Rachel Maddow: Democrats baiting GOP into unwinnable minimum wage fights

By Arturo Garcia/Raw Story

The offshoot of President Barack Obama’s unilateral decision to raise the minimum wage for federal contractors, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said on Thursday, was the chance for Democrats to use their support for wage increases as a cudgel against Republicans nationwide.

“The White House and the Democrats, they have figured out a way to make this fight not about Barack Obama versus [House Speaker] John Boehner (R-OH),” Maddow said before letting out a mocking snore. “They have figured out a way to make this everybody who wants a raise versus every Republican politician who says no everywhere in the country.”

Maddow pointed out that Obama’s decision to raise contractors’ wages to a minimum of $10.10 per hour has already been followed by St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, who will do the same for all part-time city employees.

The issue has also impacted embattled New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and his state’s half of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. While Christie’s appointees face mounting legal issues, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye signaled their intent to require contractors at both JFK and LaGuardia Airports to adopt the $10.10 minimum wage. Meanwhile, the New York Daily News accused Christie’s administration of “stomping on his constituents” for not requiring the same of contractors at Newark Airport.

And historically, Maddow said, putting minimum wage increases on the ballot has paid dividends for Democrats, since they both tend to pass while increasing voter turnout, which has fueled Democratic victories.

“Everybody says, ‘Oh, Chris Christie won re-election by such a huge margin — he won by 22 points,’” Maddow said. “You know what? Same margin by which he was overruled by the voters of his state on that minimum wage issue.”

Watch Maddow’s commentary, as aired on Thursday, below.

Support for minimum wage hike goes sky high

Watch The Fast Food Strikes Spread Like Crazy

BY ALAN PYKE AND ADAM PECK/Think Progress 

Last Thursday, workers in nearly 60 separate cities walked off their fast food restaurant jobs to protest for better wages and the right to organize unions, the largest number of such strikes in a day. Organizers and workers hope the August 29 strikes marked a tipping point in a campaign that kicked off last November in New York City. Watch the strikes spread across the country in this map created by ThinkProgress:

The strikes have spread rapidly throughout the country: first to northern cities, then to the midwest and the south. Fast food workers represent both a huge potential opportunity to organize workers, with millions of people who feed tens of millions of Americans every day, and a compelling economic cause, as their wages have stagnated despite constantly accelerating profits for fast food companies. The strikes come at a time when the labor movement has watched its membership sag and its power weaken for decades. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is committing “substantial resources and manpower into growing the spontaneous fast food strikes from a local phenomenon to a national campaign,” MSNBC’s Ned Resnikoff wrote on Labor Day.

Pushing the industry’s workers out of poverty would provide huge economic benefits for the entire country. But the economic arguments for bringing the minimum wage back up to the same level of buying power it had 45 years agohave thus far failed to spur Congressional action. Activists and workers hope to continue the momentum of the past nine months, with both federally contracted low-wage workers continuing to strike in Washington D.C., and Walmart employees in 15 major cities planning protests later this week.

Raising The Minimum Wage Is A Political Goldmine

CREDIT: Wisconsin Jobs Now flickr account

BY RUY TEIXEIRA/Think Progress

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an issue that was hugely popular with the public, fit perfectly into the progressive agenda, appealed to the white working class, and split the Republican Party right in half? Sounds to be good to be true, right? Actually, it’s hiding in plain sight: raising the minimum wage.

Start with overall public opinion. The public’s views on many policy issues can be very complicated; there are nuances to the nuances, so to speak. The polling on the minimum wage, however, is about as unnuanced as it comes. People just think it’s the right thing to do and decades of attempts by conservatives to convince the public otherwise have been an abject failure. Take, for instance, this Pew Research poll from early 2013. By a thumping 71-26 margin, the public said it favored increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.00 an hour.

Moreover, there was astonishingly strong support across demographic groups. Blacks and Hispanics supported the proposal by 91-8 and 83-14, respectively, and whites felt similarly by a not-as-large-but-still-strong 64-33 margin. Those with family incomes below $30,000 supported raising the minimum wage by 79-20, but so did those with incomes above $75,000, who were also on board by a high (65-32) margin:

Unsurprisingly, Democrats and independents supported a higher minimum wage by, respectively, 87-11 and 68-28. But here’s where it gets really interesting: Republicans also supported a rate hike, albeit by a narrow 50-47 margin. So raising the minimum wage roughly slices the GOP down the middle.

This split in support has a very distinct class character. Working class (non-college) Republicans supported the proposal by 58-40, while college-educated Republicans opposed it by 60-34. Similarly, low income Republicans (less than $30,000) supported raising the minimum wage by 68-31 while high income Republicans (over $75,000) opposed such a raise by 57-40:

Of course, even strenuous advocacy of raising the minimum wage will not suddenly persuade a majority of white working class Republicans to support progressive candidates. But even modest white working class defections wouldgo a long way, even — or perhaps especially — in red states.

No wonder Alison Lundergan Grimes, who is running for Mitch McConnell’s seat in Kentucky, is making a higher minimum wage a central part of her campaign. In fact, the only really hard thing to understand here is why more candidates with progressive views on the minimum wage aren’t following Grimes’ lead. Let’s hope in the future they will.

Republican Senator Calls For Abolishing The Minimum Wage

By Bryce Covert/Think Progress

On the 75th anniversary of the landmark bill that established a minimum wage, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) called for abolishing it completely, the Huffington Post reports.

At a Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee meeting to mark 75 years since the signing of the Federal Labor Standards Act, which set a minimum wage and mandated overtime pay, Alexander, the ranking Republican on the committee, jumped into a discussion between a witness from the Heritage Foundation and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to say of the minimum wage, “I do not believe in it.” Sanders followed up, asking,

“So you do not believe in the concept of the minimum wage?”

“That’s correct,” Alexander responded.

“You would abolish the minimum wage?”

“Correct.”

Alexander went on to call instead for a higher Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor and referenced a negative income tax.

Watch the exchange:

Despite claims by conservatives, studies have shown that raising the minimum wage would not kill jobs or hurt small businesses. In fact, raising the wage can actually help businesses in a variety of ways. Nor is a raise going to mostly impact teenagers working for spare change: Nearly 90 percent of minimum wage workers are 20 years old or older, and more than a quarter are parents. And even worse, there is evidence that making such a low wage can harm a worker’s child.

While millions of workers would see a boost from a raise in the wage, it is women and people of color who stand to benefit most of all.

Raising the wage to $10.10 an hour, as Democrats have proposed, would actually bring the wage in line with its historical purchasing power. Had it been indexed to inflation in 1968, it would be $10.40 today.

While Republicans like Alexander stand in opposition to a raise after President Obama called for it, many Republicans supported it when President Bush proposed a hike, including 65 who are still serving in Congress.

Starbucks CEO Comes Out In Favor Of A Minimum Wage Increase

By Annie-Rose Strasser/Think Progress

Howard Schultz, the Chief Executive Officer of Starbucks, has added another pro-worker notch to his belt: support for increasing the minimum wage.

Schultz already has a relatively good reputation on workers’ issues; his company offers health care to all of its employees, and doesn’t mind spendingmore on health care than on coffee. Starbucks also launched, in 2011, a a pro-jobs effort where patrons could donate to a loan program that helps small businesses keep jobs and hire.

Now, he is tentatively putting his weight behind the Democratic push to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to something more like $9 or $10 an hour. In an interview with CNBC, Schultz said, “I am a supporter of the minimum wage going up“:

Howard Schultz, the head of the global coffee giant, told CNBC Wednesday that “the minimum wage issue is a double-edged sword,” because while boosting it would mean higher wages for workers, it may also discourage businesses from hiring more people.

“On balance, I am a supporter of the minimum wage going up,” he said. “We’ve got to be very careful what we wish for because some employers — and there could be a lot of them — will be scared away from hiring new people or creating incremental hours for part-time people as a result of that wage going up.”

Last week, House Republicans voted down a proposal pushed by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that would have raised the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. The Senate has made no motions to improve the wage. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), however, has pointed out that the minimum wage would be $22 an hour if it had been adjusted for inflation and worker productivity. Indexed to inflation alone, it would stand at $10.40.

Schultz is joined in his support for an increased minimum wage by Costco CEO Craig Jelinek. Jelinek, however, has said he would actually like to see it rise higher than $10 an hour.

House Republicans Vote Down Increase In Minimum Wage

By Annie-Rose Strasser/Think Progress

House Republicans on Friday unanimously voted down a bill that would have raised the minimum wage. Six Democrats joined them in defeating the effort.

The vote came after a surprise move by Democrats, who tacked onto a jobs training program bill an amendment that would have brought the national $7.25 minimum wage to $10.10 by 2015. But Republicans managed to defeat the effort while approving the bill overall.

A few weeks back, House Minority Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) came out in support raising minimum wage, responding President Obama’s State of the Union call for a wage increase. Pelosi’s effort, and the effort proposed Friday, would actually bring the minimum wage up higher than Obama’s suggestion of $9.

If the minimum wage were brought up to $10.10 an hour, it would not be a revolutionary hike; rather, it would be indexed to inflation and consistent with historical borrowing power. Had the minimum wage been indexed to inflation in 1968, it would be $10.40.

Pelosi Backs Bill That Would Raise Minimum Wage To $10 An Hour

By Travis Waldron/Think Progress

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called on Republican House leadership to take up legislation recently introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) that would raise the federal minimum wage above $10 an hour. Miller and Harkin announced the bill, which would set the minimum wage at $10.10 per hour and index it to inflation so it raised automatically thereafter, this week.

Pelosi cited recent stock gains that pushed markets to record highs even as worker incomes remain stagnant as her reason for backing the legislation, The Hill reports:

“This week, we saw something quite remarkable, the stock market soaring to record heights. At the same time, we see productivity keeping pace,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. “But we don’t see income for America’s middle class rising. In fact, it’s been about the same as since the end of the Clinton years.” [...]

“If we are going to honor our commitment to the middle class,” she said, “we have to reflect that intention in our public policy.”

Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would bring it in line with its historical borrowing power, which peaked in 1968, and indexing it to inflation would prevent Congress from having to repeatedly raise it to keep up with rising costs. The current wage would be $10.40 had it been indexed to inflation in 1968.

Top Republicans have already signaled their opposition to any increase in the minimum wage, even though 65 Republicans currently serving in Congress voted for the last increase, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007.

How Raising The Minimum Wage Could Reduce Gun Violence In Chicago

By Annie-Rose Strasser/Think Progress

It may be possible to help reduce gun violence in Chicago — a city that saw over 500 homicides last year — in one simple step: Raising the minimum wage.

A new report released by the group Stand Up! Chicago draws a clear connection between violent crime and low wages and economic inequality in the Windy City, and while raising wages alone can’t eliminate the gun violence that haunts the city’s streets, it could certainly help, the group asserts:

Decades of research have demonstrated that there is a statistically significant link between low wages, income inequality and crime. Researchers have found that the majority of increases in violent crime can be explained by downward wage trends, and The National Bureau of Economic Research reports that a twenty percent drop in wages leads to a 12 to 18 percent increase in youth crime.Other analysis shows that a 1 percent point increase in the Gini index (a measure of wealth inequality) produces, on average, a 3.6 percent increase in the homicide rates for a population.[...]

Much of Chicago’s poverty crisis is attributable to the problem of low wages and unemployment. According to a recent report by Women Employed and Action Now, the number of low-wage workers in Chicago, defined as those making $12 per hour or less, increased by nearly 30 percent over the last decade.

According to the report, 89 percent of murders and violent crimes in Chicago were in low-income areas where mostly black and Latino people live — areas where wages are lowest and extreme poverty rates are highest. Overall, the city has income inequality similar to that of El Salvador. That follows the wider national trend that poverty and income inequality results in homicides:

Raising wages won’t just be beneficial to the lives and wallets of Chicago’s poor; it will also help the city overall. Researchers at the University of Chicago found that the financial cost of the gun epidemic — between hospital bills, time spent in courts, people leaving the city, and a range of other factors — costs households about $2,500 each year. The Center for American Progress has calculated the direct costs per capita at $390 in Chicago. And homeowners could benefit from a reduction in gun violence too, since housing prices would rise by billions if fewer people were getting gunned down.

65 Republicans Supported Increasing The Minimum Wage When Bush Was President

By Josh Israel/Think Progress

President Obama’s call for a minimum wage increase in Tuesday’s State of the Union address — like nearly all of his proposals — was met with immediate opposition from Congressional Republicans. But six years ago, many of the same Republicans supported a similar proposal backed by Republican President George W. Bush.

A ThinkProgress analysis finds that at least 67 Republicans who are still in Congress today backed an increase in the minimum wage in some form, including Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

Political momentum for an increase began in 2004, after President Bush announced his support for a bill by now-Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). After Democrats won majorities of the House and Senate in the 2006 elections, a minimum wage increase became one of their first priorities. The Fair Minimum Wage Act — which also included tax cuts for small businesses — passed the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. When the increase was folded into a larger appropriations bill, it again passed with strong bipartisan support and was eventually signed into law by Bush. 26 House Republicans even signed a letterto then-House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), asking for a vote on a minimum wage increase, including current Representatives Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Peter King (R-NY), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Christopher Smith (R-NJ), and Fred Upton (R-MI). In incremental stages, the law raised the minimum wage from $5.15-per-hour to $7.25.

Though Ryan ultimately voted against the measure, he argued that he supported raising the hourly rate as long as it came with a suitable “offset” of small business relief. “Last year, I supported an increase in the minimum wage because it also included tax relief measures for employers to offset the cost of the proposed minimum wage increase,” he noted in a floor speech, as he announced “with great regret” that he could not back the bill without more small business tax cuts.

Like most Republicans, however, Ryan struck a far more defiant tone in response to Obama’s proposal, dispensing of any caveats and telling CNN that “I think it actually is counterproductive in many ways. You end up costing jobs from people who are at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.”

In addition to the letter-signers, those voting for the 2007 increase also included current Members of Congress:

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)	Sen. John Boozman (R-AR)	Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)	Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)	Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)	Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)	Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY)	Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)	Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)	Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA)	Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)	Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)	Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS)
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)	Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS)	Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)	Sen. John Thune (R-SD)	Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL)	Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA)	Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL)
Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL)	Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL)	Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL)
Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-FL)	Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA)	Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
Rep. John Duncan (R-TN)	Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA)	Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)
Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-PA)	Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)	Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC)
Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA)	Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-TX)	Rep. Candace Miller (R-MI)
Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA)	Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI)	Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX)
Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA)	Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL)	Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY)
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)	Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL)	Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID)
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX)	Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH)	Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR)
Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY)	Rep. Frank Wolf (R-KY)	Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
Rep. Bill Young (R-FL)

The minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009. Adjusted for inflation, the real hourly minimum has dropped 33 centers per hour already, since that year.

OOPS: GOP Rep. Inadvertently Makes The Case For Nearly Doubling The Minimum Wage

By Travis Waldron/Think Progress

President Obama’s State of the Union proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour and index it to inflation so that it keeps up with growth in the economy was quickly rebuked by top Republicanslike Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who claim the minimum wage will kill jobs and hurt small businesses.

Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R) chose a different reason to oppose the proposal today. A stronger minimum wage, Blackburn said, would negatively affect the ability of young workers to enter the workforce as teenagers, and would prevent them from learning responsibility like she did when she was a teenage retail employee making a seemingly-measly $2.15 an hour in Mississippi:

BLACKBURN: What we’re hearing from moms and from school teachers is that there needs to be a lower entry level, so that you can get 16-, 17-, 18-year-olds into the process. Chuck, I remember my first job, when I was working in a retail store, down there, growing up in Laurel, Mississippi. I was making like $2.15 an hour. And I was taught how to responsibly handle those customer interactions. And I appreciated that opportunity.

Watch it:

Making $2.15 an hour certainly does sound worse than today’s minimum wage, which federal law mandates must be at least $7.25 an hour. But what Blackburn didn’t realize is that she accidentally undermined her own argument, since the value of the dollar has changed immensely since her teenage years. Blackburn was born in 1952, so she likely took that retail job at some point between 1968 and 1970. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, the $2.15 an hour Blackburn made then is worth somewhere between$12.72 and $14.18 an hour in today’s dollars, depending on which year she started.

At that time, the minimum wage was $1.60, equivalent to $10.56 in today’s terms. Today’s minimum wage is equivalent to just $1.10 an hour in 1968 dollars, meaning the teenage Blackburn managed to enter the workforce making almost double the wage she now says is keeping teenagers out of the workforce.

New Jersey Governor Vetoes Minimum Wage Increase

By Pat Garofalo/Think Progress

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) today vetoed an increase in the minimum wage that was passed by the state’s Democratic senate. Using what’s known as a “conditional veto,” Christie sent the bill back saying he would sign it if certain changes were made, including: shrinking the increase from $8.50 to $8.25 per hour, phasing it in over three years, and eliminating a provision tying the wage to inflation.

New Jersey’s current minimum wage stands at $7.25, so Christie’s veto, in essence, is saying that he believes a $1 increase in the wage over three years is sufficient. As the New Jersey Policy Perspective noted, “the first year increase proposed by the governor of 25 cents will be erased by inflation by the time the third year kicks in its 25 cents.” Here are more benefits that Christie denied to working New Jerseyans:

– Wages would have increased by $439 million in the first year;

– Overall economic activity would increase by $278 million in the first year;

– The equivalent of 2,420 new full time jobs would be created;

– 537,000 people would have received an increase in wages: 307,000 New Jerseyans making between $7.25 and $8.50 per hour would’ve seen an immediate raise, and 230,000 New Jerseyans making between $8.50 and $9.75 per hour would’ve seen a raise as pay scales were adjusted upwards.

Christie vetoed the wage increase, even though the cost of living in the Garden State is about 30 percent higher than the national average, according to a study by the New Jersey Minimum Wage Advisory Commission.

Christie claimed that the minimum wage bill would threaten the slow economic recovery in New Jersey. “The sudden, significant minimum-wage increase in this bill, coupled with automatic raises each year tied to the Unites States consumer price index, will jeopardize the economic recovery we all seek,” Christie said. But as the Center for American Progress’ T. William Lester, David Madland, and Nick Bunker wrote, “We reviewed academic research that examines the effects of minimum wage increases during a recession or stretch of time with high unemployment and found significant evidence that even during hard economic times, raising the minimum wage is likely to have no adverse effect on employment.”

Top Three Myths Conservatives Use To Oppose Increasing The Minimum Wage

By Pat Garofalo/Think Progress

House Democrats have introduced a bill in the House — bound to go nowhere due to the Republican majority — that would increase the minimum wage to $10. This would give the wage the purchasing power that it had in the 1960s.

Republicans have publicly met the idea of raising the minimum wage with contempt, with Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) even nonsensically telling one constituent who asked about the Democrats’ bill to “get a job.” Meanwhile, thousands of working Americans this week rallied in favor a higher minimum wage.

Conservative opposition to a higher minimum wage hinges on a few tired arguments that ultimately protect big businesses and hurt low-income workers. Here are the favorite conservative myths when it comes to the minimum wage and why there’s really nothing to them:

1) The minimum wage kills jobs. “It’s a classic election-year ploy to make the Democrats look like they’re protecting low-income workers. I think it’s well understood that raising the minimum wage hurts workers on the lower end of the pay scale in that it does kill jobs,” said a recent statement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. However, several academic studies have shown that raising the minimum wage does not have a negative effect on employment. In fact, an analysis of state minimum wage increases showed that those state boosting their wage “had job growth slightly above the national average.”

2) Increasing the minimum wage hurts small businesses. Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) reacted to a proposal to raise the minimum wage by saying that small business owners are “going to have to lay people off.” However, two-thirds of low-wage workers actually work for big corporations, most of which have largely recovered from the recession and could therefore afford to increase wages. The three largest employers of low-wage workers have all seen large profit increases in the last few years.

3) Increasing the minimum wage only benefits teenagers. Many Republicansargue that raising the minimum wage just hurts teenagers’ ability to gain work experience. But as a new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows,nearly 90 percent of minimum wage workers are 20 years old or older. Plus, “more than a third (35.8 percent) [of minimum wage workers] are married, and over a quarter (28.0 percent) are parents.”

GOP Rep Drives Away From Constituent Asking About Minimum Wage Increase

By Scott Keyes/Think Progress
A Vietnam veteran in Wisconsin will have to wait until next year to find out if Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) supports raising the minimum wage, after the Tea Party Congressman shut his door and drove away from the question.

Yesterday, in video flagged by CREDO SuperPAC, a constituent approached Duffy outside a meeting in Wausau and attempted to ask him a question about the minimum wage. Duffy told the man he’s already held his single yearly town hall, got in his car, shut his door, and drove away, leaving the veteran tried to shout his question through the car’s rolled up window:

CONSTITUENT: Mr. Duffy, when are you going to hold your next town hall meeting?

DUFFY: We said we’re going to do one every year, and we’ve done that. So if you want to come set up an appointment in my office, we’d be happy to have you come on by.

CONSTITUENT: What I’d like to know is the law to raise the minimum wage… [Duffy drives off]

Watch it:

Last month, House Democrats proposed increasing the minimum wage to $10, allowing it to catch up to inflation over the past 45 years. Duffy has not taken a position on the bill, but fellow House Republicans continue to block it from coming up for a vote.

Sen. Ron Johnson: ‘Good workers’ don’t make minimum wage

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on Sunday defended voting against raising the minimum wage by suggesting that only bad workers earned minimum wage.

“Bottom line: when you’re a good worker you don’t stay at minimum wage for long,” he said. “Trust me on that. It’s not universal, but trust me as an employer, as an employer I certainly didn’t want to lose good employees. And so you actually have a better marketplace. And so if your employer is not paying you good wages and you’re a good worker, you go look for other places.

“Now that’s hard to do, that’s hard to do when we have such high levels of unemployment. But again I would get back to we don’t have a very attractive place for business investment.”

Johnson added that he earned minimum wage while working during college and lived in his parents house.

Democrats blasted the senator for his comment, noting that he married into millions.

“We know he doesn’t like workers and we’re not even sure if Ron Johnson supports a minimum wage, but the least he could do is keep his mouth shut on the subject when his fortune came not because of his hard work, but because of a fortunate marriage,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Tuesday.

“Being born on third base and thinking you hit a triple has led Ron Johnson to dangerous ideas that would shred our social safety net and drive wages into the dirt all to appease a master class of people that sees fit to celebrate its riches while the rest of America suffers in rags.”

Watch video of Sen. Johnson, courtesy of The UpTake, below:

Anita Perry Defends Her Husband’s Job Creation Record: ‘People Are Hungry For’ Minimum Wage Jobs

By Marie Diamond/Think Progress

Anita Perry, the wife of presidential contender and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), took to the campaign trail in Iowa today to defend her husband against a growing wave of criticism and scrutiny from the right. In between brushing away criticism of her husband’s debate performance and positions on immigration and the HPV vaccine, she made a surprising admission.

While parroting her husband’s jobs claims, she also conceded that not all the jobs Texas has created during her husband’s tenure are high-paying jobs — in fact, Texas has the highest percentage of minimum wage jobs in the country. But Perry says that’s the sort of job people are “hungry for”:

PERRY: He knows how to create jobs…We have 1,500 people moving to Texas every day to find a job. I’m not going to tell you they’re all high-paying jobs, but they’re a job, even if they’re a minimum wage job. And that’s what people are hungry for.

American Bridge captured the video:

Anita Perry’s claim that people are “hungry” for minimum wage job ignores the obvious truth that families are barely scraping by on those jobs and would much rather prefer higher wages.

As ThinkProgress has reported, the so-called “Texas miracle” of job creation Gov. Perry touts as a key reason to elect him is nothing but smoke and mirrors, built on a boom in government jobs, population growth and low wage jobs. Texas has by far the largest number of employees working at or below the federal minimum wage compared to any state.

In fact, Texas’ jobs numbers are moving in exactly the wrong direction. The unemployment rate in Texas has been steadily increasing throughout the recession, and went from 7.7 to 8.2 percent while the state was supposedly creating 40 percent of all the new jobs in the U.S. When you account for labor force growth, Texas ranks dead last in total job creation. Despite Perry’s claims that government can’t create jobs, he’s actually depended disproportionately on government jobs — between 2007 and 2010, 47 percent of government jobs were created in Texas.

As for Anita Perry, the Austin-American Statesman reports that she depends mostly on her husband’s backers for her $60,000-a-year salary. Her salary from the nonprofit where she works “comes indirectly from Gov. Rick Perry’s political donors, state contractors and companies that do business with the state or have issues before the Legislature.” In fact, contributing to Anita Perry’s nonprofit has become yet another legal way those looking to curry favor with Perry’s administration “pay to play.”