Wanna be Startin’ Something
Monday, July 20th, 2009Have you heard? This is Michael-Jackson-passing big. Um okay, maybe not. At least, not if you watched CNN a few weeks back (all MJ death, all the time). But still . . . the federal minimum wage goes up from $6.55 to $7.25/hour on 24 July 2009. Which happens to be Pioneer Day in Utah. Coincidence, you ask? Mark Sanford ‘hiking in the Appalachians’ would certainly beg to differ. And what a better way to celebrate the rugged, perseverant, death-cannot-conquer spirit of the first religious settlers in the Salt Lake Valley than by dropping an extra seventy cents per hour (less FICA and medicare, of course) in the checks of nearly two million Americans.
This is the last of three increases from a law passed back in 2007 during the Dubbya administration. The official title of the law that included this three-tiered increase was called, oddly enough, “The US Troop Readiness, Veterans Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007″. Well of course you’d expect to see a wage increase provision buried in that sexy moniker. Me-yow!!!
I see it coming already. “Who cares?”, you’re thinking to yourself as you take that last bite of Twinkie. Some zit-faced stoner who wants to know if you’re going to super-size your order gets some extra dime-bag cash to help him until his voice quits cracking. “Good for him”, you proclaim to yourself.
Well, maybe not so much. Not good for him (if he really knew what was good for him, especially long-term). Not good for his boss/restaurant owner. Not good for you Ms. Consumer. Next blog I’m going to tell you why, painting a real-life scenario involving a very nice client of mine whose business world is about to get rocked. Until then, beat it. Either that or don’t stop ‘til you get enough (Hee! Hee!).
