29 States, Big and Small Business minimum wage increases disprove GOP Doom-and-Gloom Predictions!!!

I think some people are missing the big picture when it comes to recent wave of minimum wage increases; Big business is proving how wrong Republican have been. It’s a scare tactic and lie conservatives have still not deepsixed, even as a tide of raises are washing over them.

29 states are beating the federal minimum wage standard. Are they crazy?

According to the conservative bill writing mill ALEC:

“Despite good intentions, this proposal will hurt lower-income, less-experienced and less-educated Americans. Furthermore, it will place an additional burden on businesses, especially small business owners struggling in the current economy.”

The burden...is listening to this crap day after day. We can only assume at this point big business doesn't know what it's doing, and freeloading ideologically driven Republican politicians do. The following is only a partial list wage hikes we're seeing week after week:

Wal-Mart ($10) follows other big retailers that have announced plans to increase pay. Home furnishings retailer Ikea this year gave a 17 percent average raise to $10.76 an hour. And the Gap raised its minimum wage to $9 last year and $10 this year.

Meanwhile conservative business baron's are getting caught doing what they've done so well for years, cheat their low wage employees out of the money they've earned:

A Papa John’s pizza franchise in New York must pay its workers nearly $800,000 in unpaid wages over allegations the business underpaid employees and failed to pay overtime. Emstar Pizza Inc., which operates seven Papa John’s franchise locations in Brooklyn and Queens, allegedly underreported hours worked by drivers over the past six years, rounded employee hours down to the nearest hour, and did not pay overtime. 

Conservatives do not connect with hard working Americans at Papa John's, Olive Garden, Denny's...

This bizarre Neil Cavuto interview, with guest Rebooting America founder Justin Charters, has to be seen to be believed.

Both Cavuto and Charters are so disconnect from the plight of employees, and the workplace threats they've had to endure from the likes of Papa John's and similar restaurant owners, that you just wanna scream at the video screen.

Democrats and liberals have decided to boycott businesses because of the way they treat their employees, cut their hours and refuse to provide health insurance. How hard is that? It's painful to see them miss the point over and over again.

They seem to think liberals are boycotting businesses because they disagree with a CEO's political speech. They just don't get it. By the way, I'm hoping there's a food service job in Charters' future, don't you?

Charters: "Buy a pizza for a homeless person, someone who's down on their luck, or who's, you know, out of work. As conservatives, we don't believe in redistributing the wealth, we believe that charity should come from the citizens of the community, and not from the government."

Cavuto: "Well put."

Huh?

Papa John’s lying about Obamacare’s cost to business

It was good of CNN to point out the Papa John’s lie:

That’s not all, today is support Papa John’s day, the brainchild of a 16 year old. Here are a few details:

Daily Kos/Alternet: About a third of Papa John's employees are covered by the company's health insurance plan, he said, estimating the new law would cost the business $5 million to $8 million annually.  Papa John's is one of the 50 largest low-wage employers , and it's a highly profitable one … 2011 revenues were $1.22 billion.

People who think low-wage, no-health-care jobs are a great thing, should definitely go to Papa John's on Friday to make the political point that the company would be right to cut workers' hours. What's more, everyone should be sure the workers know why they're ordering this pizza on this day.

Alternatively, they could just leave a "please spit on this pizza repeatedly" note when ordering each one. 

More Well Deserved Papa John's Blow Back.

I subscribe to the Opposing Views email alert, and came across this nicely worded reason to tell corporate pirates that consumers are the real job creators, and their disdain for American workers will not be tolerated.

By Back 2 Stonewall: John Schnatter, the president and CEO of Papa John's Pizza, has a net worth of about $350 million and was a Romney supporter who held secret fund-raisers on his sprawling mansion grounds.

He’s also a greedy jerk who, to get around paying for Obama’s Affordable Care Act, plans on cuttingall his employee’s hours to below the mandated threshold so he doesn’t have to pay for it -- because it would cost him too much money.

How much money would it cost him exactly? About 14 cents per pizza. Yes, 14 cents per pizza is the cost of health care for his employees so they can remain healthy and be more productive. This is nothing more than corporate greed at its worst.

And, unfortunately, Papa John’s is not alone. Applebee’s, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster have all jumped on this bus. Threatening to freeze full hirings and/or reduce employees to skirt the ACA regulations.

Now, bear in mind, that Papa John’s, Applebee’s, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster are not small businesses.  Each of these companies make millions in profits each year and its workforce is among the lowest paid and hardest working in the country. And they care so little about the health and welfare of their employees that they would rather cut their already few low-paying hours than make sure that they are taken care of.

Now, this is America and they have the right to do with their businesses what they want, no matter how scummy it is. A loss of business, any loss of business, will hurt them greatly and, in Papa John’s case, will cost him much more than 14 cents per pizza in the end.

It's time for the people of America to stand up against these corporate misers who think that their workforce is nothing. I for one will not be eating at any of these places from this moment forward.  And I would ask the same of you also until they state that they will not reduce their workforce and hours. This is America and as Americans it's time that we start standing up for our fellow countrymen and begin to teach BIG BUSINESS that they are nothing without us.