Law in Contemporary Society

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CerrieresAnswer 3 - 17 Apr 2010 - Main.AmandaBell
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 Martha Tharaud, the labor lawyer in Cerriere's Answer, wonders about the working lives of people she sees, such as the Ying's server and the Dean & DeLuca? cleaner. I also wonder in this same way about people I see, and I think most union people do. Oddly, Martha has the minimum wage wrong. In 1996, the New York State minimum wage was no more than $4.25, not "five dollars, roughly." That leaves the server’s post-tax income, if you use the same calculations Martha did, at $6400 year, not $7500. (In fact, if the server was a tipped employee -- I can’t tell from the story -- her wage would have been $2.90, putting her post-tax, sans-tips annual income at $4400.)

I'm not sure if we as the audience are supposed to read anything into Martha's mistake. Is writing about a labor lawyer who doesn't know the minimum wage a subtle comment by the author? Or was it just an editing mistake? The New York minimum wage actually went up in 1997 and 1998, to $4.75 and then $5.15. That could have created confusion for whomever fact-checked the book.

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 -- JoshuaHochman - 16 Apr 2010
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>		>>info about the 97 and 98 minimum wage jumps
Workers in New York City received the federal 1997 and 1998 increases. http://www.citymayors.com/society/nyc_poverty.html. You're right that people in the rest of the state did not receive the increase until 2000.
 
META TOPICMOVED by="AmandaBell" date="1271324382" from="Sandbox.CerrieresAnswer" to="LawContempSoc.CerrieresAnswer"

Revision 3r3 - 17 Apr 2010 - 12:03:07 - AmandaBell
Revision 2r2 - 17 Apr 2010 - 03:54:34 - JoshuaHochman
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