Minimum wage rises to $6.55 per hour
The federal minimum wage rises today from $5.85 to $6.55 per hour, the second of three annual steps up to $7.25.
The grumbling among some business interests and economists has resumed as advocates for the poor ask for more.
In Nebraska, the change will apply to a few thousand people, about 0.5 percent of hourly wage earners, who are paid the minimum.
The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign is calling for a minimum wage of $10 in 2010 as “the least we can do to make up lost ground and bring the minimum wage closer to an adequate living standard.”
But some continue to argue the minimum wage is counterproductive, that employers are likely to cut the number of people they employ as they are forced to pay higher wages.
A new study to be published this fall by Joseph Sabia at the University of Georgia and Richard Burkhauser of Cornell University analyzed the effects of the 2005-06 increase in New York state’s minimum wage and found that the employment decline among vulnerable groups, such as teenagers and adults without a high school diploma, was substantial.
Philip Baker, administrator of labor market information at Nebraska Workforce Development, hadn’t seen that study.
“I can say that July 24, 2007, when the minimum wage went to $5.85, we did not see the unemployment rate rise,” Baker said in an e-mail. “It will take awhile to see if there is an effect and by a while I mean at least a year.
“The problem with trying to do it this year is the current state of the economy. … Increased fuel costs, the housing market, food prices all are hitting the economy at the same time as the minimum wage increases.
“It will be tough to isolate minimum wage as the issue,” Baker said.
The state’s Occupational Employment Survey shows the average statewide entry wage for all industries is $8.50. For metropolitan areas, it is $8.70, and the non-metropolitan area is $7.65 per hour, Baker said.
“This would indicate that many employers are already paying more than the $6.55,” he said. “Based on the current information, the non-metropolitan area will be affected more. How much it is hard to say.”
A quick survey of job openings at the state’s Workforce Development sites showed a variety of what appear to be entry-level jobs offering more than the minimum wage. Some in manufacturing were double or triple minimum wage, said Ruth Liedle, business services supervisor at Nebraska Workforce Development.
On Wednesday, there were 309 job orders offering from 600 to 900 positions above $6.55, she said.
Security guard, $8 an hour. Desk clerk, $7.50. Retail sales, $10.25, plus $2.50 more on weekends. Brick tender, $10.50.
Federally gathered labor statistics show that of 553,000 Nebraskans getting paid by the hour in 2007, 3,000 were at minimum wage, and 14,000 were below that, under a variety of exemptions, including agriculture, babysitters, apprentices, people in vocational rehabilitation programs and people employed by their family.
Federal law also allows for a training wage of 75 percent of the minimum for people younger than 20 during the first 90 days of employment.
The 3,000 people at minimum wage are just 0.5 percent of the hourly-paid labor force, the data show.
That number of Nebraskans working at the minimum wage is virtually unchanged from 2005, when there were 3,000 among 549,000 total hourly-paid workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But the number of those making less than the minimum wage is up 2,000 from the 2005 statistics.
Nationally, in 1980, about 15 percent of all workers were at or below the minimum wage. By 2005, that number had dropped to less than 2 percent. As of last year, it was up to 2.3 percent.
According to Nebraska Workforce Development, the motion picture and sound recording industry is the lowest-paying industry in the state, which, at $6.50, has the lowest entry-level average pay, and below what the minimum wage is as of today.
That means the people selling you a ticket and popcorn are probably making less per hour than you are paying for the ticket.
A year ago, a Douglas Theatres spokesman said the 2008 and 2009 legs of the latest rise in the minimum wage made higher admission prices and job cuts a real possibility.
This year, a spokesman for Marcus Theatres, which bought the Douglas Theatres, had little to say about the rise in the minimum wage.
“Our managers will manage their theaters in ways that will provide excellent guest service while minimizing the impact of rising wages,” said spokesman Carlo Petrick, in an e-mail.
Reach Richard Piersol at 473-7241 or dpiersol@journalstar.com.
The grumbling among some business interests and economists has resumed as advocates for the poor ask for more.
In Nebraska, the change will apply to a few thousand people, about 0.5 percent of hourly wage earners, who are paid the minimum.
The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign is calling for a minimum wage of $10 in 2010 as “the least we can do to make up lost ground and bring the minimum wage closer to an adequate living standard.”
But some continue to argue the minimum wage is counterproductive, that employers are likely to cut the number of people they employ as they are forced to pay higher wages.
A new study to be published this fall by Joseph Sabia at the University of Georgia and Richard Burkhauser of Cornell University analyzed the effects of the 2005-06 increase in New York state’s minimum wage and found that the employment decline among vulnerable groups, such as teenagers and adults without a high school diploma, was substantial.
Philip Baker, administrator of labor market information at Nebraska Workforce Development, hadn’t seen that study.
“I can say that July 24, 2007, when the minimum wage went to $5.85, we did not see the unemployment rate rise,” Baker said in an e-mail. “It will take awhile to see if there is an effect and by a while I mean at least a year.
“The problem with trying to do it this year is the current state of the economy. … Increased fuel costs, the housing market, food prices all are hitting the economy at the same time as the minimum wage increases.
“It will be tough to isolate minimum wage as the issue,” Baker said.
The state’s Occupational Employment Survey shows the average statewide entry wage for all industries is $8.50. For metropolitan areas, it is $8.70, and the non-metropolitan area is $7.65 per hour, Baker said.
“This would indicate that many employers are already paying more than the $6.55,” he said. “Based on the current information, the non-metropolitan area will be affected more. How much it is hard to say.”
A quick survey of job openings at the state’s Workforce Development sites showed a variety of what appear to be entry-level jobs offering more than the minimum wage. Some in manufacturing were double or triple minimum wage, said Ruth Liedle, business services supervisor at Nebraska Workforce Development.
On Wednesday, there were 309 job orders offering from 600 to 900 positions above $6.55, she said.
Security guard, $8 an hour. Desk clerk, $7.50. Retail sales, $10.25, plus $2.50 more on weekends. Brick tender, $10.50.
Federally gathered labor statistics show that of 553,000 Nebraskans getting paid by the hour in 2007, 3,000 were at minimum wage, and 14,000 were below that, under a variety of exemptions, including agriculture, babysitters, apprentices, people in vocational rehabilitation programs and people employed by their family.
Federal law also allows for a training wage of 75 percent of the minimum for people younger than 20 during the first 90 days of employment.
The 3,000 people at minimum wage are just 0.5 percent of the hourly-paid labor force, the data show.
That number of Nebraskans working at the minimum wage is virtually unchanged from 2005, when there were 3,000 among 549,000 total hourly-paid workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But the number of those making less than the minimum wage is up 2,000 from the 2005 statistics.
Nationally, in 1980, about 15 percent of all workers were at or below the minimum wage. By 2005, that number had dropped to less than 2 percent. As of last year, it was up to 2.3 percent.
According to Nebraska Workforce Development, the motion picture and sound recording industry is the lowest-paying industry in the state, which, at $6.50, has the lowest entry-level average pay, and below what the minimum wage is as of today.
That means the people selling you a ticket and popcorn are probably making less per hour than you are paying for the ticket.
A year ago, a Douglas Theatres spokesman said the 2008 and 2009 legs of the latest rise in the minimum wage made higher admission prices and job cuts a real possibility.
This year, a spokesman for Marcus Theatres, which bought the Douglas Theatres, had little to say about the rise in the minimum wage.
“Our managers will manage their theaters in ways that will provide excellent guest service while minimizing the impact of rising wages,” said spokesman Carlo Petrick, in an e-mail.
Reach Richard Piersol at 473-7241 or dpiersol@journalstar.com.
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