January 02, 2011 6:35 pm ET
During a one-hour special on Fox News, John Stossel attacked the minimum wage, claiming that it is responsible for unemployment both among teenagers and the overall labor force. In fact, studies have found that recent increases in the minimum wage have not increased teen unemployment or overall unemployment.
Stossel: "Low Wage Jobs Used To Be A Way For Kids And The Unskilled To Get Into The Labor Force." From Stossel's December 30 Fox News special titled Politicians' Top 10 Promises Gone Wrong. Stossel parrots an earlier Fox News special.
Low wage jobs used to be a way for kids and the unskilled to get into the labor force, to prove themselves. Most every gas station used to offer free window cleaning. Not anymore. The construction industry used to be a place teens could get a foot in the door, learn the discipline of regular work. But the minimum wage left many teens out of jobs. [Fox News Special, 12/30/10]
EPI: "The Warnings Of Massive Teen Job Loss Due To Minimum Wage Increases Simply Do Not Comport With The Evidence." In a November 25, 2009, post, the Economic Policy Institute stated:
First, the labor market is in a severe downturn that is affecting essentially all groups. Since the recession started in December 2007, the overall employment rate has fallen from 62.7% to 58.5%, including a decline of 0.9 percentage points since July alone . . .Teen workers occupy the "last hired, first fired" rung on the job ladder, and their employment is hit much harder during downturns than that of older workers.
Rightardia agrees with Media Matters. According to Wikipedia, minimum wage laws were first enacted in New Zealand in 1894. There is now legislation or binding collective bargaining regarding minimum wage in more than 90% of all countries.
There are also exemptions from the the US minimum wage:
During a one-hour special on Fox News, John Stossel attacked the minimum wage, claiming that it is responsible for unemployment both among teenagers and the overall labor force. In fact, studies have found that recent increases in the minimum wage have not increased teen unemployment or overall unemployment.
Stossel: "Low Wage Jobs Used To Be A Way For Kids And The Unskilled To Get Into The Labor Force." From Stossel's December 30 Fox News special titled Politicians' Top 10 Promises Gone Wrong. Stossel parrots an earlier Fox News special.
Low wage jobs used to be a way for kids and the unskilled to get into the labor force, to prove themselves. Most every gas station used to offer free window cleaning. Not anymore. The construction industry used to be a place teens could get a foot in the door, learn the discipline of regular work. But the minimum wage left many teens out of jobs. [Fox News Special, 12/30/10]
EPI: "The Warnings Of Massive Teen Job Loss Due To Minimum Wage Increases Simply Do Not Comport With The Evidence." In a November 25, 2009, post, the Economic Policy Institute stated:
First, the labor market is in a severe downturn that is affecting essentially all groups. Since the recession started in December 2007, the overall employment rate has fallen from 62.7% to 58.5%, including a decline of 0.9 percentage points since July alone . . .Teen workers occupy the "last hired, first fired" rung on the job ladder, and their employment is hit much harder during downturns than that of older workers.
Rightardia agrees with Media Matters. According to Wikipedia, minimum wage laws were first enacted in New Zealand in 1894. There is now legislation or binding collective bargaining regarding minimum wage in more than 90% of all countries.
There are also exemptions from the the US minimum wage:
- Executive, administrative, and professional employees (including teachers and academic administrative personnel in elementary and secondary schools), outside sales employees, and certain skilled computer professionals (as defined in the Department of Labor's regulations)
- Employees of certain seasonal amusement or recreational establishments
- Employees of certain small newspapers and switchboard operators of small telephone companies
- Seamen employed on foreign vessels
- Employees engaged in fishing operations
- Employees engaged in newspaper delivery
- Farm workers employed on small farms (i.e., those that used less than 500 "man‑days" of farm labor in any calendar quarter of the preceding calendar year)
- Casual babysitters and persons employed as companions to the elderly or infirm
Many businesses skirt the minimum wage by hiring employees as administrative or supervisory personnel and by offering them salaries. The worker is therefore not entitled to overtime.
Most of these administrative personal do not supervise other people and they are not managers.
If you work out the math, many of these workers are actually being paid below the minimum wage.
Watch out for any company that offers you a salary and then tells you that you have to fill out a time card and says in the same breath that no overtime is authorized.
These companies know they are skirting the law and using the time cards to avoid law suits after an employee quits.
Regardless of what the company says, log the extra hours worked on the time card and make a copy of the time card for your records.
Go to Wage and Hour when you quit and report the company. Wage and hour may be able to recover some of your lost wages.
See the Media Matters evidence at http://mediamatters.org/research/201101020007
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