They're Standing On My Last Good Nerve--AGAIN

I’ve never once in my life ever worked in a job that paid minimum wage, even when I was a teenager. Rather than saying that I was just lucky, I assert that I was just that good at what I did.

Some would like to attribute the truth in this apparently arrogant statement to the fact that I am one of those mean old privileged white guys that the Democrats love to tax and the liberal media loves to bash for hogging all of the money and opportunities in life.

They’d be wrong, though.

I feel like that many times in my fitful career as an engineer and business owner that I wasn’t paid what my efforts were worth, but every single time I started feeling underpaid, I could only blame myself and I either changed the situation by getting a new employer or I worked harder and stuck it out.

I’ve actually turned out to be the toughest, meanest boss that I’ve ever worked for—I worked for months at a time back in the late 1990’s without paying myself one thin dime. It’s a real downer when everyone is making money but you, and YOU own the company.

That’s why I get so angry when I see mindless, sappy, feel-good, “rob from the rich and give to the poor ” type stories like this one in USA Today trumpeting various states overriding the Federal minimum wage laws.

“More states are raising their minimum wages, pushing hourly rates above $7 in some and shrinking the role of the federal minimum wage, which hasn't gone up in eight years.

In all, 17 states and the District of Columbia - covering 45% of the U.S. population - have set minimums above the federal rate of $5.15.

That has helped cut the number of workers earning the minimum or less (for those earning tips) from 4.8 million in 1997 to 2 million last year, or 2.7% of hourly earners, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.

About half of minimum-wage earners work at restaurants. Millions more have wages that are influenced by the minimum. Its buying power is at its lowest point since 1949.

Congress last changed the federal minimum wage in 1997. The latest proposal to raise it died in the Senate in March.”

Neither the Imperial Federal Government nor the individual states have any business in setting minimum wages. They didn’t do a darn thing for my personal wages when my company was sinking underneath me—other than demand that I pay unemployment taxes, workmen's compensation insurance, and hire an accounting firm to prove that I was losing money and eventually was broke (and FYI I've never once collected unemployment or workman's comp either.)

So why should the government be allowed to run around telling business owners how much to pay their employees? From personal experience I can tell you that if you want good employees you have to pay them what they are worth. Everyone with half a brain realizes that, right?

I guess that it is no surprise that half of the “minimum-wage earners work at restaurants,” but I have a suggestion to remedy that situation…

Why don’t all of the "wage activists" and bleeding heart liberals out there that want to raise the wages of the gum-chewing waiter or waitress that just spent the last half hour ignoring their empty tea glass just toss an extra $5 or $10 out of THEIR OWN WALLET onto the table next time they are leaving the restaurant?

Sorta like putting THEIR money where THEIR mouth is, instead of spending my hard earned cash to solve THEIR PROBLEM, you know?

Is it just me?