Monday 30 July 2012

Obama Opposes Min. Wage Increase in Samoa Due to Harmful Effects, Will He Do the Same for U.S.?

Both of these events took place last Thursday:

1.  PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — "President Obama has signed into law legislation to freeze American Samoa's minimum wage until 2015. The president signed the bill Thursday, which delays a 50-cent increase that would have gone into effect in September.

Minimum wage in American Samoa varies from $4.18 to $5.59 per hour, depending on the industry. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 provided for annual 50-cents per hour increases until the rate matched the rest of the U.S., where the minimum pay is $7.25 per hour.

Employers and a government financial report have suggested automatic increases were harming the U.S. territory's economy."

2. The Hill -- "Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and more than 100 of his House Democratic colleagues proposed legislation last Thursday that would boost the minimum wage over three years from $7.25 to just under $10 an hour.

Miller's Fair Minimum Wage Act, H.R. 6211, would increase the minimum wage by 85 cents a year for the next three years, then allow the final $9.80 an hour wage to rise with inflation."

MP: Just wondering, wouldn't the same economic reasoning, evidence, and analysis that motivated President Obama to sign legislation freezing the minimum wage because of its harmful effects on Samoa's economy also apply to the U.S.?  Can we count on President Obama to veto the "Minimum Wage Act" for the harmful effects it would have on the American economy?

Update:  From an AP report, "Congress is to be thanked for preventing further economic calamity in American Samoa and preventing continual increases to the minimum wage which would have led to additional layoffs in our fragile economy," said local Chamber of Commerce Chairman David Robinson."

Let me revise that just slightly:

 "Congress is to be thanked for preventing further economic calamity in American Samoa and preventing continual increases to the minimum wage which would have led to additional layoffs in our fragile economy," said local national Chamber of Commerce Chairman David Robinson Tom Donohue.

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