Welcome to this community supported and guest-produced edition of the Best of the Left

Podcast with clips today from youtube.com, The Sam Cedar Show, C-SPAN, Mike Maloy, Chris

Rock and CNBC.

No one who works for living in our nation should have to live in poverty. Yet in America today,

a minimum wage work of a works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, earns $10,700 a year.

For a family of three, that's almost $6,000 below the poverty line. Yet across the country,

today there are millions of mothers and fathers for whom that's the reality.

The CEOs from your wealthiest corporations in this country earn more in four hours

than a minimum wage worker earns in an entire year. And yet the Republican majority found the time

to make life easier for the most well-off 1% of people in this country,

but no time at all to help those who need it most. What kind of values does that represent?

Tell me back everyone, paying your bills with a 1997 wages is something almost two million

people are struggling with in America, making eight minimum wage that hasn't been increased in almost

ten years.

Five to fifteen an hour, it's the minimum wage in America, a rate so low even fast food joints

offer more. I don't get paid minimum wage, I'm going to pay a little bit more, but

by 15 you can't even really live on that, especially if you have your own bills, your own rent,

your own car, your own home, it's gone hard. With the Democrats now firmly in control of

Congress and one of the first things on their agenda will be to raise the minimum wage.

The effect that higher labor costs will have on small businesses is an issue that's been

debated for that practically, but now there is a new data showing that raising the minimum wage

is not all that bad for business. The federal minimum wage has stayed at the same level for the past

...