A local union official sent an e-mail complaining about President Bush’s suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act in the states devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Suspending the act allows contractors to pay employees lower wages, which the administration hopes will help speed up reconstruction. But the labor official argued that substandard wages will create the need for more federal help for the working poor. And she asks: "Will the corporations — Haliburton and gang — take less profit? Will the CEOs suspend their own pay?"
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
22 Comments
No they will not…Next question?
Nobody forces the employees to accept those wages. However someone decided to use the police power of government to force contractors to pay certain wages.
So let’s see, workers have a choice while employers have guns pointed at them, lovely.
Re-build the South. Re-peal Davis-Bacon.
A fair wage is just that, where the employee does have the freedom in most cases as to if they will work for a certain wage.
That is not what this is about, if they so want the employer can pay below wages set be the government.
Ask you self this question, “do you want someone that is willing to work for $3.00 an hour. Wiring your house?”
How bout building the building you work in. You get what you pay for, pay has as much to do with professional work as it does with making a living.
You may be able to find a Doctor to do brain surgery on you for a hundred dollars. But you can bet he does not have a degree.
The same with any skilled worker.
Jiminy–must make you feel like a real man, sticking it to the small fry like that, while you wink and nod as the big fishes swim away.
If there’s a more perfect asshole on this blog than you, I have yet to encounter him or her.
Ahhh…..I always love the manual labor to brain surgery comparison…..I think it is an accurate one….
I agree that ANY meddling in private free market enterprise by the government is wrong. That includes setting a minium wage as well as capping a wage. Last time I checked there was no constitutional right to a LIVING wage….A fair wage is like a fair price when you are selling your used car….It is the price that a buyer is willing to pay….It is not determined by how much you paid for it (how much your boss makes), How much you “invested” in the car to add bling bling. (what your education level is ), nor is the price set by how much you need to pay off the rest of the debt (your financial over-obligations)
Your price is set by the number of people WILLING to do a specific task for a specific wage. If no-one is willing the wages go up until the wages are such that egnough people want to work for the wage. The suspension of the davis-bacon act does not change this dynamic.
I was listening to NPR on people who are now working for the clean-up effort. Even the suspension of the federal wages, there are people who never made as much money in their lives.
They interview several people. They are happy to get what they got and to help rebuild their lives.
I guess the unions are just trying to find a way to get some dues out of people.
For an example of a “living wage” turn to the migrant workers. How many Americans are willing to work as hard for so little money? Answer: None! The migrants had to fight tooth and nail to get decent concessions from the mega-farms. Where were the big unions then? O, ya…those were aliens…don’t bother.There is much to be done in the south and suspending the Davis-Bacon act will see that more people are employed to get things rolling.What I am interested in is how many of these same people rebuilding the south will start their own businesses? I mean, just so long as they don’t become too rich doing it. Wouldn’t want that, now would we? Shoot, they might forsake the liberals and become Conservatives…chuckle, chuckle.Ed…I am a way more perfect asshole than Jimmy.
DR–
You have the true religion, can I have an amen!
Testify, brother, testify!
The free market is God. It determines the fair market of everything, hallejuah! Poison gas or wheat for bread, it doesn’t matter, whatever turns a profit is a good thing! Amen!
Edward Lampert, a hedge fund manager, makes 4 million dollars A DAY, hallejuhah, and he’s worth every penny of it, but paying a living wage to manual laborers is contrary to GOD’s law, amen!
Remember, God wants you to be rich and Jesus was the world’s most successful CEO.
Amen!
JoeW.–
How is that a totally gung-ho I-love-business person and hate unions and progressives like yourself voted for Nader.
Nader is like the antithesis of that. He’s the most radical power-to-the-worker politician whose run in the last 50 years.
Please explain this apparent contradiction . . .
As it currently stands, minimum wage doesn’t provide a worker with a living; it simply keeps him from dying.If an employer takes a worker’s time, then he is obligated to pay him enough to support a reasonable life. Period.
Amen to that, Jed.
I didn’t say I agree with everything Nader is for. I actually disagree with him on the Globalization and multi-national corporations and Free Trade as a bad thing. I actually believe it is a good thing.
However, I do agree with Nader on the accountablity issue of government, his advocy of responsible corporate governance, consumer protection, and alternative energy. He is also much more brilliant than Gore, Kerry or Bush can ever be. I also agree with a third party should be involved in the political process.
I voted for Nader because I wanted him (or a third party) to be able to get the 5% population requirement for matching campaign funds and also a seat on the Presidental debates. Nader would have made Kerry and Bush look silly.
I also do not hate progressives. I believe progressives are Libertarians, for which I am. Liberals are not progressive, they are socialist. It is right that I do not care for unions. I believe they are bad for America. There are too much evidence of that.
Okay, Joe W., good answer and interesting. I don’t fully agree but I see where you’re coming from . . .
Joe has made me not enjoy hating him. Who the hell needs that? Ahh but I’ve always hoped some unholy alliance of the fringes might eventually bring some help to this orry mess we are in.
As to the thread; the arguement that “workers can choose to accept the given wage or not” Well that’s a lie. When you have multiple contractors funded with government money and no restrictions on the wages they must pay workers, well those contractors are gonna cooperate to keep those wages just as low as possible for the labor pool. Oh the workers do have a choice still; they can choose starvation wages and bad treatment, they can choose to try and get public assistance, they can choose to fight back against the system (crime) or they can choose to starve. My bet is most won’t choose to starve and a fair number aint gonna knuckle under.
So given the Bush Bisoni
dr thoughts on reconstruction: I suggest you folks also get out the vote for more public assistance. You might also want to get yourself a tall fence. Oh and if you are still sporting that Bush bumper sticker? You might want to remove that. Plausible deniability ya know.
Yeah, good point, JR. The more I think about Joe W. as a Naderite, the more it doesn’t make sense.
Why are so many jealous of someone who earns a lot of money?
As for minimum wage laws: As the price of something increases, less is demanded. This means that fewer people will have jobs if the minimum wage rises. That’s good for those lucky enough to still have a job, but bad luck for those workers unproductive enough to not be worth the new minimum wage to employers.
CF
You’re such a tool, Anon.
Do you really think that the CEO of Wal*Mart is worth more in two weeks than a floor worker is worth for their entire lifetime of work?
I don’t envy the rich, I just want them to pay their fair share of taxes and stop ripping the rest of us off.
EAT THE RICH.
I’ve known a lot of rich guys; none of them work as hard as the people they pay minimum wage to. They’ve just wormed or bullshitted or inherited their way into positions where they can take more.
Absolutely right, Jed.
“They [the poor] take the early bus . . . ” as Jesse Jackson says.
The rich get other people to work hard and profit off their labor.