The Obama Administration would like to see it raised to over 0 but he was on television yesterday when he said it should be done. Maybe you agree with him, maybe you dont. But in our first 45 minutes we want to let your thoughts be known on the minimum wage that romneys stamente if it should be raised and heres how you can reach out to us. A wide ranging interview with mitt romney talking on a lot of issues but also discussing the possibility of raising the minimum wage. The first line from this piece former Massachusetts Governor thursday morning says he supports the increase breaking with many republicans who have stood against it. Heres a bit of what he said yesterday. Well, different members of my party have different views on those different vuzz. I for instance as you know part company with many of the conservatives on the issue of the minimum wage. I think we ought to raise it because frankly our party is all about more jobs and better pay and i think communicating that is important to us. Those comments made thursday morning again the topic of the minimum wage that mitt romney brought up is you can respond to his statements or perhaps you want to make your own thoughts on the minimum wage and raising it. If you want to give us a call the numbers are on the bottom f your screen. The Washington Post lead story. So those things aside and mitt romneys comments, your thoughts on raising the minimum wage. Irst up is joe from georgia. Caller good to talk to you. I love cspan. I wanted to tell you im a Small Business owner and i was always Small Business man in the state of georgia and ive talked to a lot of Small Business owners. Im supporting a Small Business man for governor. I think this would hurt. It would actually hurt so many Small Businesses because they work on such small margins. Ive got a lot of good friends who own restaurants. If they have to raise the minimum wage they have to lay people off. So i think its inflationary for one thing. I think it will cause a lot of people laid off be laid o off. And ive talked about this ubject to a lot of my friends. And i think its just we cant afford it. Host ashville, North Carolina is up next. A Business Owner as well. Allen. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for having me. As far as the mitt romney comment, i find out that mitt romney is a big business guy. Hes big business, Big Government. He went with the romney care. He doesnt see it as a problem for Small Business. He would rather not have Small Business. It just competes with big business. They want Big Government, big business. Im a Small Business owner. I never paid the minimum wage. I paid the market rate. I didnt have to have anybody telling me what somebody was worth. If i had a good employee, that came to work every day, did his job, i paid him accordingly. They stayed with me 15 years, some 10 years, some people came in, did dishes, came in parttime, worked, got pay they were happy with. I was happy to pay them. The market determined it. And you have a situation where the federal government is trying to decide what the rate should be, the states are all different. I mean, its a lot different to pay a rate for somebody in North Carolina than it is in california, washington, d. C. The minimum wage in those cities are naturally going to go higher with the market because the rent and cost of living is higher. If you have a federally mandated thing its not fluctuating to the ability of the states and even towns. Ashville is more expensive than other towns to live. So they pay more. And a federally mandated thing is not the right thing to get us out of the mall lays we have with business, Small Business drives the country. Host wayne is one who earns minimum wage. Minimum wage should be im making the minimum wage and ive noticed that [inaudible] ive been watching cspan for over 30 years. Minimum wage should be raised. Everybody knows that. The people you see in this country right now are really starving. All the churches are doing more than they should do. It is a shame to see this country where people are actually working 50, 60, 70 hours and they cannot feed their children. People who make a decent wage will not accept a handout. Americans are proud people. We have done more things in the world and now it is time for america to look out for america. How can we continue to do what we have to do in the world . We know we are basically the only country that has the bill of rights. We need a minimum wage. Host before you called we heard from two Business Owners that raising the minimum wage would impact their businesses and ultimately lay off people. What do you think about those perspectives . Caller those perspectives are a minority. The majority of the American People who the other Media Outlets do not recognize. You listen to fox news and the other conservative programs they do not even acknowledge the existence of poor people. You never hear the word poor. Only on tv do you hear minimum income and nothing about the poor. The poor are devastating this country. We have got to raise the minimum wage. The jails are full. Host there are three lines for ou to choose from. Michael from new york. Good morning. Caller good morning. You have as always a great show. I want to talk as a professor of business at a leading university. For the last 10, 15 years china labor and created 10 million jobs a year for their own country. But thats ended. Right now thats ended. The United States is probably about 15 less than chinese labor. Theyve had so many strikes. Mexico is about 50 less. O i think the ship of jobs coming to the United States and eu in manufacturing is going to the site of high employment and china i think its em ployment machine has really come to an end. Host so when it comes to the minimum wage . Caller right now if you youre 15 less than china, right, who was creating 10 million jobs a year, you can raise the minimum ge and its not going to really affect the economy. Ost william mms from twitter. Lylea up next from texas. And a Business Owner. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I dont feel like we should have raised the minimum wage. Most of my employees make a little bit more than minimum wage. But we are in Government Programs here in our area and everybody depends on Government Programs you cant find anybody that wants to work here. We raise the minimum wage, were just wasting our time. We may as well close our business down. Host whats your business . Caller its a party supply shop. Host do you pay more than minimum wage or start there or whats the average person . What do they make . Caller the average person theres a few that make more than 10 and theres a few that make 14 an hour. Theres some that make a bunch of them have had Health Insurance also. I try and give them as much as i can. But when it comes to nowadays and like i said, ive been in business for 32 years. Nowadays these Government Programs are eating our lunch. We cant fight these big Corporate Giants any more. Host if you have to raise the minimum wage as a hypothetical, what kind of things how does that affect your type of business . What do you have to cut first . Guest i would caller i would have to cut their hours and start hiring younger people that are going to go and say ok i will work for minimum wage. Host off of facebook. Youve heard some people talk on the phones. If you want to post on facebook. If you want to send us a tweet on it. And if you want to send us an email. Annet from alabama on our others line. Good morning. Go ahead. Caller good morning. To the best show on tv. I watch you every day. And i have read an article one day that stated workers making 8 an hour, the majority qualifies for food stamps, child care, housing. When they start earning more, lets say it went to 10, that will now kick them off those programs or bounce them so low that the increase in the wage they wont have any more spending power because the increase in the hourly wage is going to take the place of the food stamps, the child care, and the housing. So in reality, i think this is a way just to get them off Government Programs. So i just cannot see how Government Programs are helping them. In other words, right now even at 8 an hour. Start making 2 an hour more Government Programs go away. So you are now earning what the government used to give you. I hope im making sense. Host tom up next from ohio. He earns minimum wage. Good morning. Thinking when they go around and talk about minimum wage, are they just saying would it be when you look at all the young kids when you go in the fast foods and Everything Else it used to be ten years ago and stuff you would see double the amount of kids in these fast food places and stuff because they started teaching them values. But when they raised the minimum wage as high as they did, its not worth hiring these young kids because you watch them they dont have the capability of working or anything. But its like to me if you turn around and you paid under 18, you should pay them a different wage than what you do an adult. But that lady just said it before. When she started talking she was right on the nose because if a person does get 10 an hour they cant get no theyre going to lose all their government benefits and everything. Thats why i think the government wants to push that because theyre going to lose all these extra perks and everything that these people are getting. Host u. S. A. Today took a look at the states with the lowest minimum wage. Theres four states still maintain minimum wage levels below the federal minimum of 7. 25 an hour. Gary from sacramento, california. Caller theres some awesome valid points being made. My opinion is they definitely should raise the minimum wage. I think it should be probably something that would give somebody on a monthly basis working 40 hours a week, 1200 to 1800 a month something one could live on. From an employer perspective, if i can get somebody to work for a buck and a quarter im certainly going to hire them. But it should be a number that the average person could afford to live on. Host how do businesses then support those increases . Caller you hear about record profits from the big corporations and one of the statements somebody made earlier is that Small Business runs the country thats not true. Big business runs the country. Come on. Theres record profits being made by everybody. Even the guys that are merging with Foreign Companies so they can lower their taxes. Host as far as Small Businesses though they will be directly affected. Would you agree . Caller theyre certainly going to be affected. But its less its a bigger expense. Its going to certainly affect their bottom line. But you do what you have to do to make it work. Host one of the people talking about the minimum wage this week was janet jellen appeared before a Senate Committee to talk about Economic Issues and it was during that time that she had an exchange with senator ron johnson at wisconsin taking a look at the minimum wage especially talking to references by the Congressional Budget Office on what would happen if the minimum wage was raised at the president wants to see to 10. 10. Do you agree with cbos assessment that increasing the minimum wage would cost us jobs, up to 1 million is what cbo estimates . I dont know what the exact number is. It will cost jobs. Well, it will help individuals who benefit from a higher wage. But it will hurt individuals who dont have a job. Correct . Its likely to have some negative effect on jobs and its a question mark exactly how large that impact is with different studies coming up. So with so that was janelle yelen talking about the minimum wage. We asked this question because it was mitt romney on thursday who was on television saying that he would one amongst the handful of republicans who would see the support of raising the minimum wage. The president of the United States would like to see it raised to 10. 10 a recent vote in congress didnt happen as far as the minimum wage is concerned. But we want to get your thoughts on raising the minimum wage if you agree or disagree. And we divided the lines differently today. So for those of you who make the minimum wage, for those of you who are employers and Business Owners and have a perspective. Nd all others. Caller i just believe with the cost of living going up, food, utilities, gas, we definitely need to raise the minimum wage. Otherwise, we cant provide for our basic living. And just share a little i think the problem right now is just greed. And if they just share a little with the people that make them rich, then this country will be a better place. Host so what do you think about this idea of raising it to 10. 10 . Is that too much of an increase curg were at 7. 25 . Guest no. Its not enough. Just with health care and the cost of living we definitely need more than that. You need at least 12, 13 an hour just to get by. Host ohio. On our others line. Caller good morning. I think that we should raise the minimum wage and in 19 77 i made 9. 75 an hour. And fast forward to now everywhere you go they want to start you out at 8 or 9 an hour. We need to create jobs with the minimum wage. Go to the car lot and look for a truck theyre 50, 60,000. Everything is high but they keep fighting to keep the minimum wage down. Host you may have just heard though that even the Congressional Budget Office says that raising the minimum wage may initially cost people some jobs. Caller i dont believe that. His makes lets make things here. We need a manufacturing base. We need jobs besides the minimum wage. I made 9 an hour in 1977. Most of the young people i talk to now theyre starting out at 8 or 9 an hour. Thats rizzclud when youve got to go to a car lot and spend 50,000 for pakeup truck. Host detroit, michigan on our others line. Caller im going to tell you like real numbers. Less than a year ago i made 10 an hour i had two dependents, 40 hours a week. That is 600 every two weeks. Its really no money. I agree with the caller from ohio. You cant afford to do pretty much off of 600 a week every two weeks its pretty rough to make 10 an hour and thats what the minimum wage should be. It should be i think a little bit higher. Host so even then though raising it to 10 would be a struggle for some. 600 every two weeks. Thats what you make. Real after tax money. Most people with that money cant afford to buy a brand new car or anything. Host mitt romney starting this discussion earlier this week on television of longranging discussion on capitol hill taking a look at the minimum wage. Well take some more of your comments in a minute. That last caller was from detroit. The Detroit Free Press has its lead story taking a look at john conyers. The headline that he falls short as far as signatures for the august primary ballot. You can read more about this at the Detroit Free Press. Tim from ohio and he as Business Owner. What type of business do you own . Caller i have a drivethrough oil change change. Host ok. Go ahead. Caller i mean, with the minimum wage i understand everybody wants to make more money. Its not rocket science. But where did the bottom line come from . I have to have a certain percentage and profit to remain in business. So therefore i have to raise the price to cover that extra 3 or 4 an hour for 8 hours a day per employee. So where does it go to . Its my customers who have to pay 50 now maybe for an oil change instead of 30. I dont think minimum wage was ver meant to be the main source for everybody to live off of. I started out at 4 an hour. Its a starting place. I mean, theres plenty of bigger businesses out there that maybe can support a higher wage. Like some of these Oil Companies maybe that make record billions of dollars in a quarter. I barely survive at the end of the year. So the Small Business man has to pass that price on to the consumers. And these guys who want to raise the price, do you want to pay 50 for a standard basic oil change . The customers dont want to do it so therefore you lose business, which ultimately may put me out of business. Host if i may ask, when an employee starts with you, how much does he or she make . Caller right now starts out about 9 an hour. I do what i can to pay them extra money. I dont shortchange them by any means. But to force me to have to pay a higher wage it just passes the rate on to the customer. And thats where i have a chance i sit across the street from a walmart who undercuts my business in price but they can make it up with all the other products that they sell. Im a specialized business. I cant do that. Host so what youre saying is you cant absorb the cost of raising or forced raising of the minimum wage caller right. Because dont forget about the cost of the product. Ive been in business for 17 years. When i started in business 17 years ago, the price of oil was 2. 79 a gallon. I pay over 13 a gallon now for the same thing that i started with. So where do you gomgo from there . You have to raise based on the cost of your product. My cost of products when i started was 35 was the cost of goods in my business. And 65 was my net profit where all the cost of goods came from or i mean all the cost of operating businesses. Now thats