Harris Vows to End Subminimum Wages in Policy Push Before Debate
Harris Vows to End Subminimum Wages in Policy Push Before Debate
Vice President Kamala Harris is pledging to end subminimum wages for tipped workers, widening a push to eliminate taxes on tips as she jockeys with Donald Trump ahead of their first debate Tuesday.
In policy proposals posted to her website, Harris called for an increase in the overall minimum wage and for the end of the subminimum wage for tipped workers.
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And to clarify, she is also calling for an overall increased minimum wage at the same time
It won't be enough, it never will, but at least it raises it in the few states that have less than or no minimum. I'm guessing Georgia and Wyoming still have a lesser minimum because it just wasn't worth the effort to change the laws.
There's a chance they go further and make things better in the longer-term
If dems get the house and maintain the senate, there's a decent chance that some dem reps will take a crack again at tying the minimum wage to inflation. There were proposed bills in the past by dems which would do exactly that
I keep going back to this whenever someone in a US politics discussion says "Harris' campaign doesn't go far enough in ___"...
Harris can barely promise anything truly special if Republicans have even one potent avenue of obstruction, so it's up to US voters to deliver their voice towards what they want to see.
It's not only up to US voters. It's up to US citizens in general, and any workers who are working in the US, to advocate for themselves in forceful ways, including unionizing, striking, and reporting corporate crime by their bosses, among other things.
Politicians will vote for laws when they are forced to, not because the word "Democrat" appears next to their name. Election day matters, but so does every other day.
A full sweep. I don't know if it's possible this election (i.e. who is running) but the numbers need to change to enable progress.
The game is tough for Democrats, I don't think this gets nearly enough attention, but pretty much they have to win all the close races, and flip a couple more. Current Projections show 48(D+I)/2(Tossup)/50(R).
The longshot potential flips are:
- everyone's favorite real human Ted Cruz of Texas by Collin Allred
- Rick Scott of Florida by Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
About 20%, 30% chance according to TheHill. A lot of work will be needed to unseat those GOP powerhouses.
Democratic held seats that have various likelihood to flip to Republican are:
- Jon Tester of Montana to Tim Sheehy,
- Elissa Slotkin of Michigan to Mike Rogers,
- Jacky Rosen of Nevada to Sam Brown,
- Bob Casey of Pennsylvania to Dave McCormick,
- Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin to Eric Hovde, and
- Sherrod Brown of Ohio to Bernie Moreno.
A lot more work will also be needed to keep all these seats. And young people are going to have to look to the bigger picture, show up in droves if they want to prove any poll wrong.
Definitely a real possibility, but tight in the senate
The senate is likely to come down to: can Dems either maintain John Tester in Montana or flip Florida or Texas
There's also the funky possibility that Dan Osborn wins as an independent in Nebraska and overturns a deep red seat. Limited polls put him neck and neck. There's no dem in that race and Osborn has distanced himself from all parties. He said he'd likely try not to caucus with anyone, but if it didn't work out he'd caucus with whoever aligns better with his goals. He's very pro-union (he lead Kellog's strike in 2021), pro-right to repair, pro-legal weed, against corporate ballouts, against a national abortion ban, but appears a bit more conservative on immigration, so make of that what you will
That would be huge. Then the debate is back to what is a "livable wage", and how can you calculate it for differing areas. It would be nice to have constructive arguments again.
My opinion is to break it up, have an overall federal, then state, then urban. Same with any type of UBI scenario since no one thing is going to fit all needs.
It won’t be enough, it never will
I'm old enough to remember Obama raising the federal contractor wage to $10.10/hr and conservatives absolutely melting down. Shortly thereafter, we got a slew of state laws that forbade individual cities from raising the minimum wage. And then we got a vicious crackdown on migrant workers, on the grounds that they were "stealing jobs".
I’m guessing Georgia and Wyoming still have a lesser minimum because it just wasn’t worth the effort to change the laws.
Wyoming, in particular, is just warmed over feudalism. You either work for your O&G overlords as roughnecks and earn a better-than-Idaho standard of living or you work in the service sector as the servant class to the out-of-state roughnecks or you just exist as a landless vagabond hoping to survive the next winter.
Plus there are a few thousand bougie failkids living the high life in Jackson Hole on permanent vacation.
Why do we have to keep fighting for a higher minimum wage? We should just set it at a livable rate then have it automatically adjusted annually based on CPI or a similar economic metric.
Some Dems in congress have tried to propose bills that die exactly that in the past and had it get shot down by republicans
Edit: worth noting at the state level that some dem controled states have started actually doing that such as California and New York
Maine has a minimum wage pegged to inflation. It worked out great for us the last few years, since 2020 it’s gone up by $2.15.