Minimum Wage

I am all to sure that most of us have at one time or another known what it was like to work hard 5 days a week and get paid minimum wage. I myself can remember working for minimum wage for a short period of time when the wage was only $5.15 per hour. It is now at $7.25 per hour. Most jobs that pay minimum wage are service industry jobs and most are pretty thankless jobs at that.

Minimum wage was intended to protect the American worker from being exploited. However, there are still 5 southern states in the country that have no minimum wage laws at all. We also have 4 states that have a lower minimum wage then the wage set by federal law. Please see the map file from the Wikimedia Commons, which is a freely licensed media file repository.

Laws regarding minimum wages in the United States

States with minimum wage rates higher than the Federal rate.

States & territories with minimum wage rates same as the Federal rate.

States with no minimum wage law.

States & territories with minimum wage rates lower than the Federal rate.

The current minimum as of July 24, 2009 is set at 7.25 an hour,the wage differs in some states. Now ask yourself this question. Do you think that anyone can live off of $7.25 an hour?The answer should be NO. at that pay rate the employee only will make $290.00 a week and that is before any taxes or any other with holdings are taken out. That just is NOT a fair wage for anyone. Several questions and answers about the minimum wage laws can be found at the US Goverment info: Minimum Wage page.


I think we all should be letting congress know that a person can not live off of $7.25 an hour. After all congress gives themselves a nice raise every year or two and they are not worried about you and I. I can promise you if members of congress had to live off of min. wage. the pay scale would indeed go way up very fast.


It is up to each and everyone of us to stand and fight to get a higher min wage for our people. The min. wage should be at least 10 dollars per hour if not more. I ask each and every one of you reading this to contact your congress person and demand that the min wage issue must be made a priority due to the importance of the issue. Let them know that if the min. wage is not increased by the time the November elections rolls around they themselves could be looking for jobs.


Until nest time my friends take care.

Should Welfare Recipients Be Drug Tested

Today's issue is a tricky one. There has been a lot of talk lately about if welfare recipients should be drug tested before receiving their checks each month? To answer that one would have to be able to determine if the folks that receive welfare checks each month use illegal drugs more then anyone else. That would be very hard to do plus the fact that drug testing is expensive.

It is also important to remember that according to early studies, the number of welfare recipients that were using illegal drugs were not that large at all. As far as my personal thoughts are concerned, I myself think that illegal drug use among welfare recipie

nts is just about the same as illegal drug use of non welfare recipients. To take that one step farther, I would think that some of the rich folks in our country have just as much problem with illegal drug use if not more then the folks on welfare. Simply because they have more money. However, some states are in favor of mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients as reported by fox news.

I am sure we do have illegal drug use in this country by welfare just as I am sure we have illegal drug use in this county by non welfare recipients. Lets take a brief look at some of the people who made it into our homes every week via television and the ones that made the silver screen light up larger then life. These people were neither poor or on welfare and they all had serious drug issues. First one that comes to mind was John Belushi master comic. Then there was one that really shook me up because he was so young and so talented his life looked so good for him and that was River Phoenix. There is also Heath Ledger, Brad Renfro.

People like this can often do as they please and avoid the law for long periods of time. Even when they are caught for the use of illegal drugs,

they have very good high priced lawyers that can get them lighter sentience .

Now one thing we all need to remember is that because one might take drugs does not necessarily make that person a bad person! What makes someone good or bad is just what they have in their heart and soul. It is sort of like liking a person but not liking what they do or not liking that person's actions at the time.

Do drug user need help to kick the habit? The answer is yes but so do most cigarette smokers and heavy alcohol users. Also, it is important to understand that alcohol is indeed a chemical and that makes it a drug. The same go's for the nicotine in tobacco. The only real difference is alcohol and tobacco are legal for adults. However both can be addicting and hard to stop using.

However, the question is should welfare recipients be required to pass a drug test to be able to get their welfare checks? In this writers opinion the answer would be Yes. Most employers already require a pre-employment drug screen before one is hired. So if we accept that then, I think that a drug screen should be done to anyone applying for welfare, food stamps, medical card or government housing. Any government assistance program should have drug screening as a regular procedure.

Most states already have the legal right to do so but some states do not want to go that far. The 1996 Welfare Reform Act authorized - but did not require - states to impose mandatory drug testing as a prerequisite to receiving state welfare assistance.

I would think that as this recession worsens and I am almost sure that it will because believe me, The United States is far from being out of the woods as far as this recession is concerned.I would think we will see more and more states require a periodic unannounced drug screening on different recipients of government assistance programs. The reason is this The government is looking to save money anyway it can and even though some say that drug screening is racist or unconstitutional, I myself do not believe it is either. I happen to think that it makes good dollar& sense to do so.

Let me say that it is OK if you do not agree with me because that is what this great country we live in is all about. Different ideas, different ways of thinking and different ways of looking at things.

Until next time folks, have a great one and take care.