwhelming majority of minimum wage paying companies could easily afford to absorb the increased cost of giving their employees something approaching a decent standard of living, they just have to make a few dollars less at the top.

 

[smelter]

As Ronnie Reagan, the great humanitarian, once said,
"Let'em eat [strike]cake[/strike] cheese".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Government cheese was cheese that was provided to welfare and food stamp recipients in the United States during the Reagan era. It consisted of a variety of cheese types blended together. The cheese was often from food surpluses stockpiled by the government as part of milk price supports. Though the efficacy may be disputed by economists, politically the stockpiling was meant to bolster demand for milk, making dairy production more profitable. In the United States the term is also used, often derisively, to describe monetary government assistance given to those who are in need of financial help, he or she is said to "live on Government Cheese."

 

[Centexfarmer]

Talk of raising the minimum wage has sparked some interesting responses from the food industry. Since the profit margin will be directly affected by an increase in wages, the number of employees will be cut and the price of goods sold will rise. And when the customers start to complain, it will be suggested that they thank their congressmen.

There seems to be a plausable explanation for everything except why prices continue to rise, taxes still go up, never down, and it is always somebody else's fault. <snip>

Let's take a look at some real National figures from THE FORBES 400 shall we?

MotherJones.com / News / Exhibit
[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]A Look at the Numbers: How the Rich Get Richer [/FONT]
[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]How the rich get richer. [/FONT]
[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]See Sources [/FONT]
[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]Clara Jeffery [/FONT]
[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]May/June 2006 Issue [/FONT][FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]IN 1985, THE FORBES 400 were worth $221 billion combined. Today, they’re worth $1.13 trillion—more than the GDP of Canada.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]THERE’VE BEEN FEW new additions to the Forbes 400. The median household income has also stagnated—at around $44,000.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]AMONG THE FORBES 400 who gave to a 2004 presidential campaign, 72% gave to Bush.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]IN 2005, there were 9 million American millionaires, a 62% increase since 2002.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]IN 2005, 25.7 million Americans received food stamps, a 49% increase since 2000.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]ONLY ESTATES worth more than $1.5 million are taxed. That’s less than 1% of all estates. Still, repealing the estate tax will cost the government at least $55 billion a year.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]ONLY 3% OF STUDENTS at the top 146 colleges come from families in the bottom income quartile; only 10% come from the bottom half.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]BUSH’S TAX CUTS GIVE a 2-child family earning $1 million an extra $86,722—or Harvard tuition, room, board, and an iMac G5 for both kids.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]A 2-CHILD family earning $50,000 gets $2,050—or 1/5 the cost of public college for one kid.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]THIS YEAR, Donald Trump will earn $1.5 million an hour to speak at Learning Annex seminars.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION, the federal minimum wage has fallen 42% since its peak in 1968.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]IF THE $5.15 HOURLY minimum wage had risen at the same rate as CEO compensation since 1990, it would now stand at $23.03.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]A MINIMUM WAGE employee who works 40 hours a week for 51 weeks a year goes home with $10,506 before taxes.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]SUCH A WORKER would take 7,000 years to earn Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s yearly compensation.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]ELLISON RECENTLY posed in Vanity Fair with his $300 million, 454-foot yacht, which he noted is “really only the size of a very large house.”[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]ONLY THE WEALTHIEST 20% of Americans spend more on entertainment than on health care.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]THE $17,530 EARNED by the average Wal-Mart employee last year was $1,820 below the poverty line for a family of 4.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]5 OF AMERICA’S 10 richest people are Wal-Mart heirs.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]PUBLIC COMPANIES spend 10% of their earnings compensating their top 5 executives.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]1,730 BOARD MEMBERS of the nation’s 1,000 leading companies sit on the boards of 4 or more other corporations—including half of Coca-Cola’s 14-person board.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]THE BIDDER who won a round of golf with Tiger Woods for $30,100 at a 2004 Buick charity auction could deduct all but about $200.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]TIGER MADE $87 million in 2005, all but $12 million from endorsements and appearance fees.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]THE 5TH LEADING philanthropist last year was Boone Pickens, in part due to his $165 million gift to Oklahoma State University’s golf program.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]WITHIN AN HOUR, OSU invested it in a hedge fund Pickens controls. Thanks to a Katrina relief provision, his “gift” was also 100% deductible.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]LAST YEAR 250 COMPANIES gave top execs between $50,000 and $1 million worth of wholly personal flights on corporate jets.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]THIS PERK is 66% more costly to companies whose CEO belongs to out-of-state golf clubs.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]THE U.S. GOVERNMENT spends $500,000 on 8 security screeners who speed execs from a Wall Street helipad to American’s JFK terminal.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]UNITED HAS CUT the pensions and salaries of most employees but promised 400 top executives 8% of the shares it expects to issue upon emerging from bankruptcy.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]UNITED’S TOP 8 execs will also get a bonus of between 55% and 100% of their salaries.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]IN 2002, “turnaround artist” Robert Miller dumped Bethlehem Steel’s pension obligation, allowing “vulture investor” Wilbur L. Ross to buy steel stock and sell it at a 1,000% profit.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]IN 2005, DELPHI HIRED Miller for $4.5 million. After Ross said he might buy Delphi if its labor costs fell, Miller demanded wage cuts of up to 63% and dumped the pension obligation.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]10 FORMER ENRON directors agreed to pay shareholders a $13 million settlement—which is 10% of what they made by dumping stock while lying about the company’s health.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]POOR AMERICANS spend 1/4 of their income on residential energy costs.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]EXXON’S 2005 PROFIT of $36.13 billion is more than the GDP of 2/3 of the world’s nations.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]CEO PAY AMONG military contractors has tripled since 2001. For David Brooks, the CEO of bulletproof vest maker DHB, it’s risen 13,233%.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]AT THE $10 MILLION bat mitzvah party Brooks threw his daughter last year, guests got $1,000 gift bags and listened to Aerosmith, Kenny G., Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, and 50 Cent—who reportedly sang, “Go shorty, it’s your bat mitzvah, we gonna party like it’s your bat mitzvah.”[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]FOR PERFORMING IN the Live 8 concerts to “make poverty history,” musicians each got gift bags worth up to $12,000.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]OSCAR PERFORMERS and presenters collectively owe the IRS $1,250,000 on the gift bags they got at the 2006 Academy Awards ceremony.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]A DOG FOOD COMPANY provided “pawdicures” and other spa treatments to pets of celebrities attending the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]ONE OF MADONNA’S recent freebies: $10,000 mink and diamond-tipped false eyelashes.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]PARIS HILTON, who charges clubs $200,000 to appear for 20 minutes, stiffed Elton John’s AIDS benefit the $2,500-per-plate fee she owed.[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]ACCORDING TO Radar magazine, Owen Wilson was paid $100,000 to attend a Mercedes-Benz-sponsored Hamptons polo match. When other guests tried to speak with him, he reportedly said, “That’s not my job.”[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]-- Clara Jeffery (Ed.)[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]Sources[/FONT]
[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]Next issue: Why the poor stay poor[/FONT]

[FONT=georgia,times new roman,serif]source: Mother Jones [/FONT]

hty2 continues:

We don't want big government but we want the government to take care of us from the cradle to the grave. And the grass continues to be greener. somewhere else

What I've shared here, I shared to show that if the Government can take care of the top earners, then why can't the government do the "Christian" thing and take care of the "least among us?"

Thanks for sharing this Snapcat! It's always good to have an informed debate! Or at least the opportunity to share some facts.

 

[JSB_01]

That's a great article centex, and it's very disturbing.


BUSH’S TAX CUTS GIVE a 2-child family earning $1 million an extra $86,722—or Harvard tuition, room, board, and an iMac G5 for both kids.

A 2-CHILD family earning $50,000 gets $2,050—or 1/5 the cost of public college for one kid.

Sorry for my ignorance, but what is the benefit of such a tax cut?

 

[Centexfarmer]

That's a great article centex, and it's very disturbing.


BUSH’S TAX CUTS GIVE a 2-child family earning $1 million an extra $86,722—or Harvard tuition, room, board, and an iMac G5 for both kids.

A 2-CHILD family earning $50,000 gets $2,050—or 1/5 the cost of public college for one kid.

Sorry for my ignorance, but what is the benefit of such a tax cut?

During election time it appears to work really well to buy votes from the NASCAR watching, Walmart shopping, FOX NEWS watching, social conservative, I'm afraid of terrorists, who vote Republican while at the same time don't have a pot to piss in electorate.