1/12/2007

Major tuna company in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district exempted from minimum wage increase

At least when it comes to her constituents, Pelosi seems to understand that the law can put people out of work.

House Republicans yesterday declared "something fishy" about the major tuna company in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district being exempted from the minimum-wage increase that Democrats approved this week.
"I am shocked," said Rep. Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican and his party's chief deputy whip, noting that Mrs. Pelosi campaigned heavily on promises of honest government. "Now we find out that she is exempting hometown companies from minimum wage. This is exactly the hypocrisy and double talk that we have come to expect from the Democrats."
On Wednesday, the House voted to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour.
The bill also extends for the first time the federal minimum wage to the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands. However, it exempts American Samoa, another Pacific island territory that would become the only U.S. territory not subject to federal minimum-wage laws. . . .

2 Comments:

Anonymous Dread Pirate Orange said...

I do not defend the decision to exempt Samoa but your headline is a little bit mis-leading. The clear implication is that the bill explicitly exempts an operation within Pelosi's home district. (SF) The body of the text explains that it is not a specific exemption at all but rather a suspicious connection between a territorial exemption and a firm based in SF. Furthermore you make the assumption that Pelosi pushed the exemption to minimize job losses rather than say to pad the profit sheets of a friendly company. While the situation clearly doesn't pass the smell test your lead-off conclusions seem pretty loose.

1/12/2007 5:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How do 5,000 Samoans feel about being screwed out of a 40% pay raise by "the most powerful woman in America"?

1/13/2007 5:35 PM  

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home