It is time for the Republicans to call the Democrats bluff and introduce a bill raising the minimum wage to $50 an hour. Then they can ask why the Democrats are such penny pinchers.

Iowa- idiots out wandering aimlessly.

Make minimum wage $100/hr. Then everyone will be rich, right? (No doubt, there are those stupid enough to think that idea would work.)

I agree with you, #1. I´m tired of the slow drip. Republicans should stand up and declare that no one should have to work for poverty wages and that Government needs to quit fooling around and make life easier for everyone. $45,000 dollars a year, once you take the taxes out, is a living wage that allows people to make a house payment, a car payment and, if they´re frugal, take a small vacation. If the Democrats won´t vote for it, call them on it. Ask them why not. Make them own this insanity.

How about what Obama makes (not including golf and vacations and campaigning.

At an average of 1 hour per day/5 days a week - that is $400,000/260 hours = $1,538/hour.

Let´s be generous and make it $1,550 per hour.

Sounds good to me.

You people are never short of zeros, in life, in your brains and in the numbers you toss out there like candy.

Why not 100000000000.10?

The minimum wage should be renamed the minority teen unemployment act. That´s who get hits the hardest. It´s cruel. Harkin´s a racist.

In liberal urban utopias - with the high costs of living - the effective (market-driven) minimum wage is already dollars higher than the federal requirement. Thus any Obama or Harkin increase would serve only to make the non urban areas less competitive.

And they wonder why teens can no longer find entry-level jobs?

Day #1----The minimun wage goes to $10.00/hour

Day #2----McDonalds raises it´s $1.00/any size coffee to $1.30.

Day 3----Libs demand new min. wage of $12.00/hour

........and on, and on, and on!

If the raising of the minimum wage doesn´t help the poor working class (reduces employment of those on the lower wage end),
who does it help? Answer: all the union and government workers whose wages are tied to the minimum wage and would see almost immediate increases in their wages. The higher the increase in the minimum, the more unemployment we will see and also immediate inflation in all the products and services we buy- another redistribution of wealth!

Youngest son has a minimum wage part time job in retail. As of january 1, his employer has made sure my son stays under 30 hours per week to avoid kenyacare requirements. An increase in minimum wage will mean another decrease in work hours.
The idiots in congress, for the most part, do not understand the implications of minimum wage increases.

Resulting in the layoff of thirty percent of the minimum wage work force. That will really make their poll numbers look good.

states are free to chose to have a higher minimum wage, and they will be entitled to all of the "benefits" that come with it

In all honesty, a minumum wage hike is a pay cut for most of the rest of us..unless your wages are indexed directly to the minwage.

1. I missed the part where Harkin explains how all covered jobs will be mandated to produce more than $10.10 net return for the employer. Edited out for time constraints, I guess? Anybody got a link to that part?

2. Do you know the saying, "There are always two reasons. The reason they give you, and the real reason"? Well, the real reason for a min wage increase is that many union contracts are calculated as multiples of the minimum wage. That´s the "quid" from the Dems. Union campaign contributions are the "pro quo" of this de facto money-laundering machinery.

I propose a special "undocumented worker" minimum wage of $100/hr. In addition, if an undocumented worker files a complaint against his employer for not paying the minimum, they get $100,000 payment out of the fines for every employer who is turned in for non-compliance.

Other people´s money continues to be too easy to spend.

Time for a reality check.

Many seniors make about $5.00 a hour on SS.

Who cares about them ? Not Washington.

Haven´t demonrats done enough harm to blacks? I guess they want to make permanent dependents on the fed goobermint. Oh, I see their plan now.

Why don´t the Dems propose ATMs that dispense cash whenever their voters need a boost?