The War On Child Labor Laws: Maine Republicans Want Longer Hours, Lower Pay For Kids

[Larry]

First, this 'article' really belongs in the "Deliberate Distortions made by the liberal media" thread. I can't believe how many people read thinkprogress.org and believe what they see. It is right on par with the Daily Kos.

All you have to do is to go to the real law, http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_125th/billpdfs/HP098701.pdf, to see the real story.

First, the $5.25 for the first 180 days only applies to someone under 20 AND a secondary student OR a trainee. This has nothing to do with anyone who is only working (not going to school) or doing regular work.

Problem for your claim is, a trainee is anybody who the employer says is a trainee.

Second, it allows those under 18 (but not under 16) to work more hours IF they and their employer want to have them work more. It simply takes away some of the hourly limits and does NOT force companies OR workers to work more hours.

And not one person ever said that it did.

But please, feel free to post some more spin that doesn't really say what you want it to say, and talk about how dumb and biased everybody else is, any time. (It's a free country.)

[AsburySkinsFan]

First, the $5.25 for the first 180 days only applies to someone under 20 AND a secondary student OR a trainee. This has nothing to do with anyone who is only working (not going to school) or doing regular work.

Second, it allows those under 18 (but not under 16) to work more hours IF they and their employer want to have them work more. It simply takes away some of the hourly limits and does NOT force companies OR workers to work more hours.

Nothing you've said here disputes anything that anyone has said throughout this whole thread. Nice try though. BTW, why is it called a MINIMUM wage again? And since when is age discrimination legal in this country?

[aREDSKIN]

no problem. I'll pass your texts along to my husband and allow him to respond...

lol owned!!!!!

[Tweedr01]

Problem for your claim is, a trainee is anybody who the employer says is a trainee.

Larry's assumption/spin

And not one person ever said that it did.

But please, feel free to post some more spin that doesn't really say what you want it to say, and talk about how dumb and biased everybody else is, any time. (It's a free country.)

Larry's attack for assuming/spinning

Ahh, typical monday morning

[December90]

I guess we should get rid of any and all unpaid internships since short term programs paying a kid with no experience less than $7.50 per hour to learn is so criminal.

I am no fan of the minimum wage because it is anti free market.

If you really think that 7.50 an hour is some magic number, then try living on 15,600 per year. not likely to be a "good living"

Allow "entry level" pay for entry level positions. It is not like companies will be able to pay a dollar an hour because they still have to compete for the labor force.

for those of you who strongly support the minimum wage, why not set it well above the poverty line? Maybe 15.00/hour or even 20.00/hour? People would live much better that way right? Better yet, make the minimum wage $75.00 per hour. Think of the tax revenue that we would collect because we would eliminate "poor" people.

[AsburySkinsFan]

I guess we should get rid of any and all unpaid internships since short term programs paying a kid with no experience less than $7.50 per hour to learn is so criminal.

Fine, if Burger King is offering burger flipping internships that will turn into $50k per year jobs after the internship is over for those employees, I'd be all for that, but they're not....instead these employers are just looking for away to pay poor people less for the same work.

I am no fan of the minimum wage because it is anti free market.

Then you're no fan of the economic system in America, because it is ANYTHING but a FREE MARKET, after all when was the last time you got to barter for your groceries at the grocery store? When was the last time that a local market actually decided the price on anything in 90% of stores? You want a free market? Then go to a weekend flea market or an auction, other than that all you're doing is selling the illusion of a free marketplace.

If you really think that 7.50 an hour is some magic number, then try living on 15,600 per year. not likely to be a "good living"

You're exactly right, so let's pay them less.

Allow "entry level" pay for entry level positions. It is not like companies will be able to pay a dollar an hour because they still have to compete for the labor force.

Well that's interesting because it seems to me that in the immigration debate the argument is that those who hire illegals are hurting American workers because they DO pay them less, so which is it, can a workforce be found for less than minimum wage or can't it?

for those of you who strongly support the minimum wage, why not set it well above the poverty line? Maybe 15.00/hour or even 20.00/hour? People would live much better that way right? Better yet, make the minimum wage $75.00 per hour. Think of the tax revenue that we would collect because we would eliminate "poor" people.

Derp! Geee why not a million dollars an hour!? Please, this worn out tennis shoe of a line is so old that it's not even funny, NO ONE and I mean NO ONE is looking to make a MINIMUM wage something that will make people wealthy...NO ONE, so can we for one instant stop pretending that this is the case.

[Burgold]

I guess the real question is how many of these jobs require a 6 month training period? I mean if you need six months to learn how to tear tickets at a movie theater, work a broom, or get someone's order wrong at a McD drive-through than the company should never have hired you in the first place.

Truth is, that for most of these young-ins... 6 months isn't the training period, but their entire career at said job and that's why it's problematic. More, as I said since the beginning of the thread... if you want to put forward that every new employee was open to supressed wages (to cover the cost of training) I'd probably be okay with this, but to pick on one group, any group, is discriminatory.

[techboy]

Maine Republicans also clearly want our children to be fat slobs, because as Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago writes in his blog entry One Minimum Wage Increase With a Side of Fries, Please:

As you may know, Americans have indeed been getting more obese over the last couple of decades, with increased consumption of fast foods contributing to that enlargement. During most of that period, the inflation-adjusted federal minimum wage had been falling.

A recent study by the researchers David Meltzer from the University of Chicago and Zhuo Chen from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now finds that low inflation-adjusted minimum wages are partly to blame for increased obesity.

If their study is correct, it suggests that a higher minimum wage indeed reduces employment and output at fast-food restaurants, and makes it a bit easier for Americans to adopt healthier eating habits.

Shameful, Republicans. Shameful.