Baltimore's mayor said on Friday she would veto legislation that would nearly double the Maryland city's minimum wage to $15 an hour in a setback for advocates of a "living wage" for restaurant workers and other low-wage earners.

The legislation raising the minimum wage from $8.75 an hour would have put the city at a competitive disadvantage with neighboring cities and suburban counties, Mayor Catherine Pugh said.

Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would have linked Baltimore, a port city that once had a vibrant steelmaking industry, to efforts across the United States to boost the standard of living of many low-wage service workers.

A fourth of the residents of Maryland's biggest city live below the federal poverty level, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Maryland has already mandated a minimum wage increase to $9.25 an hour in July and to $10.10 in 2018.

Baltimore would become a "hole in the doughnut" if it required a $15-an-hour increase, the Democratic mayor said at a news conference.

The measure would boost pay for about 100,000 workers, or 27 percent of the city's workforce, according to an estimate from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington think tank.

The City Council voted 11-3 this week to approve the increase, with one supporter of the measure absent. Lawmakers need 12 votes to pass it over Pugh's veto.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-maryland-minimumwage-idUSKBN16V2TC

It seems that, as we continue to stare into the eyes of the inevitable crossroads of our economic system, we refuse to adjust course to a model that may actually have a chance to lift up everyone instead of continuing down the rocky and ungraded path of slave wages and oppression.

Donald Trump during the campaign said that wages were too high. Clinton had stated that a 15 minimum wage was just too high, that 12 was better (though maybe 15 in some urban areas). Sanders had campaigned on a $15 minimum wage.

A 12 dollar minimum wage at 40 hours a week is roughly $25,000.
A 15 dollar minimum wage at 40 hours a week is $31,200.

One can imagine that that extra $6,000 could be quite helpful for those struggling to make in these dire economic times. However, wealthy Democrats, often showing to be against such a wage, say that that is just too high. These politicians, who are worth tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, say that someone earning $6,000 more a year just isn't feasible.

During an interview, the Democratic mayor said that, "I don't think there is anybody who wants to see the minimum wage increased more than I do."

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yc6K4GGwL8]

Except, when given the chance to actually increase the minimum wage, she vetoed it.

Jill Stein, Green Party candidate, had this on her site:
"End unemployment in America once and for all by guaranteeing a job at a living wage for every American willing and able to work. A Full Employment Program will create up to 20 million jobs, both directly and indirectly, by implementing a nationally-funded, locally-controlled, direct employment initiative replacing unemployment offices with local employment offices."

A full living wage with a guaranteed jobs program. Now the merits between a Universal Basic Income or guaranteed jobs program can be discussed, and rightfully should be done, but that is the discussion we should be having, not us hoping to barely push the minimum wage up every 5 years.

The Democrats tell us that we have to do this incrementally in order to dodge responsibility for as long as possible. The Democrats, with their tens of millions of dollars, do not understand nor do they care about the plight of the homeless, of those in poverty, of those who can't survive in this country.

I was told that Democrats care and they are for increasing the minimum wage. Yet again, the defenders of the party are proven wrong yet their minds remain unchanged. And while they continue to live their privileged life talking about how marvelous it is to be a Democrat and how much they truly care about the impoverished and those suffering, those people remain invisible, just how the 1% Democratic politicians and supporters prefer it.