It appears the lobbyists are gearing up to thwart raising the minimum wage

[kimbutgar]

This appeared in the SF Chronicle letter to the editor today. I think this has also appeared in several papers today:

"Instead of digging up a statement from the National Association of Manufacturers from the 1930s, Andrew S. Ross ("Good timing in push to lift minimum wage," Business, March 6) should have paid attention to recent history. A lot has happened since the 1930s - we cured polio, put a man on the moon, and discovered that the minimum wage has a harmful effect on jobs.

For instance, a study by David Neumark (UC Irvine) and William Wascher (Federal Reserve) found that 85 percent of the most credible economic studies on the minimum wage from the past two decades point to job loss after a increase.

It's not hard to understand why this consensus exists. Businesses that hire entry-level employees and pay them minimum wage, or the tipped wage restaurants or grocery stores, for example, keep 2-3 cents in profit from each sales dollar, and can't just absorb the increase.

Raising prices on cost-conscious customers isn't an option, because sales fall as a result. Businesses are instead forced to provide the same service at a lower cost - meaning more self-service and fewer job opportunities for the same people that the wage increase is intended to help.

Unlike Ross' argument, this isn't simply a matter for historians - it's a fact."

Michael Saltsman, research director, Employment Policies Institute, Washington, D.C.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/letterstoeditor/article/Letters-to-the-editor-March-8-4337892.php#ixzz2MyrtPfaT

Did a little search of this cretin and guess what?

Michael Saltsman, research director for the conservative Employment Policies Institute in Washington, D.C.,

Another one of his nuggets:

Paid Sick Leave Laws Can Hurt Employees, New Study Shows

http://www.crbizjournal.com/news/article_37317466-7077-11e2-8a8a-0019bb2963f4.html

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/02/11/saltsman

This little cretin is a paid troll who writes this stuff for his corporate masters. I wonder who fund the Employment Policies Institute?

http://epionline.org/

This pisses me off that this little paid troll can write this rubbish on a letter to the editor and regular people can barely ever get their letters published.

[Sherman A1]

1. and we would expect anything else from them?

It has been open warfare on the working class since 1980.

I still recall Ted Kennedy's speech in the Senate on raising the minimum wage. It is a must watch