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StumbleMinimum wage hike to raise pay of 100,000 Nevadans
Monday, March 29, 2010 | 4:31 p.m.
CARSON CITY – The minimum wage for an estimated 100,000 Nevada workers will be going up 70 cents an hour starting July 1.
State Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek said the official details will be announced Friday, but the calculations already have been made.
The federal minimum wage has risen 70 cents an hour in each of the past three years.
For a worker with health insurance coverage from his or her employer, the hourly rate will rise from $6.55 to $7.25, which is equal to the federal rate. For a worker without medical coverage, the rate goes from $7.55 to $8.26 an hour.
Overtime pay will also be increased. For those workers without medical coverage, the rate goes to $12.37 an hour. For those with health insurance, the overtime rate increases with $10.87.
Tanchek is required every year to set the rate on April 1 to be effective July 1. The rate for the coming year will be equal to the federal level for those workers with insurance and $1 more an hour for those without medical coverage.
Kelly Karch, deputy administrator for the state Division of Employment Security, said the latest estimate is 100,800 workers were earning the minimum wage in 2008. That's 7.9 percent of the state's workforce.
There is currently no breakdown of those with or without medical insurance coverage.
The Nevada Constitution bars tips from being counted against the minimum wage.
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Outstanding!! Who thought of this one? Now small and mid sized businesses and employers will be laying off even more people due to having to reach into their already slim profit margins for the hourly wage increase! exactly the WRONG thing to do..
they should have LOWERED the wage.
you have low supply = jobs.
you have high demand = people looking for work.
= price (wage) should be lowered.
Great news for those who get to keep their jobs. How many people will lose their jobs as the cost of labor rises when small employers cannot raise prices and have fewer customers? Is the official goal of this government to put everyone on welfare? It seems like a plan, they cannot be doing all this by accident.
They did not give a raise for SS.
liberal = i failed economics.
anyone...EVERYONE that has ever run something as basic as a lemonade stand knows you do NOT force a higher employment cost during a recession.
you want to REDUCE that cost to encourage businesses to hire people.
you RAISE wages when company ABC has 10 openings and company XYZ has 10 openings and there's only 19 people looking for jobs and one company is going to have to pay just a little more than the other one to lure that 19th worker.
but, minimum wage people are usually liberals...so...they're too dumb to understand that when they cash that new larger check, everything will cost more at wal-mart to absorb the higher employment cost.
you're going to see 20% unemployment in vegas by the end of the summer.
AND INFLATION!!
Who would ever have thought that Minimum Wage / Overtime Pay could be $ 12.37 per hour ??
You know , it really doesn't make any difference because no company will ever pay this wage !
More and more full time jobs are becoming part-time jobs and of course , with no benefits.
You think this recession has been pretty tough thus far ? .... Part II is coming and it only gets worse !!
IF THE ECONOMY OF 1968 WERE *TODAY*
THE MINIMUM WAGE (ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION OF 522.8%)
WOULD BE
$9.96 AN HOUR.
THE REASON IT HASN'T KEPT UP IS THE EXPORTING OF MILLIONS OF JOBS OVERSEAS AND THE ILLEGAL ENTRY OF MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS AND THEIR ANCHOR BABY OFFSPRING......
There are very few jobs out there that actually pay minimum wage but I'd like to see you people live off minimum wage. It's ridiculous to pay anyone this little.
I am amazed that tips are not permitted to be counted toward wages, as is certainly true in Chicago.
But, I have always been told that waitreses rely on tips, as do many others--including, I guess, dealers.
Now that I know this, WHY SHOULD I TIP?
All the illegals get a raise.
see, i don't think there should be a minimum wage at all. i think it actually has the reverse effect because the bottom-rung workers get a raise, but the $14 - $15 per hour people don't get that automatic raise and they actually LOSE money because they have to pay for the minimum wage earners' raises in higher costs.
The minimum is generally--I thought--a key factor in the price of goods. Because when you go in to a store to buy something, the clerks are, I suppose, generally getting this wage.
Automatically then the price of EVERYTHING goes up. This effects everyone and higher paid workers may now demanding more money--setting off a spiral of wages and prices.
When you look at stores--some supermarkets and department stores--where you can't find a clerk or you have to wait and wait to pay and leave; it seems clear management wants to do practically anything but hire more workers. This without a raise in the minimum.
We should roll minimum wage back to where it started when this country was founded..then by god this countries business men could compete with all those 3rd world conuntries who pay their workers pennies a day as americans once were paid. Let the workers eat cake.
why stop on eliminating the minimum wage? eliminate the child labor laws, all unions,all pensions, pay women 40% less than the men, build debtor prisons to hold the overflow, abolish all anti-trust legislation, dump social security and medicare; you hard asses are a bunch of pikers when it comes to straightening out this economy. to paraphrase marie antionette, " let them eat beans!"
And the rest of the story is that jobs will be lost. Increased wages result in increased prices which results in fewer people affording to purchase which in turn results in more layoffs. Economics 101.
Thank the Democrats who insist that minimum wage should be a living wage; something it was never meant to be. Then as an added bonus the people here in NV voted to always have the state's minimum wage $1 more than the federal wage a few years ago.
Minimum wage is a terrible idea from an economic sense. All the places that pay workers minimum wage will raise their prices to cover the new costs and probably cut jobs too.
But it's okay because we feel better about ourselves for raising the wage right?
70 cents an hour?!? Outrageous. How can someone live on the pittance. The best solutions is to make minimum wage $500 an hour. That would make everyone a millionaire in short order. (40*500 = 20000/week * 50 weeks a year (after all how can you expect someone to actually work the entire year) = $1 million.)
I mean even the burger flippers need to be millionaires.
It's for the kiiiiiids... And think of all the taxes Harry, Nancy, and BO can play with. 300 million people each making a million bucks...
"For a worker with health insurance coverage from his or her employer, the hourly rate will rise from $6.55 to $7.25, which is equal to the federal rate".............
How can the Neveda minimum wage ever be less then the Federal Minimun wage???? The Federal wage will prevail.
dipstick = i failed economics.
we HAVE to get over the "warm and fuzzy" and "make love not war" 1960's hippie liberalism in this country.
all it is doing is creating more and more government dependent families who never, ever, put anything back into the system.
I wonder if a single one of you who oppose the increase actually makes minimum wage...probably not. Minimum wage increased last year and I didn't see an AUTOMATIC increase in goods. Just because it's the basics of economics doesn't necessarily mean that the effect is literal for EVERY consumer product and/or service. Vegas really needs some middle ground media instead of all this overconservative crap. It leaves us stuck with one sided opinions instead of the truth. How about all those people out there GRATEFUL for the increase? Who really cares about the people making 14-15 dollars an hour? They're probably not worrying as much as the person working two jobs at minimum wage just to get by.
Minimum wage jobs should never be looked at as a way to support a family comfortably. Minimum wage jobs are for children that are still in school, retirees and people that are new to the work force. Mothers and fathers have no business trying to support a child on the bare minimum. Spare us the sob stories.
No the effect is not literal for every good and service, but it is for those areas where MW is prevalent, fast food for example. It is not an outrageous assumption to say that prices in that sector will increase to offset the cost increase.
So from your point, if you're making more than MW a present then this issue doesn't affect you? What about the people already employed in MW prevalent jobs who have earned merit increases? Those raises are effectively wiped out by the increase since it raises everyone to a new wage level regardless of if they deserve it. Just because someone makes more than MW, it doesn't mean that an increase doesn't reduce their buying power.
Was every job out there meant to give you a nice living? So many people act as though employees are held at there place of employment at gunpoint. On the other end these same people applaud the governmental force against the employer.
What merits a higher award anymore? Obviously starting a business is frowned on by the media and many citizens.
On the other hand, being a Hollywood Actor that makes millions is applauded. Cameron Diaz made about $1 million an hour for Shrek2 but since she is liberal its okay. Sport strike contracts worth millions but that's okay. However if a business owner hires employees and both parties agree to the wages, the business owner is the evil person.
What is the end game with minimum wage? Is it to give everyone $20 an hour. If so, test it out and see what happens.
The secret to success : hire a bunch of guys at $5 PER HR off the books ,no tax or insurance,run your competition out of business.then tell everyone what a great businessman you are.Then you can get a job at some county college teaching economics 101.
why does this town put a premium on security yet pay very little?
@Steve
"...they're too dumb to understand that when they cash that new larger check, everything will cost more at wal-mart to absorb the higher employment cost."
-----
Minimum wage earners in the service industry will have extra "little" cash to spend with this minimum wage increase. It all goes back to the economy. As far as employers sure they will raise prices on some items/services but NOT ON ALL items and services if they want their businesses to survive. Customers know a particular business with high prices and stay away from it, at least I do. As people already know, stores/restaurants always have special deals to entice people to come in and patronize their businesses. For those who cannot absorb this extra cost, they will go under and close down but there is always the competitor to take over. So this very small minimum wage increase will be appreciated by everyone and the government.
"they should have LOWERED the wage."
Only someone who doesn't have the sense God gave a billy goat would say that.
again,...
if you can't prove that i am wrong, and all you can do is call me "stupid"...then you really don't have an argument.
the fact is that i am 100% correct in my statement. ask any economics teach at even the high school level.
you never raise costs on a business when their sales are down. if you had the sense of a billy goat...you'd understand that.
Look a the ecomnomics of scale. If you have a business with 1 minimum wage employee your increased expenses will be just over $1500.00 (.70/hr X 2080hrs X (the percentage of employer paid employment taxes)= approximately $1500.00.
That does not seem so bad. But if you run a business based on unskilled minimum wage labor and have 100 such workers your added expense is over $150,000 and could mean the difference between just getting by and going under.
Now take into account that this happens for 3 years. Over that time expenses have increased almost 1/2 a million dollars just due to the increase in the base wage. Not many companies can withstand this type of increase.
I'm not saying there should be no minimum wage, but the amount of increase over such a short period of time is a rather large burden for some business to bear.
Also, minimum wage is just a starting point. This type job should be entry level and not something a person wishing to support themselves or their family should aspire to achieve. Once in this type of job one must do what is necessary for advancement, should that be education, on the job training or looking for a different job.
Wealth distribution. Take from the business owners and give it to the illegal alien work force.
Well since all low wage workers will be getting health insurance they will not be able to get that fabulous $8.26 & will have to settle for that $7.25. Not much to celebrate for them yet im glad i'm happily retired..Woot woot!!
It will raise the income of a lot of low-income people but it will also put a few thousand low-income people out of work.
Red,
If you want people to stop working two jobs to get by, eliminate the 40 hour work week job so they can keep the job they like best and work as much as they need to support their family,
Riesling,
A tasty wine but, you're forgetting one thing. Yes, low-income earners make more and can spend that in the economy but you forget that the money has to come from somewhere else. It means employers and consumers have less to spend in the economy. At best, raising the minimum wage has no benefit to the economy as a whole.
Remember, if $9.65 an hour is a great minimum wage, why not $25 an hour? How about $100 an hour? Surely those must be much better. At these absurd rates pretty much everyone can understand the effect it would have on the economy.
*$7.25
Also, Mr. Ryan did they not have a more updated number of minimum wage workers in the state? For half the year in 2008 they made $5.85 an hour and the other half it was $6.55. This is another 70 cents. With our struggling economy, I wonder how many minimum wage workers kept their jobs from 2008 to 2009 and from 09 through 10.
The 1 trillion dollars paid to the top 1% of corporate executives - if divide amongst the other 99% would pay for national health every year, and give every one a everyone a raise of $2000.
The reason this economy is a disaster is because too much money goes to rich people and RICH PEOPLE DO NOT INVEST IN MAKING JOBS.
THIS HAS BEEN PROVED IN REPEATED STUDIES.
As conservative as I am, I'm actually okay with the minimum wage increase. If I have to provide insurance benefits I'm laying people off.
I have a budget to balance.
NOBODY making minimum wage has any resemblance of a life.period end of story!
I dont care how anyone spins it,if you make roughly 200.00 net after 40 hours,you have no life,or any hope of a life UNLESS you have a POS car,POS apt with 5 roomates,eat ramen everyday,dont maintain insurancce,never leave the den,dont buy gas,etc,etc,etc
The average person spends 75.00 weekly just on FOOD,so someone is going to tell me that the 125.00 will carry you through daily life,after they purchase food
I know one thing,if i did earn the minimum,my number 1 aspiration would be to advance my career/occupation/present position any way i could
peace out
bob635 -
The rich people know how to create revenue and run businesses. Without them there is no wealth and no jobs.
again...
liberal = i failed economics.
"The reason this economy is a disaster is because too much money goes to rich people and RICH PEOPLE DO NOT INVEST IN MAKING JOBS.
THIS HAS BEEN PROVED IN REPEATED STUDIES."
ok, give us ONE link to a "study" to prove this moronic statement.
how many welfare moms are hiring workers?
how many rich people are hiring workers?
how many welfare moms have businesses?
how many rich people have businesses?
By Henderson, if Corporate America had its way, all workers would be indentured servants.
Minimum wage is really 7% higher because the employer matches your social security. Minimum wage is not what is important take home wages are what is important and with the taxes that come out of our wages for corrupt government spending take home wages are low. Stop the stupid spending and increase our take home wages.
The total elimination of the minimum wage is one of the rare issues on which I find myself in agreement with my conservative Republican friends.
A much better arrangement would be the institution of a guaranteed annual income by means of a negative income tax. As proposed by those two conservative Republican icons, economist Milton Friedman and President Richard M. Nixon it would be at a level sufficient to provide, along with supplemental "safety net" benefits, a social minimum of food, housing, health care and education.
Of course, this might cause folk not to be willing to work for a wage less than that guaranteed income and might result in the loss of some fast food emporiums and other businesses that have to rely on cheap "sweat labor" to survive, but hey, that's what competition is all about, right?
I hope all my conservative Republican friends will join me in pushing this proposal. Let's get rid of the minimum wage!
And why is it the responsibility of the rich to pay for those who aren't? I am a middle income/high low income earner and feel it is a crime to demand those (especially those who have taken risks to become wealthy) people take care of the rest of us. It is up to me, myself and I to take care of my family and myself. It is not yours or anyone elses (including the government) responsibility to take care of me. If out of those people's charity, they feel the need to contribute to the rest of the countries care, it is there right. It should not be demanded or forced upon them. If you want to be rich, get some guts and take the risks. If not, shut up and go on with your life. YOU, WE are not ENTITLED to anything (including healthcare). The constitution gives us the right to life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness, it doesn't guarantee it.
@Patrick
I have worked as a bookeeper for a mini-market/gasoline station many years ago and trust me these employers make lots of $$$$$$$$ while their help gets minimum wage. These business owners can afford an extra 70 cents an hour. These employers do not give mandatory cost of living raises or merit raises that is why the turnover is so high and they really dont care since there will always be someone out there that will work for a minimum wage while they continue to rake in the profits by a big margin.
If the minimum wage is never increased, when should it be engraved in stone? Five years ago? Ten? Thirty? So, if it were frozen at, say... $2.55/hr, then by definition these workers are subsidizing the employer by absorbing inflation. How handy! And of course these business owners would be more than happy to freeze their prices and profits at 1966 era levels, right? So now that we have a Business Utopian wage, who will be willing to work for that subterranean compensation? Those without a choice.. illegals! Except that most anti-minimum wage advocates also seem to rail against illegal immigrants too.
If an owner's business model cannot maintain a current minimum wage, it's nature's way of saying the owner works the counter.
Be MrTeatime, get your pecker out of your facial orafice, have you noticed that wages are lower in Las Vegas than other metropolitan areas? Why, because Corporate America exploits the unemployed and pays as little as possible regardless as to whether a person can support themselves on such pittance. Why do you think companies like WalMart force employees to work off the clock? Why do you think full time employment in the gaming industry is fast becoming extinct? Do you think it is because they can't afford the benefits or to pay employees for all that they work? If Corporate America cannot afford benefits to the workers, why then, can they afford astronomical benefit packages for upper management?
kenodave: If your jealous of upper management then become upper management and quit your whining!
Yea, reagan's trickle down only ends up in the pockets of big business and the GOP--completely bypassing the middle class and poor. Yet, the GOP have managed to convince at least 25% of America to support them in their efforts to divide America and ensure the poor stay that way.
It's amazing what suckers people can be...usually in the name of religion, fighting against their own best interests to support a failed conservative ideology that is not good for America, or for them. A goper claims religion, and they have an insta-following of religious zealots--facts aren't considered for the blindly faithful, and the raging hypocrisy and pathological lies, of the republican party are quickly overlooked--yea, blind faith.
Know this: The GOP are not working for you or me. They work only for themselves and the big business cartel. Vote the SOB's out of office.
It should be $10.00 an hour. They throw Trillions into Wall Street and the Banks.
Comment removed by moderator. Comment contained vulgar language.
kenodave,
Indentured servants? I don't hesitate to pay decent wages, but if each employee in my division is going to cost an additional $2000 per year we'll be doing some number crunching, reorganizing, and possibly splitting up the company in ways that bring our organization under the limit. I imagine there are a lot of organizations that will splinter into smaller groups by incorporating departments and lowering head count.
The good news is that with more of you losing jobs, you should get a greater insurance subsidy.
Yaaaaaaay!
a fair minimum would be based on an amount that allows a person to pay a low market rent at about 30% of their pay and allow enough for food and clothes. It would be more than the amounts in these things. It is all unsettling - obviously some will lose jobs and others will seriously suffer. We have to continue to struggle with questions of social justice
How many outraged posters on this article are retired and are sitting @ home, collecting SS and pension checks? A little bump in minimum wage -- $28 per week -- has sent your chairs a rocking. The cleaning staff in our office gets paid minimum wage, not one of them is illegal, they are mostly native Nevadans, they get very little paid time off, no sick leave, no holiday pay, no health benefits. When the office is on a holiday, they go without pay for that day. They are struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table, just like every other average family in Nevada. The ONLY way they would ever get a raise in if the Feds regulate it. Walk a mile in their shoes before you condem their raise.
"Walk a mile in their shoes before you condem their raise."
I worked minimum wage jobs... when I was 16. I would never dream of trying to live my current life on minimum wage... That is why I decided to get some training and find a better paying job. Maybe they should do the same?
blueberry,
Pensions are not community funds, first of all. People invest in their retirement throughout their working life, at least smart ones do, so they should be entitled to collect their savings when they retire without scorn from you.
Secondly, if we all contributed our "medicare" deductions into a sound investment we would be miles ahead in terms of what we would collect in retirement.
I also take some exception to the fact that you know none of your cleaning staff is illegal. Even when I worked at the MGM Grand, there were housekeepers on the payroll that were not legal. For the good employees, fake documents were sufficient.
Good for you, jbone for getting out of the minimum wage cycle. Not all are as lucky as you. And to Henderson, And just where did you live when you were working and contributing to your pension? My guess is that you did not work in Nevada and that you brought your "I've got mine" attituded here along with your pension after you retired. Had to get away from those state taxes, didn't you. You are now part of the problem and not part of the solution and do not look to Nevada as community but as just a place to live. And yes, in fact I do know that the cleaning staff are not illegals. There are only five of them and yes, I personally know each and every one of them -- they are Italian, Irish, German descent and come from normal, hardworking families. Just because they make minimum wage does not make them into idiots or scum. I may have gone to college but they didn't have the same breaks I had.
blueberry
I am living, working, and contributing to my pension as we speak. I've been in Vegas for 20 years now and I won't retire for another 20 years at which time I may stay here a0nd I may not. When I do retire I am perfectly entitled to the money I've put aside for my retirement because it's my money. I've worked hard to earn it and I've sacrificed a lot to put it away now so that I can retire with dignity. So yes, I'm working hard for mine and I plan on keeping it. Do you have a problem with that?
The demise of the middle class is the undoing of the American economy. Minimun wage increases will have marginal effects on the economy either way. What is killing the American economy is the lack of private ownership of business. Once you put a company on the Exchanges it no longer is responsive to the needs of it's clients or employees (both of whom are prone to loyalty) you make it responsive to the desires of investors who are fickle and completely self-serving.
"Good for you, jbone for getting out of the minimum wage cycle. Not all are as lucky as you."
It's not a matter of 'luck' or about getting "breaks", and the sooner people like you figure that out, the better. I no longer make minimum wage because I applied myself and worked hard to learn skills that would make me valuable to companies that pay well.
Ghostcommander,
Try talking out of your mouth next time.