[Breaking] Young Democrats Come Out Against Minimum-Wage Amendment
The Young Democrats of Mississippi today announced their opposition to an amendment to the minimum-wage bill passed yesterday by the House. The amendment exempts the higher minimum wage for high-school and college students working part time, meaning that businesses can discriminate against certain workers (or be tempted pass over full-time workers in favor of workers exempt from the new minimum wage). The Young Dems posted an open letter signed by President Kenneth Grigsby on their Web site today:
While House Bill No. 237 to increase the minimum wage in Mississippi is one of the most important bills to be written and passed by House Democrats this legislative session, we feel an amendment passed yesterday blatantly discriminates against young people based on age and their desire to have an education.
Amendment No. 1, introduced by Rep. Joey Hudson (D-91), eliminates part-time high school employees and part-time college student employees from earning the new minimum wage as set forth by the bill. If the bill passes, in 2008, the minimum wage will increase to $7.25 for all workers, except students.
This amendment is clearly unacceptable as it affects hard working students trying to balance the rigors of going to class with the challenge of also working a part-time job. For many high school and college students, working while you are in school is not an option, it is a necessity. By working and going to school, these young persons exemplify the type of responsibility and commitment that our state often requests from young people.
Posted by ladd at 09:56 PM in Legislature, Workforce, JFP | Email this entry
Comments:
Cheers to young Mississippians for standing up for their rights and against discrimination. Jeers to the Dems in the House who went along with such a charade. 
Posted by on 01/10 at 11:02 PM | #
The more I see of the YDA, the more convinced I am that they need to be the ones running the party now, and not just in 20 or 30 years.
Cheers,
TH
Posted by Tom Head on 01/11 at 09:11 AM | #
I know what you mean. I love that they are willing to stand up against the dead weight in the party that does stupid stuff like this. Mississippi Democrats just can’t seem to figure out why they’re losing elections. You know that phrase “get real” (or “be real” or whatever variation)?it means lose the fake crap, and that includes stupid political moves that discrimination, whether against women or against young people. Or whomever.
Posted by on 01/11 at 12:55 PM | #
Agreed--and especially whomever. I get the feeling sometimes that we have a state Democratic Party that would much rather lose elections than be seen as the party of blacks, or women, or young people.
Cheers,
TH
Posted by Tom Head on 01/11 at 03:56 PM | #
All for something until it hits your pocket book personnally. What happened to sacrificing for all those hard working “families” surviving on minimum wage. Can’t we still support the bill to save those poor folk?
Posted by on 01/11 at 10:07 PM | #
Those hard-working families have young people in school working part-time to help make ends meet. It doesn’t make sense to sacrifice students in this. There’s no reason to.
Posted by on 01/11 at 11:17 PM | #
I hate to say it, but there’s no reason to support this bill at all until we find out the fate of the federal minimum wage hike because the two bills are essentially identical, other than the discriminatory anti-youth clause in the Mississippi version.
If the minimum wage passes in the U.S. Senate with the same veto-proof majority by which it passed in the House, then the Mississippi bill immediately becomes obsolete because it does not raise the minimum wage past the figures given in the federal legislation.
I get the very distinct feeling that state legislators proposed this bill early so that they could take credit for voting for a minimum wage increase, and put Barbour or the state Senate on the spot for killing it, without having to propose anything beyond the federal guidelines. I don’t think we really have time for that kind of political bullshit.
Cheers,
Posted by Tom Head on 01/14 at 12:29 PM | #
Oh, and the other thing about this bill that pisses me off: Let’s say you are 16 years old and working to put food on the table. Best way to make more money? Drop out of high school. Or let’s say you’re 20 and in the same situation. Best way to make more money? Drop out of college. Wonderful message we’re sending, isn’t it? We should be providing incentives for people to stay in school, not disincentives.
Cheers,
TH
Posted by Tom Head on 01/14 at 12:32 PM | #
Dropping out of HS or College is only a guarantee of future poverty.
Posted by on 01/14 at 06:29 PM | #
That’s all too often true… Which is why I hate this bill for making youth choose between present poverty or future poverty. If we’re serious about keeping youth in schools, then there is no sense--no sense at all--to having a student penalty.
I don’t know why the legislature approved this, but it really makes me think that we’re going to have to land on the Democrats hard--and not just the Republicans--to keep MAEP funded in non-election years.
Cheers,
TH
Posted by Tom Head on 01/14 at 10:14 PM | #
