Senate panel votes down minimum wage increase

[TexasTowelie]

A Senate panel Thursday tabled legislation that would gradually increase Montana’s minimum wage to $12 an hour, likely spelling an end to efforts to increase the wage this session.

Lawmakers on the Senate Business, Labor and Economic affairs voted down a motion to send the bill to the floor, 5-6, with the committee’s chair, Sen. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, raising concerns that increasing the minimum wage could have an adverse effect on employment.

Senate Bill 187, proposed by Philipsburg Democratic Sen. Mark Sweeney, would increase the state’s minimum hourly wage to $10 in 2022, adding a dollar each year until 2024. Montana’s current minimum wage is $8.75 an hour.

Sweeney has marketed the bill as an incremental approach to bettering the lives of low-wage workers in the state without expanding government programs. The buying power of the minimum wage has eroded during the years, and a gulf has widened between Montana’s minimum hourly wage and its median hourly wage. At the same time, the number of minimum wage hours worked by adults as opposed to teenagers in their first jobs — the demographic that opponents of wage increases often cite — has increased.

Read more: https://dailymontanan.com/briefs/senate-panel-votes-down-minimum-wage-increase/

[2naSalit]

1. We've instantly become...

A mini-t***pwerld. I might have to leave.

[LaMouffette]

7. Please don't move! We can't afford to lose a single Dem in Montana!

I'm actually wondering how we can get the word out to get more Dems to move here. I don't want to lose what's wonderful about Montana, but right now, we are outnumbered and could use an infusion of Blue to counter the Red.

[Delmette2.0]

2. I am so sad for my beautiful state.

The people have turned ugly, uncaring about others and refuse to consider any alternative thought.

This is a big FU right in their faces. There are tax cuts for businesses and no liability if your employees get COVID when you have done "reasonable" efforts to prevent it.

And the employees don't get an increase in minimum wage.

[MontanaMama]

3. I am too Delmette.

It’s embarrassing and so disheartening what’s happened to Montana since the election. We elected every horrible person possible. The average home price here in Missoula is $399,000....how in the world can most people afford this marking less than $12 an hour? It’s not possible.

[Delmette2.0]

4. Right!

I couldn't take care of my house, yet my son and daughter-in-law could not afford to buy even a basic fixer upper. I sold them my house for what was left on the mortgage. These sweet kids covered all the closing costs and insisted on a small nest egg for me. They still came out ahead in the long run and are free to sell anytime. What is currently on the market are cracker boxes.

[MontanaMama]

5. Montana got discovered during the pandemic.

People from all over the country are here now that they’ve figured out they can telecommute from Montana.

How wonderful you could sell your home to your son and daughter-in-law! Your home can stay in the family. Yeah...a quarter of a million dollars buys nothing but a run down fixer upper now. It’s a heartbreak.

I am hopeful Gianforte is a one term governor. We have to make it so.

[Delmette2.0]

6. So much to talk about.

As far as the out of state buyers go. They will leave as soon as there is a forest fire or they are snowed in for a month. Snowed in won't happen this year...Texas got all the moisture and cold. But we have to save Colstrip!

GG is a you-know-who wanna be. And he hasn't learned anything from Kansas, Oklahoma or Texas. I relaxed for about two minutes on election night. We got Biden and Fucking GG.