The minimum wage. How much is that in maryland, harriet . Itler i believe right now is 7. 45. Host tell us about your experience. Caller im going to tell you my concern. Because there is going to be more competition in jobs. I am also an older worker. And there is credits given. I am not sure what, but when you fill out your application, they give credits. The government gives credits if you have ever been on welfare and for certain things they give the employer credits. They lower the wage for those people. And we are already and competition. We are getting older. We cant here as well, we cant well, well, hear as can see as well, and we cant compete as well. We cant live on social security. We didnt even get a raise this year. Host lets get a Quick Reaction to her experience from kendall fells. Guest i agree. You know, we have some politicians down in florida that took what the workers called the minimum wage challenge, which was essentially politicians trying to live off the weekly salary of a lowwage worker. And i think that what we saw was that politicians began to sympathize and empathize with where workers were coming from when they had to go to the Grocery Store and make decisions based off of what food was the least expensive versus ford that may be the best for you are the healthiest food or the best tasting food versus food that may be the best for you or the healthiest food or the best tasting food. Who in this country can survive on 7. 25 an hour . Workers need 15 just to be able to get by and get off state assistance. And i dont think that taxpayers want to continue to keep paying and footing this bill. I think that is why this movement has been so successful. Twitter, minimumwage workers are invariably on food assistance, meaning corporate profits are subsidized by the taxpayer. Guest this is something where the economists on kendalls side of the aisle disagree with this analysis. Existence ofe the these food stamps programs and the like and the various government welfare programs for state employers to pay slightly higher wages. There are two possible models of wage setting in the world. You could imagine that walmart want theirs employees to have a basic standard of living, so the government kicks in. Or that they are setting wages and are basically amoral. They are setting wages based on supply and demand. Basically everyone agrees with the latter. What do these government benefit programs due to the supply and demand . They dont have much of a supply effect on the demand. To workight be willing parttime in stead of full time because theyve got the benefits. And if you dont have income have benefits coming in, there is not quite as much pressure. Everyone agrees that these Government Programs reduce the labor supply. Play a slightly higher wages. This is one of the academic ges even liberal economists agree that it is a talking point that is not correct. Host james sherk has been researching Economic Policy since 2006. Kendall fells with the push for fight for 15, the conversation is morning about minimum wage. About 15 more minutes of your phone calls and comments. For democrats. 202 7488001 four republicans. 202 7488002or independents. Wageine for a minimum earners is 202 7488003. Caller im coming to this conversation as a middleclass property owner. It cant be left to the states. Several states received between . 65 and . 75 back to the states for every federal tax dollar that is paid. The Property Owners who are middleclass, who have long been suffering from triple poverty, have to pay more for our roads, uninsured,eltered, school lunches. States like mississippi, texas, florida are getting way more 1 of federalery income tax they pay. Their states are reducing their taxes, reducing their minimum have, and the corporations moved to the red states because the corporations get the subsidies from the taxpayers. , notaxpayers are federal statebystate. Blue states have long been subsidizing the dates subsidizing red states. Corporations are moving to red states. The reason why is because there is no parity in the federal income minimum wage. It cannot be a statebystate decision. Because the federal tax dollars are doled out on a 50state basis. Host james sherk, you were saying that you believe the minimum wage should be left to the localities. What do you believe about what she had to say . Guest she is simply wrong on the economics. Companies pay slightly higher wages than they would otherwise. I have seen people like jason use that as argument for why we dont want to do things like a living wage, and instead just use these programs. She is simply incorrect on the economics. If she wants to discuss cutting down federal spending, i am certainly in favor of a smaller federal government with less of a fiscal footprint. Her on that. With in terms of the economics, she simply incorrect. Host lets hear from pensacola, florida. On the independent line, go ahead. Caller i have changed a little bit of my idea. I think the major point we are looking at is that people are talking about the symptoms. Kendall made some emotional points about people having tough times, and that is true. My idea, looking at how honest someone is in talking about their position is whether or not they can debate the other side. I would be interested to see both sides put their views. Wouldd like to see i be interested to see both sides flip their views. Im on the heritage site. The heritage side. Of thell part fundamental transformation of america. When people are poor and they like have medical care, this lady says, shes using the bad example of the federal government taking more money from new jersey and new york, and what have you. Now we are looking for our hand in the cookie jar, who is going to give us the most money . It is the United States of america, not the federal states of america. There is no discussion about how the actions of these minimum wage people most of them are out smoking during their breaks. How much does a pack of cigarettes cost . Of them are High School Dropouts . How many of them have kids and then live off of Convenience Foods . We look at their choice of careers. People make choices when they are younger, now they have to live with them. , i think youre living in some sort of fantasy world, where why dont you give those people extra money yourself . Host there is a lot there on the plate of kendall fells. He will give you a chance we will give you a chance to respond. Guest i dont think politicians, governors, city council members, the owners of these large, private companies are raising wages because it is bad for the economy and bad for their bottom line. Obviously, they are raising wages because it is good for their bottom line because they know that more money that is put into the pockets of lowwage warner workers is money that is going to be spent, and not going to get the economy back on track. I think the facts speak for themselves. If this wasnt the right thing to do and it didnt make sense and it didnt connect, then this movement wouldnt have started out with 200 fast food workers in new york city in 2012 and just on november 10, we had the largest strike we have had so u. S. ,70 cities across the with workers for almost every lowwage industry. This movement has connected with lowwage workers. These lowwage workers are huge voting bloc. They have the ability to swing elections all across the country. They have already shifted the ground in this country back to the ground that politicians operate from. The grant has been shifted to the left. Wages are already being raised. Companies are stepping up, coming to the table voluntarily, raising wages. I dont think any of this is happening these people are not dumb. I dont think any of this is happening because its going to have a negative effect on their company or on the economy, or people wouldnt choose to do it. A governor like Governor Cuomo wouldnt come out on something that doesnt make sense. The people and the voters have spoken, and politicians are following behind them. Consumers have spoken and companies are following behind them. We see the trend in this country toward higher wages, and it is simply a new wage floor that is much higher. It was shipped wages in the country upwards it will shi wages shift wages in the country upwards. Host here is a tweet that says 15 was never meant to be a living wage a tweet that says minimum wage was never intended to be a living wage. Learn a skill that will earn a wage. How are you . Caller good morning. Im a veteran. I could say a lot about minimum wage. I learned a lot about politics. How people operate in politics. Number one, i think if you look at minimum wage in the 1960s, you were making the same thing you are making now. You have people that drive 25 miles roundtrip to go to work, seven dollars an hour, get paid every two weeks, what are they going to live off of . Thats why the United States has so many people on welfare, because these companies are making money. They dont want to pay you their money. They prefer to send money overseas to pay for something we are not winning than to take time to congratulate the workers that they have. Host can you tell us what kind of work you do, and how long have you been earning the minimum wage . You say you are 68 now . Caller 58. I do security. Host and how long have you been doing that . Caller ive been doing that right about eight years. Host have you not gotten a raise above minimum wage in those eight years . Above minimum wage, and they cut our hours down to 32 hours when obamacare came into play. Host lets hear from our guests , reaction to what he is experiencing. Highlight one of the problems with the Affordable Care act, causing companies to cut the workers hours. That a lot ofubt people are in a difficult situation. We want measures to be effective. Last time we raised minimum wage , the former minimumwage becausegot went down the wages hurt them. Taking on some of these regulations that are driving housing prices if they were not trying to hold down housing supply, the average renter would pay 10 less for their housing. The auto dealer monopolies have gone through. 15 ed car would drop about in price. Federal milk marketing it adds . 50 to a gallon of milk for everyone in the country. The ethanol mandate raises the costs, taking 40 of the total u. S. Corn crop and turning it into a harmful fuel additive. If we got rid of that and we were using that for food instead, the average americans food bill would drop 250 annually. If we address the problems that of living, the cost it would be beneficial for all americans, whether they are on ,isability, lowwage earners rather than cause people to lose their jobs and be in even worse position. Host what is your experience in kansas city . Experiences the same we have, where the majorities of workers involved in this movement are trying to figure out how to get to work. A lot of workers are spending half their check to get back and forth to work. When we talk about addressing this issue directly, i would say the fight for 15 is directly addressing this issue. Raised wages being across the country. You see politicians stepping up to the plate. You see private companies to the point of losing jobs, facebook raised their pay to dollars, people still have their jobs. To 15,ised their pay people still have their jobs. These companies arent making more money. They were already making money. Now these companies are deciding, because workers have been in the street, because the demand is so loud, because the voting bloc is so large, people are stepping to the table because they are listening to consumers. Once again, the facts speak for themselves. I dont think the city council in a way would raise wages if it was going to have a negative effect on the economy. I dont think Governor Cuomo would do that statewide, not just in new york city, but throughout the state if it had a negative effect on the economy. Host here is a quick snapshot of some of the wage increases that have happened. This is bloomberg bnas hr payroll blog. The federal minimum wage unchanged in six years. More states and municipalities have created their own wage requirements. As of january 1, 2015, 29 states and the District Of Columbia have minimum wage is greater than the federal hourly minimum wage of 7. 25, and 26 of them and the district increased the wage since january 1, 2014. Lets get a couple more calls. We go to new jersey, tom, on our republican line. Welcome. Caller good morning. My concern with this recommendation of mr. Fells is that it is almost like another Big Government program. It makes me think of another great society, which has done nothing good i shouldnt say that. But in the big picture has not advanced the cause of the people we are trying to help. We have put a tremendous amount of dollars into that. Haswhat it has done is dampened the potential of this population. You raise the minimum wage, it does the same thing, in effect. There is no striving to get out of that lifestyle. Host ok. Robert from greenville, north carolina. Line. On independents caller the gentleman from the Heritage Foundation made a remark that raising the minimum uld make thewo cost of product go of 30 to 40 . Thats not a fact. Thats a lie. It would be 3 to 5 . I would be more than happy to pay that 3 to 5 to let people have a living wage. Also, corporations, large corporations are against this, not small businesses. Small businesses benefit when more people have money in their pocket. This is for the walmarts, the Koch Brothers that pay your salary. And you should be ashamed of yourself. Host lets finish. A couple of comments there. The cost of productivity. He is disagreeing with your figures. The other caller mentioned this was another Big Government program. I would encourage the gentleman to look at the study we put out, specifically for the fast food industry. Youre close to doubling your cost for labor. Will bypass food if it becomes more expensive. They will have to raise costs even higher. In the fast food industry, we found the price increase would be 38 in the short term. They will install machines that will automate a lot of these jobs. You will see cashiers replaced with kiosks. You will see machines like the alpha, a device that has been invented by inventors in california. Its a nominated california it is an automated hamburger cooker. It cooks gourmet burgers. Sears the outside, as condiments, freshly slices toppings. It does all of this, 360 burgers per hour, without a single human worker doing anything after set up setup. Those machines are pretty expensive. Fast Food Companies will start buying machines like that. That will mean less jobs and less opportunities for the very workers kendall wants to help. Hear from kendall fells, reaction to what callers had to say or what james sherk had to say. Popeyes cameo of out this month there has been a lot of hubbub to what has been happening, the , and thatge increases the industry would adjust accordingly, the same way they do for the price of chicken wings or biscuits, etc. This is a 200 billion industry, one of the fastestgrowing industries in the company country. They have more than enough money to go around. There is evidence to show no evidence to show that the increase in minimum wage for Companies Making billions of dollars per year will suffer job losses. As far as automation is concerned, automation is part of life. A lot of companies have automation, but workers are still making 7. 25. Those workers are on strike, saying we deserve 15 per hour. Nobody knows what these workers need more than somebody who actually has to live these lives, somebody like guadalupe, who have received a sickly over a four dollar raise between increases received basically a four dollar raise between increases. She has received a 50 increase in the last two years and we have not even won the campaign yet, and i think that speaks for itself. Host kendall fells is the organizing director of the fight for 15, joining us from kansas city this morning. James sherk is the labor and Economics Research fellow at the Heritage Foundationclosely assoe incident had been suspended from their duties. General campbell good evening. And good morning back in washington dc. I received a report of the u. S. National investigation into the strike on Doctors Without Borders and sf Trauma Center in kunduz, afghanistan. Let me start by offering my sincerest console condolences to the victims of this devastating event. No nation does more to prevent civilian casualties than the United States. But we fail to meet our own high expectations. This was a tragic, but avoidable accident caused primarily by human error. It was important that the officers investigating the in incident have their seniority and independent to conduct their thorough and unbiased inquiry. For that reason, i requested an outside Investigative Team. U. S. Central command supported my request. They sent an Army Major General independent of army forces afghanistan, to lead the investigation. He was assisted by two Brigadier Generals. One from the army, one from the air force. Also, outside from my command. The report included specific findings related to systems, processes, and personnel. And i have already approved some of the findings and recommendations. Based on the recommendations, i have already directed some immediate changes to be sure we learn and apply the right lessons from this incident. In addition to the u. S. National investigation, the nato and Afghan Partner combined civilian Casualty Assessment Team also conducted an investigation. The findings of both reports were generally consistent. I have personally briefed the nato secretarygeneral, the president , and dr. Abdullah on the results. Nato were released the report in the coming days will release a report in the coming days. Also earlier today, i briefed the nsf on the results of the cat. National and c investigations. Recommendations dealing with systems and processes will be managed within this command. Matters regarding individual accountability will be managed in accordance with military justice, and administrative practices