Same crap… different speaker…
Monday, January 15th, 2007House Democrats, in their first 100 hours push have passed a minimum wage increase to $7.25 over the next two years. Of note, is the continued exemption from the act of American Samoa, a US territory, where the current minimum wage of $2.63 remains unchanged.
Now follow me here a bit… American Samoa’s largest private employer is the canned tuna industry. A large portion of the remainder of private employment supplies goods related to the tuna industry.
The two largest producers of tuna in American Samoa are Chicken of the Sea and Starkist. Starkist is a Del Monte Foods product. Del Monte is headquartered in… wait for it… San Fransicso. Home to current House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
So… American Samoans working for Del Monte can be paid two-thirds less than their counterparts in San Fransico!
Rich Galen, a conservative talking head, puts it best. “Exempting Del Monte from the minimum wage is just as much an earmark as anything pushed through by Randy “Duke” Cunningham.”