(the Chair is of course normally the President of the Senate: the Vice President of the United States, but is sometimes the President Pro Tempore of the Senate: Patrick Leahy (D-VT))
@Wipqozn I would support a $15 minimum wage almost everywhere in the US. But a dollar in Alaska and a dollar in West Virginia are not the same thing.
If employers can't afford to pay their workers, everyone suffers.
So, the issue seems at least too complicated to rush.
Pass the other stuff now, and then give the minimum wage the consideration it deserves.
I would rather see a federal law that requires all states have a minimum wage of no less than some number relative to the lowest cost of living area of the state.
Texan files $1 billion class-action lawsuit after receiving $9,000 electric bill abcnews.go.com/US/…
@Jolenealaska The only employers who wouldn't be able to afford a wage hike would be this small, locally owned businesses. For those companies there should be government programs in place where part of the wages are paid by the government. Nova Scotia does something (or at least used to) with co-op (intern) students. If students are paid a high enough wage ($20/hr) then the government paid for part of the salary. Quite a bit of it, I think.
Some local GOP leaders fire up base with conspiracies, lies apnews.com/article/…
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@Jolenealaska I go agree $1 in Alaska is different than a dollar in new York, but I don't think the federal government can mandate minimum wage per state? It's an all it nothing thing?
So is states won't set reasonable minimum wages themselves, then the federal needs to step in and apply the best solution they can.
This specific case is interesting, as the customer claims they were actually without power most of the week in question. Also because they were hooked to auto-pay from the customer's bank account, and withdrew all available funds without warning
@MBraedley badly written, vague, unenforceable, or downright illegal contracts are something the court system sees all the time, and the size of the company (or the redness of the state) has little bearing on how airtight any one contact might be.
The insanely bad optics of the situation, as well as political pressure (from all parties) might also be a factor in how this plays out
Not saying the suit will succeed, but the prediction it will fail seems premature
@Nzall Not sure. Part of the claim is that however it was calculated (they claim wrongly), it resulted in the immediate draining of the plaintiff's entire bank account, followed by unresponsiveness to contact
(Not that this wasn't already reported, but this is the official finding of the US government. Note also that the Biden administration is releasing the report, but the conclusions had already been reached under the prior administration)