Las Vegas Sun

December 4, 2009

Currently: 39° | Complete forecast | Log in

Higher minimum wage will be eaten up by more taxes

Friday, April 5, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Instead of raising it to $5.15 an hour, why not an even $6 or $7 or $10?

Why does the federal government decide how much a business must pay its workers? Also, something no one ever brings up -- taxes.

Anyone who works knows the more you make, the more the government takes. Using Reich's formula, $4.25 times 40 hours times 50 weeks equals $8,500 a year.

If the minimum wage is raised to $5.15 using the same hours and weeks, the yearly amount equals $10,300. This comes out to $1,800 more a year.

How much will a worker actually see of this $1,800? Federal tax, state tax and Social Security will all go up.

In high-tax states like New York and North Carolina, how much more will state and city governments take?

If the poverty level is defined as making less than say $8,500, raising the minimum wage to $5.15 on paper, will wipe out a lot of poverty.

Since the government loves to use stats and data, they can honestly say, because of government, poverty in American has gone down.

Michael Moreno

archive

  • Most Read
  • Discussed
  • Most E-mailed

Complete Listing

Calendar »

  • 4 Fri
  • 5 Sat
  • 6 Sun
  • 7 Mon
  • 8 Tue

All events on Friday »