Where is the real minimum wage?
Published 9:00am Wednesday, December 25, 2013http://www.albertleatribune.com/2013/12/where-is-the-real-minimum-wage/
Holiday shoppers and voters should beware of the bait and switch.
Bait and switch is an illegal advertising gimmick in the retail world; but, in politics bait and switch has become the way of life, the new normal.
For example: Obama campaigned for the Democratic Party’s
nomination telling everyone, everywhere he went, he was for a
single-payer universal health care system like they have in Canada; this
was the bait. Once elected, Obama pulled a switch and delivered
Obamacare/Romneycare or as it should be known, the Health Insurance and
Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010.
Another example: Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party
Gov. Mark Dayton campaigned for office saying he would raise the minimum
wage to a real living wage — this was the bait. Once elected, Dayton, a
multibillionaire, is now pushing a miserly increase in the minimum wage
which would keep the minimum wage a poverty wage — the switch.
Buyer (voter) beware of bait and switch.
The Minnesota DFL Party has a super-majority. Republicans have no say about anything; all they can do is cry.
We should at least be able to get a real living minimum wage
out of these Democrats corresponding to actual cost-of-living factors
as tracked and monitored by the United States Department of Labor’s
Bureau of Labor Statistics — the minimum wage should also be indexed to
inflation with periodic increases to improve the living standards of
working people.
Working people are entitled to this in return for their
votes, especially from a political party which makes the claim that it
is for labor.
If there are any obstacles the Democrats are encountering
that would prevent them from implementing a real living — non-poverty —
minimum wage, I would like to hear what the impediment is.
Alan L. Maki
director of organizing
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Warroad