Had to update my diary because of this:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in the state, argued that $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage, is a good starting wage for high school students. But according to a Pew Research study, just 24 percent of people on the minimum wage are teenagers between 16 and 19.
"These are entry-level jobs and [we] would love to have enough jobs that people are moving up into greater paying jobs," Ernst said Tuesday according to Iowa's whotv.com. Ernst added that "I think $7.25 is a great starter wage for many high school students. They are just getting into work."
The Pew Research study in 2013 noted, however, that while about half of the Americans receiving a minimum wage are between 16 and 24 (50.6 percent) about three-fourths are not between the ages of 16 to 19.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2013, 1.566 million hourly workers made the $7.25 federal minimum wage and about 2 million made less than that. - TPM, 8/20/14
Rep. Bruce Braley (D. IA) has been hitting Ernst on this issue pretty hard because the majority of Iowans support raising the minimum wage. I also received this e-mail today from Braley's U.S. Senate campaign:
Last fall, the radical right shut down the government for the first time in 17 years. They’ve blocked legislation on everything from raising the minimum wage to student loan reform.
So what’s their plan to get Washington back on track? If you judge by what Speaker Boehner has accomplished recently, the answer is to use YOUR taxpayer dollars to sue the President.
Boehner and his extreme Republican friends are engaged in a ridiculous political game that’s wasting American taxpayer dollars. Please, join me and my Democratic colleagues and tell him and his Tea Party allies to quit grandstanding and start governing.
http://www.dccc.org/...
If Republicans want to know why the 113th Congress is on track to be the least productive in modern history, all they need to do is look in the mirror.
These are some of the same out-of-touch politicians who have been calling for impeachment and who voted 4 years in a row to destroy Medicare as we know it.
Now, they’re suing the President.
Radical Republicans have turned Congress into a dysfunctional political sideshow. Join me and other Democrats and sign the petition denouncing Boehner’s lawsuit against the President.
http://www.dccc.org/...
Thank you.
Bruce
Click here to add your name:
http://www.dccc.org/...
And click here to donate and get involved with Braley's campaign:
http://www.brucebraley.com/