Friday, November 07, 2008  Cleaning up under Obama  I was
looking at Obama's transition-team site, looking for some hope.
I came across a section of promises to families where Obama says
that a person who works full-time should not have to live below
the poverty line. Sounds noble enough. Current minimum wage pays
around $13,000 for full-time work, and the poverty level for a
family of two is $14,000. So, Obama wants to increase the
minimum wage. Sounds good for the worker.  But let's run some
numbers,and see how this works out for the person who employs
the worker.  Since the plumbing business is in a slump, let's
look at a hypothetical office-cleaning service with 55
employees. 5 employees make $30,000 - they're the office folks
who keep the business running, doing the the account management,
ordering supplies, accounting, etc. 10 employees make $10/hr, or
$20,000/yr - the shift managers. And there are 40 workers who
are paid minimum wage. (Let's face it - while cleaning offices
is honest work, it's not par